Hello there, and welcome to this hallowed blog, ye common mortals! You step foot (or click mouse) on a page that has for the last three years been followed by, more than anyone else, my own classmates. Once in a while we do get the Doubting Engineers, who ask 'Can it really be true? Can an engineer really understand the world of business?' with the unspoken thought bubble 'Will I get a raise, a promotion? Will I make it large?'.
Unfortunately, the latter doesn't work out unless you put in your good deal of effort, but the first part.. YES! It is possible! There IS space in the mind of a techie for some business fundas/jargon/thingamajigs! Each batch is living proof that one can go in at one end, spouting stuff like Assets and Liabilities without knowing squat of what it really means, and come out 2.5f years later with all sorts of buzzwords aimed at those people who scoff at the concept of a bizengineer! (Or what we now call Product Managers, for lack of other jobs at the starting level that really mix the two).
So let's start at the end, shall we? This is us, branded and about to receive the ceremonial seal.
For the record, don't go on our bhola-bhaala looks. Each and every one of us is nuts. Take my word for it. Nothing like spending three years with a room full of crazies, to turn you mad yourself!
Our last official evening at IIMB had us wearing robes (which, for the record, felt hotter than a silk saree in Chennai on a May afternoon, as eagerly attested to by a sample of the women in our batch) and preparing to receive the PGSEM diploma from Mukesh Ambani. I'll take both your questions here:
1. The IIMs do not grant degrees, they grant diplomas... it's the way it is, and has been since inception.
2. Yes, Mukesh Ambani really DOES hand out each and every diploma, congratulating each person BY name when you get up close, and he does so without even the slightest grimace considering he gave out more than 500+ diplomas this year to students of the EPGP, FPM, PGP, PGPPM and PGSEM programmes.
I like to think that the point of making someone of Mr. Ambani's stature hand us our certificates at the end of the programme is to make us realize... that he too is just another man. You get a solid sense of that when you're seeing someone in person, and not just in the news. The feeling that, hey, I can BE one of these guys. It's the final piece placed in the foundation of confidence in each and every one of us. I've come to believe that this is what we come to IIMB for, to really build confidence in the fact that we CAN make a difference. Confidence, so easy to say, and so difficult to really build on.
Anyway, I can catch myself rambling.. you must forgive me, I'm an MBA after all (rather, a Post Graduate Diploma in Software Enterprise Management). Three years of listening to professors go on and on in an intense monologue can do that to you... all that bottled up pockets of wisdom, just waiting to be unleashed on the nearby unsuspecting stranger (or surfers in this case).
So, let me get down to what I have to say. Here's what you REALLY need to know about this blog. This is a week by week account of what really happens at the IIM Bangalore, in our PGSEM classes. Some of it is soporific, some of it is serious, some of it is downright funny, but I think a lot of it will tend to make you think that this is a journey that CAN be finished. I hope to show you that a techie will find what we learn here interesting, providing he is as curious about the world of business as he is about the world of 1s and 0s.
Here are some savepoints, for easy jumping:
That's the core courses. Now, for some of the electives, the ones that I attended:
I hope you have fun, and learn something in the process. I know I did.
Posts
