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.  

Having spoken to MBAs at other schools, I know that all schools have struggled this year to place its students.  However, by the end of May almost everyone had an internship.  There were a few who either decided not to pursue an internship and follow their heart to do something unique – hats off to them.  I decided to try out something new for the summer – a marketing internship.  Given my background in technology and my desire to stay connected, I interviewed with one of the leading software companies for my marketing internship.  This year, “this” company has gotten 40 MBA interns for a variety of opportunities across many of its product offerings.  I had the opportunity of meeting up with some of these people during orientation and later during the first week – I have been blown away by the talent that has been acquired.  

I will write separately about my internship, but first, lets step back a little here and let me share some of my observations from my MBA so far:

1. This is a professional degree.  Grades are not important (at least, not in the US) but that doesn’t mean that you ignore this aspect.  A good school is usually fairly competitive and trying to “gain knowledge” is important – I firmly believe that this mindset is important and grades are a reflection of your learning.

2. Focus on “networking”.  Meeting new people is a big part of the learning process and most of this invariably happens outside the classroom.  Remember, you came to the program risking a well established career to try something new – so, make sure you do just that.  The old excuse that I am an introvert doesn’t fly, so, if you are that type, you got 2 years to fix it.

3. Herd mentality.  Most people come to the school wanting to either get into consulting or into investment banking.   Even in a good year, with the huge class size that is normal of any of the top tier schools, not everyone will land a top consulting or IB jobs.  Besides, not everyone is cut out for that kind of work.  So, think real hard on what you want to do – invariably, you are going to be really good at that!

4. Joining career and social clubs.  Don’t join clubs just because it is the cool thing to do!  Pick and choose the ones that you are passionate about and work on their cabinet to make a difference.  Mix and match career and social clubs – 3-4 clubs is a good number. 

5.  GATE/ GCP Trips – These are academic/ socially oriented/ fun filled trips organized by all schools (they are named differently in every school).  These are usually expensive, but provide a unique experience that is difficult to replicate.  Remember, you are already investing a fortune on your MBA… an additional $5000 is definitely worth it.  Don’t miss it… try going at least once. 

6. Enjoy!  A lot of people forget this simple rule. Others enjoy a little too much where the MBA becomes second tier. So, figure out the right balance.  The internship will definitely happen and you will definitely land a job but you want to cherish the company of your fellow students and professors (they will move away in 2 years) and enjoy being in school.

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!

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

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…

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!

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…

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…

And just in case, anyone was wondering what the hell I am trying to convey, it is the launch of my MBA program. Is it just me or does anyone else notice an unusual number of 8′s in date/ time of launch? Anyways, putting aside my neurotic paranoia, let me make sure I have everything under control.

• T – 8: All administrative tasks (parking permit, Duke id/ flex card, apartment and utilities set up, car purchased and registered, NC license acquired, refrigerator stacked with junk food) complete
• T – 7: Fairly well rested to endure the first few days (apparently, the human body can only reserve 2 days of rest at a time)
• T – 6: Complete pre-readings (optional – if crunched for time, you can safely skip this step. Please note that “safely” in the context of this adage is relative. You will be screwed by the workload any way, so a couple 100 pages of reading incomplete as of this launch is inconsequential)
• T – 5: Have a quiet dinner and think about whether you have made the right decision leaving home, leaving a well paying job, dispersing your family and ensuring a 2 year hiatus in a highly ambiguous and torturous program
• T – 4: Continue thinking from the past hour, start to freak and look at options for an abort…
• T – 3: Assuming you did not abort mission, you want to contact other classmates and make them feel the pinch of what you have been going through for the last 2 hours – if you are unsuccessful psyching your class fellows, you might have serious limitations in the management arena. Consider reverting to launch sequence T – 5 and start over
• T – 2: No going back now… SSS (basically your morning ablutions) before you head to the launch pad… you don’t want your fellow astronauts to be put off by that obnoxious odour
• T – 1: Get in your car and drive to the launch pad. If you are lucky, you will get parking and and your car will not be towed before the end of the day. Ensure you have an umbrella for any inclement weather (note: chances that this weather might delay the launch are minuscule, so please don’t count on that!)
• Blast Off: Wish your fellow classmates a Good Morning, grab a bagel and coffee, look completely relaxed, get a seat in the front of the auditorium and wait to be amazed!

At the time of the writing of this article, the author had checked the first event in the final launch sequence. Additionally, he had decided to skip the optional launch event (T-6) to gain additional time to ponder over events T-5 through T-3. Will meet you guys once I am in orbit…

So, what is left for me? 7 days of relaxation? Hell no! The pre-reads run into about a 100 pages – that coupled with the inertia of not having studied for donkey’s years is going to make the remaining 7 days one of pure relaxation or physical relaxation with mental trauma or traumatic mental and physical abuse. Knowing me, it will probably be the latter. I am going to worried sick and all attempts at sitting in front of a text book (or case study) without getting distracted is going to lead to physical exertion. Anyways, time will tell… If all this were not enough, I am supposed to be attending some get-together social events today, tomorrow, a couple of days next week and then, every Friday for the duration of the 2 year program. Isn’t all this asking for trouble?

At a very high level, our 1st year is broken down into a summer, fall (term 1 & term 2), an optional flex term (if you want to cause further damage to your mangled nerves over Christmas!), and spring (term 3 & term 4). Unless one plans on taking any exemptions, most students have the following academic load in the first year:

Summer – 3 core courses

Fall (Term 1) – 5 core courses (1 can be completed without stepping into class!)

Fall (Term 2) – 3 core courses (optional 1 elective)

Spring (Term 3) – 1 core course (and lots of electives)

Spring (Term 4) – 1 core course (and lots of electives)

So, technically, one needs to be fairly sure what they intend to do with their MBA by the end of the year (once decided, the pursuit [of happiness?] could be our new year resolution. Between the academia, one is also focusing on the MBA clubs, social events, career fairs/ counseling and life! Seems doable, what do you guys think?

Anyways, before my traumatic situation gets out of hand, let me sign off and wait for D-day before I create my theoretical, unproven, yet statistically correct speculation!

Social Mutual Funds (SMF, as christened by me) is a similar to the tax saving mutual funds which have a lock-in period. But, with a subtle difference – it is meant for people who have tons of disposable income, believe in parking their funds in causes of charity (to get some tax benefits) and have the patriotic zeal to take India to new heights. Here is how I propose we structure this fund:

1. An individual can invest money into SMF and buy units at the market governed NAV – there is no upper limit on the amount of money an individual can put in – note, however, that the money invested is locked in for a period of 5 years.
2. The entire principal invested is deducted from the net taxable income of the individual (thus reducing the taxable income of that individual) – this is similar to an individual making a charity contribution to a tax exempt organization (e.g. PM’s relief fund).
3. The principal is invested in investment products such that the AMC can guarantee an assured 10% annualized return – this return can either by re-invested (counts towards the reduction in taxable income) or issued as dividend (the amount would be tax free). Returns in excess of 10% is a gamble and that would be where the value of the AMC and the fund manager would play a part in helping people choose which SMF to opt for.
4. At the end of the 5 year period, the money is transferred to the government – a separate fund can be created by the government with clear tracking on how the funds are used. The money collected has to be used for development purposes – it cannot be used for legacy stuff like subsidies and the list of developmental activities has to be clearly called out when this fund is created.
5. The AMC charges an entry or exit load at an appropriate rate (again, these numbers would help the individual decide on the AMC and fund of choice).

So, who wins in this? Everyone…

• Individual – They makes a 30% saving on tax in the first year, get an assured 10% tax free return every year and get their principal back after a fixed amount of time (either tax free or at a highly reduced tax rate)
• AMC – Nothing changes for them – they continue to make their money on the entry/ exit loads. The risk appetite of the fund manager is slightly curtailed to ensure a 10% annualized assured return
• India – Here is where we have the bonanza. With no SMFs, the income tax authorities mop up 33%. With SMFs, they get the entire principal after 5 years!

What am I missing here? Can someone from the world of mutual funds or SEBI or someone who is a little more knowledgeable tell me if this appears to be a win-win idea?