Lamp-holders and Bulb-fitters

Quite a lazy weekend this was. I didnt do much. Had a marketing assignment due tomorrow and I finished one part of that. The second part has come for review from my group. I have to do that during whats left of today. We had a few companies visiting us during the last two days and today. Although I dont really plan to apply to some of them as they are nowhere in the are of my interest, it was still good to know their LOB and understand some of their future growth strategies.

The Run for Fun event was organized today. This is a precursor or rather run-up to the military games that will be held in hyderabad during october this year. 10 people from campus had volunteered to do the 6km run today and as we came close to the event, this number reduced to 2. still, we decided to do the run and it was quite refreshing.

After all that nonsene that happened with Shilpa Shetty in the last two weeks, now I hear that she could probably end up winning the Big Brother. I just cant believe this. Can someone in the house please vote and evict her? This is so funny. Wrong fame ends up doing such things to people. The typical indian sympathy factor has jumped in. the last time chantelle houghton won the big brother competition, not only did she manage to contrive to separate Sam Preston from his longtime girlfriend, but this known-to-no-one sussex girl also won some modeling contracts worth a few hundred thousand pounds. no wonder, if shilpa wins, then she might be on her way to hit british tv screens and do something stupid rather. am sure that Davina McCall who presents the show will have enuff questions for her and i already see that shilpa has a weird english accent. god save such people.

coming back to ppt gossip. today i heard at the dinner table that in one of the ppts given by an fmcg giant, the presenter talked about postings anywhere in the country and then one enthusiastic guy wakes up - "will we get posted in south india too?". the recruiter was flabbergasted and he replied - "well, i think we said, we'll post you anywhere in india. so, yes, to answer your question, south india is a good probability." i think the last statement was just made not to sound very cynical.

after a round of discussions, lets call it debate, with a good number of people on campus, i decided to have this particular title for this post as a tribute to some of my dear friends on campus.

Roger Federer wins again. Reminds me of the days when Pete Sampras used to scare the living daylights out of the som many players. Roger us just like that. He is unstoppable. I had the opportunity to watch him practice at Wimbledon. It was awesome.

I dont understand the rationale behind a 100% rise in the minimum fare being charged to passengers using the auto in Tamil Nadu. The school of management at Anna University had done research and a report was produced, but a number of proposals that were part of the report have been ignored. We talk of moving towards better governance and people friendly rules. Even auto fare changes seem to have political motives.

Oil and Gas

As I look back at the last few days, maybe weeks too - its not justice done for people here. the number of companies on campus everyday is crazy. and they come loaded with the facts and figures about the company and jobs. im looking at myself more like a machine that has been wandering around and trying to act human. amidst this, lets not forget those dreadful assignments for which we have never been spared by any professor or teaching assistant.

for atleast this reason, shouldnt we have a rolling placement process. why clutter all the 200 odd companies in between 30 days before placement and then bombard students with emails asking to attend and attend and attend. now, its almost like one ppt everyday for me.

anyway, we had this oil and gas major who had come to campus to visit us. they were here a few months back too. they made a very impressive presentation and it was extremely professional. and they were recruiting for positions for which they usually tripped to harvard and the likes. so you can imagine the quality of the presentation that would have been made. ok, so during the presentation they mentioned that they would want people with international exposure/experience because that would be good for the job profile they are offering.

question time - one guy asks "do we need international experience?". the presenter was stunned. he said - well, yes preferably (he was thinking whether anyone heard his presentation). and then anoher student goes - "i have lived all my life in north india and have worked for a few years in the southern region. for me that is international experience. does that count towards your requirement?" you can possibly guess who can ask such kind of questions. well we have some representatives who we call the LIONS OF ******. second attack on the presenter. he was absolutely grounded. he had no answer whatsoever. and third question - "what is the compensation?". by now, i would have lost my temper, but the guy on the other side was calm and composed, that he handled it pretty well. my view is - if a company is recruiting someone for a post that was usually filled by people from harvard, do you think that they are recruiting in india to create that cost arbitrage? i mean, why would a company ever want to do that. shouldnt we understand that they are here because they are happy with the talent we showcase?

whatever, this post is part of my regular ppt happenings update. i am quite sure that things like this will keep happening more this week and in the weeks to come. keep reading and have fun.

The PPTs have begun

Everyday there are atleast two firms talking to students. Right from retail giants, telecom service providers, and IT services firms - you name them and they are here. as they rightly put it in management terms, the size of the pie is getting biggger and better. and for obvious reasons the firms want the best share of the pie. so they are here with the best offers. with some level of confidence, i can say that with whats going right now, the average salary will increase from what was quoted in the press last year. the companies are excited about being here. they have chosen to be on campus to talk to us rather than visit a few IIMs. that sounded like a lot of motivation for most of us.

but still the funny characters never shy away from making their presence felt and yes, i can never stop writing about them. the only reason i go to the PPTs is to get these juicy yet stupid words from them onto this medium.

so, during the PPT from a retail company, one student asks - could you tell us what your roadmap for this country is? the guy who was answering questions was a director and he was absolutely stunned. here he was in front of 70 odd students answering questions about hiring and roles, and then one guys suddenly shoots this CEO level question out of the blue. he was smart. so he gave the best possible MBA reply to that. by the way, the recruiter had clearly mentioned that he was only looking for people with experience and then someone goes - do you have any roles for freshers, can freshers apply? blah blah blah.

if you ask me whats happening on the academic front - well no one is bothered about the courses. people hardly attend classes. most people are using their right to bunk two classes per course. now that the attendance policy has been relaxed - there will not be people with cameras filming our presence inside the classroom. the profs will decide how to go about with the attendance policy. i think thats a very good step that has been taken by the administration. i'd be more than happy if the next batch shows some more enthusiasm and removes the attendance policy completely.