I too wanted to be an MBA ... Part 2

Contd. from I too wanted to be an MBA ... part 1.

So I was finally determined to go ahead for GMAT. ISB, Hyderabad was a booming option that time, and it accepted only GMAT scores. It was time to follow the track of who's who in this world. Harvard, Stanford, Oxford, here I come....

The very first thing in my preparation was to visit a MBA fair and be fooled by marketing executives of some average colleges. Next I bought a couple of MBA prep guides and searched some online material. Pretty soon, I had enough material to get an 800 score, if I managed to read it all ;P

Prima-facie GMAT is far more simpler and predictable exam than our desi CAT. Giving a couple of exams, I realized that this was the CAT, which I could easily bell. (Tip: Serious candidates should definitely read Official guides, Manhattan and Kaplan. They are fabulous guides)

So the time passed by and finally the D-day arrived. Here I was, at a Prometric centre in the heart of the Indian financial hub, a solid 3 hours before the scheduled time. At the centre,  they take all your fingerprints and passport details as if you are going to escape the country, immediately after the exam. No equipment including a water bottle is allowed inside the centre. Unless you have given any such exams before, the experience could be highly intimidating.

Ok enough about the centre, now moving to the exam. Contrary to my preparation experience, I found that Quant section turned out to be increasingly tough, while Verbal was relatively easy. GMAT being adaptive, increases the complexity of each successive question, once you give a correct answer, but the complexity seems to be increasing manifold in the Quant as compared to the verbal one.

I was completely exhausted by the time exam was over and thought of rather canceling the test for my poor performance. However, I couldn't imagine coming to such a tense testing centre again and went ahead to accept the score and for a good reason. Yes, indeed I managed to bell this CAT (aka GMAT). Got a score of 730 (96%) and I was already on cloud 9. Harvard, I am coming!!



However, the pleasure was short lived and began to vanish, as I began preparing for the applications. I realized the a good GMAT score is neccessary but not really sufficient condition to secure admission to a good college. GMAT is perhaps only 20% of the work done in the grand MBA quest, sooner one realizes this better it is.

Back to reality, the total program fees at Harvard and Stanford were close to whopping Rs.1 Crore (~$250,000). With recession of 2008 nearing, I realized that no matter what my score is, I cant take risks of taking such massive debts. So I chose some suitable colleges from FT top 100 list and started the application process for colleges with lesser fees. Harvard, here I go :(

The process was extremely tiresome and thought provoking. Never before until that moment, I knew so much about myself. Some of the applications were about 40 pages and took over a month to complete!! I was getting closer to the dream MBA, and as I mentioned earlier, "In Greed we trust", it was this MBA greed that motivated me to kept me going on..and on..

To be contd...

Now What...

My MBA is finally complete & its over a year into an average-paying, mediocre, boring & tiresome IT job. Every day I walk to the office, I say to myself, Oh..my God same silly old office again. Seeing the number of Good-bye/Adieu/Hasta-la-vista/Phir Milenge/Journey Begins & Journey ends, emails that fill my mailbox daily, I suspect that feeling is really universal. Either most of us are reaching the mid life crisis some 10-15 years earlier or the effective lifespan has itself reduced to 50-60 years, making it a prefect midlife crisis.

I sometimes, remind myself of the school days, when I really hated to go to the the school and would rather prefer to play or sleep at the home, but that was not the case to be. Now when, I go back in time, those were such lovely days, with no worries. Just 5 hours of school, moderate homework, sleep, good food, chess and TV serials (including HumLog, Krishi Darshan, Chitrahaar, Mahabharat, HeMan etc.). Only those who have seen these serials or were born during that time, would be able to correlate the ecstasy & joy associated with these legendary serials or the DoorDarshan era.

Grass always appears to be greener on the other side. Going backwards in time, in preschool, I waited patiently for middle school, hoping become a senior & then waited for high school, waiting for adolescence (& of course the legal drinking and theater entry age). After that for engineering, and next for reaping the fruits of employment & then to escape the misery of job into the trap of MBA & finally now back to the mortal path of IT again.

I did try following the path of philanthropy and designed to dedicate two prime years of my life towards a very high profile NGO, but when I raised critic questions about their marketing plans, tasks and deeds, they chickened out and never replied back; so I gave up. Now, I am trying to discover the path of entrepreneurship, but God knows, when I will start. A wise man once said, "To act and not think is equally bad as to think and not act", but I guess I am equally bad at both fronts.

As I began preparing for my MBA entrance, a question loomed in my mind, "Why MBA?", I am still in search of the answer... Amen.