As a common admission test (CAT) trainer, I am responsible not just for ensuring that my students clear the written test, but also to hand-hold them through the group discussion and personal interview round. If you are a fresher - which means you are in the final year of graduation - consider yourself lucky. You get to escape the limitless questions about your "current status". If, however, you happen to fall in the "work-ex" category, prepare to be perplexed.
CAT 2012 was taken by some 200,000 students. On the face of it, it is hardly a difficult exam. There are two sections of 30 questions each, and over two hours to solve. Basic Math and not-so-basic English skills should stand you in good stead. But making it to the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) is no cakewalk, as we are reminded ad nauseam. The much-ballyhooed toughness arises from the competition. With around 3,500 seats on offer, the admission ratio is less than two per cent. Every mark counts, and in the second round, every utterance.
One would expect the IIMs, given their status as the hubs of management education, to be considerate towards the victims of a sliding economy. That they, whose own reputations rest on the packages churned out on placement day, would appreciate the candidates' dilemma. If you haven't noticed, there is an army of young men and women who were picked up from campus last year but are yet to start work at the likes of Infosys, Wipro and HCL Tech.
The story is by now familiar. You are a young go-getter who decided to do an MBA after engineering. To boost your credentials, you took up the offer made by the storied information technology (IT) firm that visited your campus. You graduated in, say, June and the company promised they would have you on the rolls by September. You thought yourself lucky, since you could use the July-September period to prepare for CAT. And then, during the personal interview, showcase the results of this perfect serendipity.
Not so fast. As September approaches, the company informs you that they are delaying your joining until December. As December rolls around, you get a letter saying they "hope" to have you work with them from March, and in March, they finally accept that they cannot put a date to your joining because frankly, they have enough people on the bench as it is, and heaven forbid, if the economy does not improve and orders don't start flowing soon, they would have a massive problem on their hands.
Ideally, none of this should bother you. You, after all, were planning to use the IT job merely as a stepping stone to an MBA; to mouth before the panel time-honoured platitudes like "I have worked on the technological side of things; now is the time to learn the business..." and such. Besides, you are secretly glad since all the delay has given you ample time to make a comprehensive dash at CAT.
Unfortunately, your entirely genuine story will find few buyers among the grim-faced IIM professors who constitute interview panels. The moment your curriculum vitae lets on that you have been home for a year awaiting the large-hearted IT company to call you to join its ranks, they will pull a long face. You tell them that you utilised the time to prepare for CAT and they would hiss: "Only a fool wastes an entire year doing that." You tell them you also learnt French at Alliance Francais or German at the Max Mueller Bhawan or cooking from Nigella Lawson, and they will look away, unimpressed. If you haven't caught on, you, my dear, have committed the grave sin of sitting home for one, full, unapologetic year, and the panel, in its infinite wisdom, has no intention of letting you forget it.
And, therefore, the first conversation that I have with my students - those who aren't the blessed freshers, that is - is their jobs. Some of them, not yet rid of the insouciance that only those untouched by CAT can possess, answer: "I have a job but my joining is delayed." To them, I say, "Find another job, asap. I know the market is tough but keep trying. Show desperation. Make it seem like you cannot survive without one." They look at me funny but the subsequent explanation satisfies them.
The other answer I get is "I have a job but I am planning to quit in order to prepare". To them, I say: "Please, for the love of God, don't. I will come to your house and burn the midnight oil to get you through CAT, but don't ever think about quitting your valuable job". They, too, wonder at my sudden dramatic act but eventually come around to it.
The author has switched too many jobs in the past and hopes he can hold down this one