MBA entrance season 05-06. It's all over...

Yeah!!! It is all over...

The whole B school fiasco that started with CAT in the month of November 2005, followed by tests all over the next 2 months, applications to various schools - it is all over. With the results starting to pour in by Jan 2006 - it was all over for me when I did not get through anything. But there were 2 people who kept me interested in the whole thing, and this post is about them. 2 contrasting and interesting stories I’ve got here

The first person - I know him for more than 6 years (u'll understand why I’m saying this here when u read abt the next person). He was my college buddy, presently working for an IT firm here and always wanted to do a Management course. His heart was always there. With his family not expecting him to work, unlike me, he tried his luck with these tests every year and always ended up as an "almost close" case. This year was different.

He dint do well in CAT but XAT was a different story. He did enough to fix up an interview for their PMIR course (the best course in Asia in the field of Human Resource Management). And so we started to discuss in length regarding everything. He did a lot and always kept me in the loop - I dunno why, really :) I'd always give him my 2 cents on anything he asked me about and I used to ping him up pretty frequently - I was always concerned and wanted him to get thru.

He had his interview in Chennai - something that lasted for a mere 15 minutes. He dint know what to make out of it. But he got thru. He's gonna take it and I’m really glad for him. He has a penchant for details, from the number of lamp posts in his street to things like GDPs of countries. He always enjoyed knowing these things other people tend to forget. He was famous for such things in college. I guess this is gonna be the case in the statistician rich XLRI campus. Good Luck dude - u're sure to reach places.

The second person - I know her for mere 2 months (that's the difference). I used to spend a lot of time in an MBA forum, even after all my results bombed. One fine day there was this message in my inbox "I've got all 6 IIM calls. I need to discuss something. Can I have your number???” I was like ".

That's the first time in my life when I ever got to know someone who'd had an IIM call - let alone all 6 :) The reluctant starter I am - I send a reply "Could we, err, discuss this over mail. This is my id!!!" This could have been the end, but the stubborn female replied to this new id I gave her and the one phrase that made me do it was this "Gimme ur number. I won’t bite you". Okay - this person has some nerve. I wanted to talk to her.

That night - we spent 3 hrs over the fone. She had an interesting life, and she wanted all this to be presented in the best way possible, to the Interview panels. Why she wanted to ask all that to me, someone who has never seen anything beyond the test halls, is still a big question to me. who cares :)

When I look back - that was probably the only time we did some interview strategizing. After that, I just kept pinging her up frequently for status updates, as she went roaming for interview after interview. "Don’t ask me", "It was horrible", "Insult, Insult and more Insult", "Let's speak of something nice" - these were what she'd say after each of these interviews. To me that sounded strange - she was a really smart person. She couldn’t have screwed up so badly. But how do I know. I just kept saying, more in hope to make her feel better, "Let the results come".

They came. And how?!!? She got through 5 out of 6!!! And yeah, waitlisted for the 6th (I had to edit the post as she got mad at me for not saying this. MBAs and their Egos :) ) And she's all set to spend the next 2 yrs in the most sought after campus in India - IIMA. I'm glad for her. And I’m happy that she'll now have to take me out on treats - hardly a few hrs of effort and I get to empty her purse :)

So - these 2 ppl kept me in this thing till yesterday. With all that gone - I’ll now have to look at myself now and do something to change what I am now. there's no point in cursing my fate anymore.

Through this post - I salute their perseverance in trying the test year after year and their belief, which gets tested the most in the face of defeat. I wish them great luck for their next 2 years and still greater luck for everything beyond that!!!

By then - I should become something so that they can even mention abt me :)