B School life
Life at a B school teaches you a lot of things.
Undergraduate life is very different. You are just out of school (a more or less protective environment) and its your first foray where you meet people from different backgrounds, interests and ideas. But these are also your formative years; you form opinions about people, develop your group of good friends, group of not-so-good friends and group of not-at-all friends.
But, Life at a B school is different. People who come in have all passed through their formative years. Their ideas and viewpoints are fixed and coloured by their experiences. What you thought to be true and obvious doesnt seem like that anymore. You realise that sometimes, you get along much better with people from completely different backgrounds than someone who is from your city and has attended a similar college. You learn to listen to people whether you agree with them or not. You learn to make sure that you are heard whether you are right or not.
Some of the people you interact with are freshers from college who are here because they did not want to work. They have no idea what they want to do with their lives. (Like me!) They are here to delay that decision hoping that two years gives them their calling. Some find it. Some don't. But they bring a lot of energy and enthusiasm to the table. They are willing to work hard, party harder, play sports and volunteer for a lot of activities.
The rest of the crowd is formed by people who are here after a couple of years of work experience. They know why they are here and what they want out of the place. They are focussed. They bring with them a broader perspectives to share. You learn that its best to glean from both but just be who you are.
You realise that the most interesting conversations you've ever had were those sitting at the local tea shop at 2 am. Time and sleep seem to have different context when you are inside a B school. 11 pm seems to be late evening and 3 am seems to be an everyday ( or rather every night) affair. You get so used to it that , when home on vacation you wonder why everything shuts down by 11pm.
Life at a B school teaches you a lot of things.
Over the course of your stay in B school you learn what interests you. But more importantly you learn what does not interest you and what you don't want to do. This is much more important that anything else. You realise that the dreams you walked into a B school with, are either shattered or have become mirages remaining elusive. Somethings you earlier thought would interest you, now take center stage. You work on zillion projects and towards end terms you just move from one project meeting to another. In some you lead and in some you are led. You learn to play both these roles.
If you have read everything I have written till now you would have realised that academics has not been mentioned at all. Before you begin to think the author must have done miserably in academics I will clarify my stance. I truly believe that a job teaches you more than two years learning organisational behaviour, finance and marketing. Then why B school?
A B school formalises all your knowledge. It gives you an opportunity to learn about the developments in your field and helps you exchange ideas and talk to people. At the end of two years if you wonder that what is your biggest takeaway from a B school then 'networking' would be it. You know 3 batches of people, your seniors, your batch and your juniors. You feel that your seniors are the most helpful and nicest people you would meet. They sit with you and guide you through the maze called B school. They mentor you thoroughout. You wonder why someone would spend their time and efforts on you. Yet, when you become the 'senior' you spend hours mentoring your juniors and sometimes you do so for years after graduating. Only then does the answer strike you. People are willing to give something back to the system just because they belong to it. You suddenly feel proud to be part of this system. It is this bonding, this pride that unites all ; and its well worth the two years.
Expressed here are my personal feelings. It may sound extremely rosy with only the positives, but thats the way I look at things....
Undergraduate life is very different. You are just out of school (a more or less protective environment) and its your first foray where you meet people from different backgrounds, interests and ideas. But these are also your formative years; you form opinions about people, develop your group of good friends, group of not-so-good friends and group of not-at-all friends.
But, Life at a B school is different. People who come in have all passed through their formative years. Their ideas and viewpoints are fixed and coloured by their experiences. What you thought to be true and obvious doesnt seem like that anymore. You realise that sometimes, you get along much better with people from completely different backgrounds than someone who is from your city and has attended a similar college. You learn to listen to people whether you agree with them or not. You learn to make sure that you are heard whether you are right or not.
Some of the people you interact with are freshers from college who are here because they did not want to work. They have no idea what they want to do with their lives. (Like me!) They are here to delay that decision hoping that two years gives them their calling. Some find it. Some don't. But they bring a lot of energy and enthusiasm to the table. They are willing to work hard, party harder, play sports and volunteer for a lot of activities.
The rest of the crowd is formed by people who are here after a couple of years of work experience. They know why they are here and what they want out of the place. They are focussed. They bring with them a broader perspectives to share. You learn that its best to glean from both but just be who you are.
You realise that the most interesting conversations you've ever had were those sitting at the local tea shop at 2 am. Time and sleep seem to have different context when you are inside a B school. 11 pm seems to be late evening and 3 am seems to be an everyday ( or rather every night) affair. You get so used to it that , when home on vacation you wonder why everything shuts down by 11pm.
Life at a B school teaches you a lot of things.
Over the course of your stay in B school you learn what interests you. But more importantly you learn what does not interest you and what you don't want to do. This is much more important that anything else. You realise that the dreams you walked into a B school with, are either shattered or have become mirages remaining elusive. Somethings you earlier thought would interest you, now take center stage. You work on zillion projects and towards end terms you just move from one project meeting to another. In some you lead and in some you are led. You learn to play both these roles.
If you have read everything I have written till now you would have realised that academics has not been mentioned at all. Before you begin to think the author must have done miserably in academics I will clarify my stance. I truly believe that a job teaches you more than two years learning organisational behaviour, finance and marketing. Then why B school?
A B school formalises all your knowledge. It gives you an opportunity to learn about the developments in your field and helps you exchange ideas and talk to people. At the end of two years if you wonder that what is your biggest takeaway from a B school then 'networking' would be it. You know 3 batches of people, your seniors, your batch and your juniors. You feel that your seniors are the most helpful and nicest people you would meet. They sit with you and guide you through the maze called B school. They mentor you thoroughout. You wonder why someone would spend their time and efforts on you. Yet, when you become the 'senior' you spend hours mentoring your juniors and sometimes you do so for years after graduating. Only then does the answer strike you. People are willing to give something back to the system just because they belong to it. You suddenly feel proud to be part of this system. It is this bonding, this pride that unites all ; and its well worth the two years.
Expressed here are my personal feelings. It may sound extremely rosy with only the positives, but thats the way I look at things....
4 comments:
why do i always sound so cynical and bored? i hate that you can make things sound so good.
i agree with all of the above. and now at the end of almost 2 years, i am still as clueless as i was when i started. i guess the most important thing i learnt in these 2 years was 'people are weird. they are different, beautiful, similar, ugly, smart, stupid, interesting, boring at various times. and that is what makes them so interesting'. 2 years of close living with a bunch of people has made me more social and yet more of a loner. you never appreciate yourself as much as you do when yuo are with a hundred other people. does any of this make sense?
well said!!! made me feel a lil less lousy about my grades :)
- rach
Since ur time there is coming 2 an end, such posts are expected ones :) :)
It depends ravi - when u say
"I truly believe that a job teaches you more than two years learning organisational behaviour, finance and marketing" -- hope u dont mean a S/W job.. Coz all that u learn here is how to cope with frustration, stupid people, intelligent people and dumb ones .. After around 2 years in a job, in a so called "good" company, i still havent found my "calling".. All i have learnt is how not to loose ur temper, how to adjust with people and generally flow with life !!!
consumerdemon: I agree with you totally on people part.And more importantly two years makes you think for yourself. I dont know whether I would have been like this if i had joined after couple of years at work.. but its been a good 2 years.
anon- rach: haha. grades .. ne'er matter.. and we both know how two years have been..
Boston bala: thank you for stopping by .
karthik: yeah .. about software job, i aint qualified enough to comment but i can tell you. come to bschool and you can relate a lot of happenings and learnings to those two years.
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