Showing posts with label hel(L). Show all posts
Showing posts with label hel(L). Show all posts

Sunday, March 22, 2009

A roller coaster ride!

Let me tell you before hand that I am scared of riding roller coasters; but this one was something not be missed out. 20 months of jam-action-stress-fun-life-learning-sorrow packed ride of PGP (and not MBA!) at IIM Lucknow. It was once-in-a-life-time experience (DISCRETIONARY WARNING: TO BE STRICTLY EXPERIENCED ONLY ONCE) and one experience of a complete life.
As I sit back and reflect on those moments, I can't imagine me going through and doing all that I have done. But then all that has happened and I was a part of that grand journey. Its difficult to imagine reliving all those moments. Its difficult to sum up what are my take aways and what have I really learned over this period. Because this is a course where most of what you "study" won't appear to be of any use in professional life; the real learning lies a little beneath all the bookish knowledge- which according to me is to be "resourceful" (to be able to pursue any kind of assignment) , to "execute" projects (carrying through activities till the very end) and "multi -tasking".
These terms may appear to be routine and GLOBE but having gone through the "ride" myself I can attach a fair amount of specificity and purpose to these terms. There are times when one has to forget everything in the world and concentrate on one simple power point ppt and still get screwed during the presentation. The above mentioned qualities are not something that come naturally or through perfect execution of tasks but rather through step by step learnings imparted by failures-big or small. And to talk about failures, there are all versions of it- casual/serious, tiny/mammoth, silly/fundamental and so on. But one has to move on after every instance of it; there isn't any time to reflect. And thats when one learns, not through self-assessment but through an unconscious adaptation which is natural to living beings. Although the process is much faster as compared to the natural one. But then things do move fast at hell. One minute you are preparing for the project presentation the next minute you are mugging up the syllabus for term exams and blink of an eye later you at in the movie hall. 
More on it later....

Sunday, June 15, 2008

My Portfolio

The second innings has started at hel(L) and it isn't looking too comfortable (chill) at all. Classes from 8 to 9; yes 8 in the morning to 9 in the evening!!!

But the returns are only as good as the choice of your portfolio.
And mine is quite a heavy weight one. I have 3 fin, 2 ops and 1 eco course in this term along with a compulsory Strategy course. So I expect quite high returns (read burden) from my risky (heavy weight) portfolio; without much diversification (no fillers) of the risk.
Only diversification is with respect to time; the sessions are diversified across the whole day and even run into the night :(

This is the first weekend but the week isn't over.
Yeah the week is not over! We count time at helL by weeks and this time around the "week" has started mid-week. Change of schedules, change of class rooms, change of sections; but there is no "positive" change in the burden. It has only got aggravated.
The first half week went just fine. This part of the week (the latter half-thu/fri/sat) is like a three-day management workshop for me- classes start at 8 in the morning and continue up till 9 in the evening with 1-3 hours gaps in between. The day goes by in classes, , traveling to-fro and mess. The latter part is on a chiller side- 2pm to 8pm; only two classes scheduled at the maximum separation possible.

Most of the courses started off with the "mandatory" globe (read introduction) that is a a necessary condition for any course to qualify in a management curriculum.; although not a sufficient one, there is need for more globe latter on. Although it has been promised (by??) to gradually phase out the global part in the coming lectures. Lets see!

My portfolio goes as:
Corporate Valuation and Restructuring (CORVAL);
Managing Financial Services (MFS);
Commercial Bank Management (CBM);
Manufacturing Systems Design (MSD);
Services Operations Management (SOM);
Econometric Methods (EM); and
Strategy Management (SM).

Coming up next:
My take(perception/expectation/understanding) on these courses.

Sunday, March 23, 2008

The BEST time @hell

Exam time!.......the best time???.............
Are you serious?.......................
That might not be true at most places and in most contexts, but that is how things go here at the hell.
No boring classes, No ppts, No projects..................the crux-"no deadlines to meet".
And exam time is the best, coz you dont have to study much unless you are in the rat race.
So it begins today with one of the four GLOBE subjects of the term. I am not in a mood to read any more and so thought of starting something useful during my "best time of the day" (after 3'O Clock in the night).
Learnings from the course:
Course:
HRM,
Type: Globe of the highest degree (there are Globes of lesser degree, then there are courses with technical Globe and some with specific Globes)
Instructor: A good teacher, but had to deal with so much of Globe.
We learned that there are provisions for the workers in organizations in order to have there say in the conditions of the job. Deep legal fundae "enriched" with definitions made the course very dull.