Are you kidding?  That soon?  

Believe it or not, the first year of the MBA academia officially got over on April 30, ‘09. Given the state of the economy, the last few months before the end of the term were high stress time for a lot of students who were trying to line up internships with their favorite companies.  

Well, I watched the new James Bond movie yesterday night… I would rate the movie a 6.75 on a scale of 1-10 but I thought the name of the movie to be an apt representation of my life! For anyone pursuing an MBA (especially those without an internship/ job offer), the movie’s title (not the movie necessarily) is something everyone hopes and desires for!

Where are we on the Fuqua calendar? We are about reaching the mid way mark in term 2 (wow!!!) and the first years are looking at one of the toughest academic week this term (next week) followed by the start of the “resume drops” (interviewing season will be here very, very quickly!). The combination of academic stress and internship related anxiety gets to the best of us and one can already see the effects among people. I am in a weird situation – I am starting to get anxious about not being anxious. Interesting, eh?

I think one thing that helps me de-stress is having a weekly (or more frequent) get together with a bunch of people from school and talk about anything and everything. The group comprises of 4 people – Lalith, a young and budding wannabe-consultant from Hyderabad; Vignesh, a confused Saurashtrian from Madurai who spent his adult years in Pilani & south-east Asia); Amar (an absent minded socially induced brain from Tiruchi who decided IIM-A wasn’t good enough) and Animesh (a former Wipro’ite from Laluland who might prosper more as a cook rather than a consultant). There is a good chance our group of 5 people is “busy” de-stressing on Friday night’s while others fret and fume about life and its inadequacies

On the personal front – I got nominated as the student co-chair for www.dukegen.com and I pitched for an internship at a venture capital firm (http://stream.fuqua.duke.edu/Content/Groups/FuquaClubs/EVCC/Resumes/SanjayKrishnamurthy.qtl). I am now practicing to take part in the Duke Startup Challenge (http://www.dukestartupchallenge.org/) – this fun filled competition will be held in the middle of next week’s craziness.

Lets see… what else is happening? India’s inflation rate has come down to single digits, the rupee has had wild swings against the dollar, oil prices have dropped to an epic low (okay, I am dramatizing a bit now!), the US has elected its first black President, the fall colors are everywhere in Durham and Duke’s Fuqua school of Business has moved up in its Business Week rating to 8 (from 9 last year). So, clearly, there is a world outside of Fuqua (and the MBA program).

Nothing else to report except that I need to get back to getting that cover letter ready, studying for my mid terms and getting excited about the upcoming mock interviews. So, I will write again after surving the next 2 weeks. Adios!

Of Wisdom (POW)… alternatively, prisoners of war! Term 1 (first real term of the brutal 2 year daytime MBA program) came to an end today. For the last 6 weeks, our class of 438 eager MBA wannabes has been held captive – slogging away at course material, attending networking events for an internship or attending meaningless events… hence, the analogy to prisoners of war. However, we MBA are trained to think positively and look at the brighter side of things – so, having survived fall 1, I am also ready to impart pearls of wisdom to a lot of people who are thinking about applying for an MBA program (especially at Duke).

For the typical person (non business major), the first term has 4 core courses – Probability & Statistics, Financial Accounting, Micro Economics and Leadership Communication. Let me share my pearls for the interested student:

• For a person with an engineering background, the Probability & Statistics course comes easy (It depends on the probability that you still remember what you did in the first couple years in engineering) – so don’t sweat too much about it and even consider applying for an exemption, if your answer to the probability above is over 0.83.
• Financial Accounting is a much needed primer for those interested in trying their hand at Wall Street (or whatever is left of it!) – it comes naturally for few people and for others, attempting to breathe under water comes as a close analogy. Suggestion – you might want to have someone teach you the basics of accounting (not book keeping) and high level analysis of financial statements – don’t bother reading it; it has to be explained as a concept.
• For those inclined toward understanding how prices are set in a competitive environment, how a monopoly or oligopoly functions and are interested in the basics of game theory, the Micro Economics course is great. However, in 6 weeks, you will not have too much time on your hands to get into the gory details. If you have time before coming to Duke, try and read a primer on macro and micro economic theory – it will help understanding some of the underlying concepts.
• Been a deer in the headlights when asked to present in front of a group of people? Ever forget the points you were trying to make during a debate? No? Well, fear not – the course on leadership communication has been designed to make you feel like a confused deer staring at headlights. The course is made up to presentations – one, a company presentation (you speak about a company of your choosing) and the other, an advocacy presentation where you are debating a stand on a pre-determined topic. Anyways, if you can speak coherent English and are willing to learn, this course will be a breeze.

Now, having shared the basics of what term 1, without further adieu, let me lay out the pearls

• Do NOT buy textbooks – first, you will have no time to read them (course packs and class discussion slides are plenty) and second, the books are not well written (the only exception being the economics study guide)
• Come prepared – Financial accounting, along with the other career related stuff you end up doing, takes some practice. If you desire a career in finance, please spend some money and time before getting here. Also, BCA (a core course testing your excel skills) should be completed BEFORE you get to Fuqua.
  
• It is TOUGH – there is no denying this. 438 extremely well rounded individuals working really hard makes the environment extremely competitive – now, I don’t want you to walk away thinking Fuqua is competitive only; it does a great job balancing this with a very strong culture that fosters team work. Your time here will be made up of many long nights, many “aha” moments, many frustrating, never ending team discussions, many rejections and a few failures – please wake up to this reality and adjust accordingly.

Anyways, a long and boring (for non students) post – hopefully someone out there sees value in the information shared. I am now headed to San Francisco to spend time with my wife and daughter – my reward for the last 3 months of hard work; I never said it was all work and no play

In the context of B-school, the scientific approach of radiocarbon dating can be extensively used to determine the number of weeks in a term a student has been traumatized. It directly relates to the number of dark circles under their eyes, the amount of filth piling up in their apartments and the “significant” marginal loss of productivity (yes, I am registered for microeconomics!). With the numbers adding up, I have calculated that we are half way through term 2 (3 of 6 weeks through!).

This term has been quant heavy – probability & statistics, micro economic and financial accounting all taking a fair share of toll. The other two courses relate to computer applications aka excel skills and leadership communication (which has us reading two poorly written books). Even, after having done probability when in school and during my year of engineering, I still struggle with anything relating to probability — it is almost like my head is not screwed right for probability Both accounting and economics have been fun, though are fairly intense in the amount of work required to get the basic concepts right. Our accounting professor is an absolute gem – she makes the otherwise mechanical and monotonous topic extremely interesting. With quizzes and cold calling being resorted to in the classes, one has to be always up to speed with whatever is taught (the technique of staying up all night and studying before the finals just doesn’t seem to work).

If 5 courses were not stressful enough, the career management center has its own agenda. Resume reviews, mock career fairs and networking dinners have been a regular feature for the last few weeks. The recent turmoil in the US financial markets has a lot of people worried about what they intend to do for their internship leading to added anxiety to the already frayed nerves.

Did I mention MBA clubs? That is an add-on to the already overloaded academic calendar – it is stressful for people who have either signed up for too many clubs or for people who haven’t signed up for any and are struggling with “peer pressure”. I signed up for two clubs – a career related club – the entrepreneurship and venture capital club and a fun club – the outdoors club.

What else have I been doing this term? Watching videos of my daughter as she learns new things, squash every Friday, a run once a week (I curse myself regularly for not running more often!) and lunch/ dinner sessions at other people’s apartments. Thankfully, all these events are complete stress busters.

I have a mid term for the economics course tomorrow, so I will sign off now and provide my next update in another week or two. Later…

Even if you ever heard Bryan Adam’s Summer of 69, you would have no clue what this summer was like…for me! Any ways, its over! Yesterday was the first day of fall and also the 3rd day after summer term finals!! For the first time after I have gotten to Durham, I have not studied for such an extended period of time. Unfortunately for me, that spare time has not translated itself into sleep time – it has seen a lot of partying leading to darker circles around my eyes and an unshaven look that takes me back to my college days.

Let me recount what happened since last week. The GIE exam was on Thursday (and I had trouble remaining seated for 3 hours concentrating on questions for which I had no freaking clue!) and LEO was on Friday (this wasn’t as bad and I did not feel as violated as the previous exam). After that, on Friday night we all went to the Durham Bulls baseball game (against Charlotte) – unfortunately, the seats we had gotten required super human eye vision to see the players (was there a ball being pitched?). In the 7th innings, after convincing myself that I was turning blind, I decided to head home with a bunch of desis who were equally blind (not stereotyping here, but they couldn’t see either). That night was the first party – a desi party (my first in Durham) – I guess we Indians never grow up from our engineering college partying days – liquor, dancing, lots of appetizers (and then, once the women left, a lot of manly stuff!). At 4 AM the party eventually broke up…

Saturday was a blur for the most part (thanks to the night before) though I did manage to get some tennis into the mix. Another party (and again, desi) on Saturday evening had us meet with some of the 2nd year desi junta that was starting to reappear in the Durham community. Then some “Kannadiga” food (actually south Indian food, is more appropriate) and another round of chatting till 2 AM. I got some mini golf on Sunday (not to be confused with golf!) and then on Monday, I did a 5 mile nature trek (after sleeping at 2 AM on Sunday!). After a very elaborate lunch at another desi’s “dhaba”, I got to see “Rock On” – a Hindi flick by Farhan Akhtar (or someone related to him). Good songs and fairly gripping movie…highly recommend that people watch the movie.

Lots of fun, eh? Well, it is now time to get back to some studying. Believe it or not, we have been assigned a lot of pre-term assignments that are all due Monday (Sep 08). Additionally, we have a full day career related workshop on Thursday. Friday and Saturday are accounting pre-term refresher classes (mandatory for me who has no background in accounting). So, till I get a chance to report back, watch the movie!

No… I did not mean to suggest I am done with my MBA. Quite the contrary, but I am almost done with summer term 1 (which, at 4 weeks, is 2 weeks shorter than the other terms; additionally, the “normal” terms have 4 courses instead of the 2 that were taught during summer).

So, does it feel any different from 2 weeks ago? Not really! I am still sleep deprived, still enjoying what we are covering in the class and still have no clue what I intend to do after getting an MBA. Seasoned people (read, the few second years who are started to come back in after their internship) will tell you that it all starts to fall in place by the end of fall. If I believe that, I have another 12 weeks to kick my shoes and relax!

2 interesting things happened over the fortnight. One, we had a ropes training course and two, we partook in some home building. Amazing… simply amazing! I loved every bit of both of these events – both were team oriented events and the last one also had a social meaning to it (we were building a home for some folks in the Durham community). People tell me that I was fairly good with the basics of construction…hmm, wonder if I should consider a career in home construction?

What else? On Bansal’s (a very good friend from my previous life) recommendation, I signed up for facebook. I figured a limited exposure to social networking wouldn’t hurt – 2 weeks later, I am connected to over 143 acquaintances! I think facebook is cool and highly recommended for the readers of this blog.

That’s it folks – till, after my final exams! Ciao…

Who was that person who said that the most difficult part of getting into a B-school was the application process? 3 days of orientation and 4 days of classes later, I vehemently disagree! During the shortened last week (Tue through Fri), we had 1 class of 3 hours every day – so, a total of 12 hours of class time – that was the easy part! To complement the learning in the class, the supplemental reading and team assignments was another 6-8 hours of daily reading! Folks in the class of ‘09 say that the first few weeks is easy – they are molding us for the real grind!

Anyways, for good or for bad (I am convinced, its for the good!), we have two courses in Summer 1 (over the month of August) – Leadership, Ethics and Organizations (LEO) and Global Institutions and Environments (GIE) coupled into what Fuqua calls the Global Institute. Both these courses are core courses (meaning, no exceptions and all 438 of us first years have to complete the course). We also have a team building course (no teaching, just team building/ bonding) called Integrated Leadership Experience (ILE) which is sprinkled into the mix at about 3 hours a week. The course material and the teachers are awesome – however, the one thing that stood up for me was the amount of passion and enthusiasm the course/ faculty generate in us. Just yesterday, over dinner, a few of us started discussing a case pertaining to the spread of HIV virus in Africa and the response (or lack thereof) from the pharmaceutical majors – it would suffice by saying that it wasn’t the most peaceful of dinner discussions!

Next, lets talk about diversity in our class… wow! That one word says it all – as I said earlier, we have 438 students coming from 45 different countries; 40% of the class is from outside the United States; around 70 desis (approximately 16%) some of whom are not necessarily fresh of the boat (or aircraft!). Talking of diversity, my first year team is made up of 6 people including me – a financial analyst from China, a business manager working for a pharmaceutical major from Japan, a law student from Florida, an editor from Chicago, an accountant from Connecticut and me (a IT consultant from India) – 4 guys and 2 women (or 2 orientals, 2 whites, 1 African American and 1 brown skinned me!).

Let me get back to my studies now… remember, I still need to put that time outside of class! Till next time…

Expected time of launch – 0800 hours, 08/01/08 [for those of you folks confused by the American date format, that would be August 01, 2008]
Time to launch – 8 hours (calculating hours awake!)
Launch Location - Fuqua School of Business, Durham 27708 (though the post office claims this should read 27706)
Mission - Daytime MBA program 2008 – 2010 (the end date is based on historical and statistical information gathered around the tenure from others who have successfully completed the mission)

August 01, 2008 is the D-day! My MBA program starts with a 3 day orientation (the organizers claim the third day is a half day event – for some reason, the agenda does not seem to fit in that half a day!). Not sure why we are starting a 2 year program on Friday, Saturday and Sunday – did the management just run out of other days in the week or are they sending us a message? If the batch of 2009 is to be believed, it is probably the latter!

Given the bull run in the Indian bourses over the last 2-3 years, everyone (and I mean everyone) who has ever dreamt of investing (or gambling!) money in the stock market has heard of mutual funds. A great way of beating inflation and getting double digit returns on your hard earned money! It makes complete sense for people with some disposable income set aside for “risk-assured” investments. But what about the upper middle class, the very rich and the super rich? Do they care about mutual funds or do they just park their funds in private equity or other forms of high risk investment products? What if we could move that money into products which provide gain (monetary or otherwise) to the individual, the fund house and to our country? Enter social mutual funds…