Indian B-schools to challenge world's best MBA prog: Nitin Nohria

Lakshmangarh, Sikar: The idea of establishing a Harvard campus in India is perceived to boost the importance of the emerging economies. The new Indian born dean of Harvard Business School, Nitin Nohria feels that in near future, it is quite possible for an Indian or Chinese business school to challenge the world's best MBA programs.

The new Harvard dean admits in an interview with Wall Street Journal that countries like India and China will emerge as competitors in the b-school field, just the way they have proved their prowess in the corporate field. "It's true for American businesses, too, that had dominated the lists of the global top 100 and 500 companies for the entire Twentieth Century. When they started seeing companies from other countries on that list they said, 'What are they doing on our list. We're supposed to own it,' he asserts. He understands that the thought process of countries like U.S. and Europe must undergo certain changes. The two countries have to hold back their domineering attitude to make themselves a part of the global competition.

Nohria believes that the most important lesson which the Western business can learn from the Indian and Chinese market is to look into the domestic market, studying the markets' inclination towards goods offered at a rate, which no one would imagine to offer in any developed nation.

Network your way to the first job

Lakshmangarh, Rajasthan: As a fresh graduate looking for your first job, you would not want to leave any avenue unexplored that could help you land a job. Campus placement cells, job sites, newspapers are all good means that help you look for fresher jobs. However, there is one more way, which may not be as popular but it is as effective as any other means. It is networking. Networking is sometimes the best way to land your first job. In fact, at all stages of your career, especially as you move higher up the corporate ladder, you would realize that there is nothing better than networking to make a job switch. Now, the question is what is networking and how does it help one get the first job.

Networking primarily means to develop a wide ranging list of contacts. These could be your friends, your seniors, people you met at parties, or people you meet on social networking sites online. You can use this list of contacts to your advantage while looking for your first job effectively. Your college seniors and industry experts would be quite instrumental in informing you about job leads, pitching in a word for you with the employer, giving you career you advice and giving you information about a particular company or industry. It is through your network that you can meet more people and expand the list of contacts.

However, a good and effective network is not built overnight. It has to be worked at. You will not get in touch with all hot shots in one day and you have to start from your immediate circle. So, start building your network with family, neighbors and friends. Then move on to their acquaintances, their friends and their networks. You can't be quiet and introvert if you want to build a good network. Socialize, talk to people, and get to know more, be helpful towards others, attend events and show eagerness to know others. Talk to your seniors and teachers. Seek introductions and don't hesitate to get yourself introduced. With these practices, you can look forward to making a good network that will help you get your first job.

Networking is not about bombarding people with job enquiries. It has to be gradual, regular and developed with effort. If you try and contact everybody you know only when you start your job search and start asking about job openings, people might get peeved. The ideal way is to keep in touch regularly. Once you make a good rapport, job offers will come to you even without your asking. You have to build alliances that would come in handy when you are on a look out for your first job. And it could be anybody.

Networking is also beneficial because many jobs are not advertised. They are filled by word-of-mouth references and through acquaintances. Thus, you can come to know about these jobs for freshers only through insiders. And a recruiter will always prefer to hire somebody who comes through a reference as it is the first level check for the recruiter. Thus, if you have networked well and go through an internal reference, your chances of getting your first job multiply manifold. But remember one thing that networking is not about making cold calls and nagging people with job requests. This will only end up irking them and spoil your prospects. Rather, be subtle and judicious in your approach.

These days, networking online is also a very good option. However, on the net, you have to be careful about who you are networking with. There are many social and professional networking sites. You can start with your college seniors and request them to introduce you to their acquaintances. You must showcase your accomplishments in your online profile to establish your credibility. After all, nobody would want to network with you and inform you about job openings if your profile is not worth it. Once you have a decent network, be sure to communicate with them regularly. Be as much ready to help as you are eager to seek their help. Also, prepare a strong resume and circulate it within your network. Talk to your alliances on issues other than job hunting. These are the lateral means of establishing a good relationship that will eventually help you get your first job.

The MBA Craze

"Why do you want to pursue a MBA?" I questioned a MBA aspirant. "I want a job" pat came the reply. A simple straightforward and honest statement made. It was a statement that made me uneasy and raised many questions in my mind.

What do management institutions strive to achieve? What do management students think such institutions should offer? Are management institutions indirectly assuming the role of placement agencies?

With the exception of top notch Business schools in the country that offer rigorous academic inputs along with state –of-the art campuses, most educational institutions that run management programmes harp on the placements they have generated for their students. This is done in order to attract as many aspirants as they can. No importance is given to the course content or the quality of resources available with the management institution. What are important are the visibility and right contacts in industry. Management education is big business today and many institutes just want to cash in while the going is good.

Many students choose to pursue an MBA degree as this qualification guarantees them a Job. Or so is the perception amongst the student community." Just pay the fees, hang out there for a couple of years and you will find yourself sitting in an air conditioned office of an MNC" seems to be the mantra. Very few students look at a management schools as a place where one invests time and money to acquire KNOWLWDGE and SKILL SETS that would enable one to build a career. Getting a JOB is the priority. Knowledge and skill sets rarely figure as secondary objectives

Given such a scenario, how do management institutes place their students? Why is there such a rush to recruit MBA's?

1. Hiring a MBA is easy and thus many organizations opt for this route. Skills required by industry are developed on the job. Most students learn the hard way once their very survival is at stake in the ruthless corporate world.

2. It may also be a prestige issue for a few organistions who employ management graduates without clearly defining the role and growth path for the new incumbent

This probably also explains why one finds a MBA quitting his / her first job within a year of acquiring it. The misfit – right person for right job is obvious.

Just as corporates need to identify talent and nurture employees to assume roles of strategic importance in the organization, business schools must provide relevant and cutting-edge management education. This can be achieved by adopting the case methodology of learning. Case studies that talk about real issues/ problems that organizations face and that discuss the manner in which difficulties faced were resolved by corporate houses provide valuable insights to students. Case studies also help in bridging the gap between theoretical concepts learnt in the classroom and their application in industry. Innovative and creative thinking is developed – an essential trait for new age corporations. Management programmes must strive to develop the following skill set

* Communication skills
* Problem-solving skills
* Knowledge application skills
* Interpretation and Integration of information.

The case study approach addresses all of the above.

Management students also need to stop focusing solely on the monetary aspects of a job and rather concentrate on understanding the organization culture and its people. Management institutions can play an important role in developing such an attitude amongst its' students with the aid of counseling. The aspect of social responsibility too cannot be ignored. The student community needs to be sensitized to the fact that social responsibility does not stand for giving charity or working for an NGO. It needs to be understood that being socially responsible is being sensitive to the needs and expectations of society and doing ones' job sincerely and ethically.

In an age where knowledge is going to drive organizations towards excellence, our seats of learning and society at large need to change their approach towards management education. Merely producing graduates and post graduates without these being competent enough to be absorbed by industry could have serious repercussions in future. A change in attitude where focus is on merit, discipline and ethics, is the need of the hour.

References:
# MBAs' aspirations and expectations: the missing link; Colloquia Panel Discussion, NBSM, IIM Calcutta

50 Worst of the Worst (and Most Common) Job Interview Mistakes

You may have heard the horror stories—job hunters who take phone calls or text during an interview, or bring out a sandwich and start chomping, or brush their hair, or worse. You wouldn’t do any of those things, would you? Of course not.

But there are tons of other job interview no-no’s you may not have thought of. Or that you’ve forgotten. The job hunting trail is long and arduous, and a little refresher course can’t hurt. So for your edification and enjoyment, here are 50 (yes, 50!) of the worst and most common job interview mistakes:

1. Arriving late.
2. Arriving too early.
3. Lighting up a cigarette, or smelling like a cigarette.
4. Bad-mouthing your last boss.
5. Lying about your skills/experience/knowledge.
6. Wearing the wrong (for this workplace!) clothes.
7. Forgetting the name of the person you’re interviewing with.
8. Wearing a ton of perfume or aftershave.
9. Wearing sunglasses.
10. Wearing a Bluetooth earpiece.
11. Failing to research the employer in advance.
12. Failing to demonstrate enthusiasm.
13. Inquiring about benefits too soon.
14. Talking about salary requirements too soon.
15. Being unable to explain how your strengths and abilities apply to the job in question.
16. Failing to make a strong case for why you are the best person for this job.
17. Forgetting to bring a copy of your résumé and/or portfolio.
18. Failing to remember what you wrote on your own résumé.
19. Asking too many questions.
20. Asking no questions at all.
21. Being unprepared to answer the standard questions.
22. Failing to listen carefully to what the interviewer is saying.
23. Talking more than half the time.
24. Interrupting your interviewer.
25. Neglecting to match the communication style of your interviewer.
26. Yawning.
27. Slouching.
28. Bringing along a friend, or your mother.
29. Chewing gum, tobacco, your pen, your hair.
30. Laughing, giggling, whistling, humming, lip-smacking.
31. Saying “you know,” “like,” “I guess,” and “um.”
32. Name-dropping or bragging or sounding like a know-it-all.
33. Asking to use the bathroom.
34. Being falsely or exaggeratedly modest.
35. Shaking hands too weakly, or too firmly.
36. Failing to make eye contact (or making continuous eye contact).
37. Taking a seat before your interviewer does.
38. Becoming angry or defensive.
39. Complaining that you were kept waiting.
40. Complaining about anything!
41. Speaking rudely to the receptionist.
42. Letting your nervousness show.
43. Overexplaining why you lost your last job.
44. Being too familiar and jokey.
45. Sounding desperate.
46. Checking the time.
47. Oversharing.
48. Sounding rehearsed.
49. Leaving your cell phone on.
50. Failing to ask for the job.

IIMs' high salary: The true story has a twist

Bangalore: As 2010 placement session of all the seven IIMs draws to close, it is being witnessed that the role offered to these graduates are more or less traditional and the salary packages are different than the packages which were making the buzz.

Following the placement session getting over, the debate started across the corner that which institute managed the best offer? An IIM-Ahmedabad student was tipped to have bagged an offer for Rs 1.4 crore two weeks ago, which has reportedly been breached by the Rs 1.6 crore offer made by a British investment bank at IIM-Calcutta.

But seeing these eye-popping numbers that have dominated headlines for some weeks, Saral Mukherjee, Placement Chief at the IIM-A said, "The truth is that the readers are being fed garbage" said Saral Mukherjee, Placement Chief at IIM-A.

This year, it has been totally different scenario, as the average salary offered by international banks at the IIM campuses are in the range of Rs.12-20 lakh per annum, while that offered by private sector banks is at just over Rs.9 lakh for IIM graduates. The top 30 percent were offered packages of Rs.12-15 lakh, the next 40 percent get salaries in the range of Rs.8-12 lakh and the remaining 30 percent get offers between Rs.5-8 lakh.

Supporting the range of salary being offered, K Ramkumar, Executive Director at ICICI Bank said, "For a person with less than three years of experience, whoever is paying more than Rs 15 lakh is doing a disservice to their organization." ICICI Bank has picked up 50 students from various IIMs so far this year.

It looks really bad to see that how wide is the gap between the lucky few with 'Rs.1 crore-plus' salaries and the rest of the crop from the same elite campuses who are stuck with salaries of Rs 50,000 per month.

Highest offer made in IIM-L at Rs. 75 Lakh

New Delhi: IIM-Lucknow, which started its placement process mid-last week, has already bagged 200 offers, with the highest offer of Rs. 75 lakh being made by commodity trading company Olam International for a Singapore position, reports Economic Times.

Ajit Joshi, a former consultant with Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu who went to IIM Lucknow, has recently landed a job offer of Rs. 50 lakh in equity research in Bank of Muscat's i-banking division. However, his is just one of the international offers that IIM-Lucknow's post-graduate programme students have bagged this placement season. "Things are brighter now. Our seniors had it tough last year," says Joshi.

Based on placement offers till date, the institute expects a 25-30 percent increase in the number of international offers this year. The institute, which had 100 offers for students with work experience, began its final process with 220 students and has received offers for a majority of them.

According to Economic Times, some of the new companies on campus this year include Mckinsey, Nomura, Deloitte Consulting, Calyon Bank, France, Siemens Infosystems and Suzlon. Last year, the highest international offer was from Barclays, which picked up a student for Rs. 1 crore. "Many i-banks have come back this year, besides several good consulting and IT firms. We will see the average salary go up this time," says Professor RL Raina, Chairman, placement, IIM-L.

On the other hand, IIM-Kozhikode, which began its final placement in the first week of February, has already placed a majority of its 250 students. IIM Calcutta and IIM Bangalore, which are yet to start their respective process, too talk of an improved job season this year.