What is the biggest adversity you have faced? Well, dear reader, I hope you haven't faced many, but if you are a young go-getter with dreams of a Master of Business Administration (MBA) education, you better get cracking. Adversity, no less. Such a powerful word. You would expect students to come up with "I had my leg amputated after suffering gangrene" or "my family lost lakhs in a share scam and we had to move into a slum" or something similarly dreary.
No such luck (thankfully). Most MBA aspirants are 22-year olds - fresh out of college or finishing their final year. Forget adversity, they probably haven't even jumped a red light. What is the point of the question anyway? Why ask something so grave to those who have barely scratched adulthood? Isn't the question more suited to mid-level careerists who have taken multiple, not entirely successful, stabs at life?
Apparently, business schools want to see if their prospects have faced the real deal and how they overcame it. They are looking for candidates with steel in their bones. Why exactly, you might ask. For one, the corporate world is a shark tank. How will poor lambs survive if they have never faced a problem worth bragging about?
In the event, students ask instructors, such as me, what to write. It's heartbreakingly hilarious. "Sir, what do you think is the biggest adversity I have faced?" asked one of my brighter students, in all seriousness. "Let's see," I told him, "have you ever had to convince your parents about something? Something hard?" "Oh yes, sir, they wanted me to do medicine, but I opted for engineering." "Voila," I screamed, "that's adversity for you."
The admission form for entry into B-schools is a case study in psychological nit-picking. Students are asked to rate their versatility on a five-point scale, ranging from "outstanding" to "average" with "excellent", "very good" and "good" in between. Is there any difference between "outstanding" and "very good"? I am not sure. If you are a champion rower, like one of my students, does that makes you "very good" or merely "good"? I don't have the foggiest. It's all so subjective that it's crying to be scrapped. To make matters sillier, the form advises: "Please report your results after due consideration." I swear I saw a colon-p smiley at the end of that sentence.
Most students ask me what they should write. Not just adversity, even things like: "What should I write for my strengths?" It is not easy to fend them off. Strengths are similar in any case. "Analytical" is the most common. Great, but analytical how? "Can analyse any problem sir." That helps, if you push your tongue really hard into the cheek.
Apart from filling up myriad forms, there is also the essay that Xaviers Aptitude Test, or XAT makes you write. Writing, in other words, is essential to success in MBA tests. I ask students, right from the first class, to submit short write-ups (about 500 words) on hot topics of the day.
A student of mine, a bright girl who actively participates in class, sent me an essay on Arvind Kejriwal. She covered all the main points - his background in the Indian Revenue Service, his work on the Right to Information and Lokpal, the big revelations about corruption in high places, and finally, the political party. As a compendium of facts, it was comprehensive. But there was no idea running through it. I was unable to identify whether she supported Kejriwal or not.
As an instructor, I take some things for granted. I should not, but I do. Like, if you speak English well, you also write well, which is not the same thing at all. Or, if you attended an English-medium school, you know your basics and, therefore, the class can begin at an advanced level.
None of those are canonical truths. You can be a smooth talker and yet write worse than a kindergarten kid. Writing must come together, in a word. The piece must have a beginning, a middle and an end. What my student had sent me was a rambling mishmash of facts and figures that did not dovetail into a comprehensible whole.
I replied to my student: "I read your essay, you have covered all the points, but the essay lacks a structure. There are facts strewn about, but a larger narrative is missing. Go through the piece again and decide what you want to say. As far as I can see, the point you are trying to make is that Kejriwal is a good man but his decision to launch a party to fight corruption is misguided. Now, redraft the essay with this in mind. Let your narrative run with this idea and see if you feel like making changes."
I hope that helped. Most of my students have not done any real writing until now. They will need to rewrite drafts two, maybe three, times. With practice and luck, they will see how things fall in place. I hope the revelation would stick.
The author has switched too many jobs in the past and hopes he can hold down this one
Disclaimer: These are personal views of the writer. They do not necessarily reflect the opinion of www.business-standard.com or the Business Standard newspaper
