It is preparation time at ISB so people are busy with their case preparations and resume preparation etc. along with the academics. I was advised by a young friend who reviewed my CV that I should get my resume reviewed from as many people as possible. Well, good old roomy at D-10 Aravali Hostel, IIT D and the next door neighbour D-9, both VPs at a haloed I-Bank in London have agreed to do the needful. A third friend, another VP, has already started pulling my leg and has forwarded his advance wishes to me for ‘graduating’ again.
It brings back the fond memories of the IIT days when we were preparing to get into our dream jobs. They were preparing for CAT while I was preparing for IAS. But our courses coincided for ‘stat, quant and verbal’ as they called it. I needed those subjects for the General Studies Paper 1 Question 1 and for essay writing. While doing my summer training at Orkay in Mumbai, where breakfast was served for 20 paisa and lunch for 1 rupee, I had saved some money due to the subsidized canteen. My investment was in the form of course packs, used by CAT aspirants, to enhance my speed in stats.
This had served two purposes; firstly I had become a bench mark for my friends who were writing CAT. They lamented that I got higher marks when I was not even preparing for that exam; they rejoiced that I was not preparing for that exam. Secondly, it was age old wisdom of Civil service aspirants to complete Stats portion of GS paper in 60 minutes if one wanted to complete that paper. I had completed that portion in flat 20 minutes and used rest of the time to build my essay type answers. The result was one of the highest marks in General Studies paper, the waterloo of IITians in that exam. 10 years down the line we are all winners, I would say.
So what brings me to an MBA course after so many years or why are the civil servants quitting the premier civil service, or are they? The same question was asked to me some ten times in last 2-3 weeks by the Assistant Editor of a business magazine.
I only know that three of my batch mates in the Civil Services exam went to Wharton and have not come back. That is a big B-School by any standards, I accept. But yesterday I saw a lady who had done her graduation from Wharton and is working in India now. She was here with her team to talk about their firm and various roles therein and various projects they undertake.
I had questions to ask, why working here after Wharton? Then there was someone from IITD, who must have been there around the time I was there. Again wanted to talk to him but the session lasted till 2.15 am so didn’t feel like delaying them for my curiosity. May be they wouldn’t have minded, I don’t know. But I know something for sure. They were working at 2.15 am to get the best people in their organization. And that explains the difference, may be.
I also know that if anyone believes that people are thinking beyond the Civil Services due to the differences in salary, then they are wrong. People knew the pay scales when they joined those services. They wouldn’t like to join as fresh grads in Corporate when their room mates in engineering college are VPs and Directors recruiting at the international level.
We will have to introspect to search for the reasons. May be some people had extra energy which couldn’t expand as much as they wanted in Government system. May be the horizon itself became small while people wanted to grow more. May be fresh air will reduce the feeling of suffocation. If nothing else, the hierarchies at newer places could be flexible and people would like to just laugh at the sense of humour of a colleague, instead of sirring him.
And about the fears of loss of talent, they are unwarranted. As long as people taught in best B-Schools around the world are interested to work in their country, there is no reason to worry about. No system owns the responsibility of ensuring development alone or monopolizes it.
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