Sunday, November 26, 2006

And so, i finally get that book

"The pressure is getting to me", she said. "Sometimes I feel like having a good cry." Whereupon Susan and the other woman began to do just that, dabbing their eyes with paper napkins. I darted a glance around the cafeteria, hoping that no one was staring. No one was even taking notice. Tears during the fall term at Stanford business school were too common.

This is an excerpt from Snapshots from Hell - the making of an MBA. This is late 1988 and not sometime in the recent past, but i don't think things would have changed a lot. The stage was set for such scenes right at the beginning, during orientation, when one of the speakers mentions about people who have required psychological assistance to help them cope up with school. It sure looks like lot of stress.

On the flip side, the book is a summary of first year experiences written by an individual who has had no prior business experience before coming to school. So it is obvious he is going to find the mathematical and analytical parts of the course too rigorous and time consuming. As i began reading the chapters, i realized that the book was going the exact same way.

Nevertheless, the book is good to read. If anyone plans to read this book, take every page of the book with a pinch of salt. It is highly possible that, based on ur background and preschool profession, you would have a radically different B school experience :)

I can already imagine mine being different. All the math he detests, i love ;)

Disclaimer: I have just begun the book. I might perhaps have different things to say abt the book after i finish. This is more like a "first impressions" comment :)

PS: I was shopping yesterday with some friends and we happened to spend some time at LandMark where my friends were buying DVDs. inblue has been suggesting i read this book for quite sometime and so i thought i would check it out, with no immediate plans to purchase the book. I could not find the book and asked one of the shop assistants reg the book. He checked with their database, found that 8 copies were still in stock and organized a really impressive search to try find the book. When he could not find the book, one more joined him and in about 5 minutes there were at least five people searching this book for me. All this, when they were about to close the shop for the day. I bought the book yesterday, simply because of the way they found the book.

5 comments:

asiangal said...

I've never heard of the book, but it looks interesting! =)

Iday said...

@asiangal:
Yeah - interesting it is :)
Gives u a great preview into the Stanford of the 1990s.

-tvu said...

You've got the kick ass score. Impress them w/ your leadership and maturity. Good luck w/ the interview.

-tvu said...

You've got the kick ass score. Impress them w/ your leadership and maturity. Good luck w/ the interview.

Iday said...

@tvu:
thanks man :)