What happens at IIMC

Does it really matter whether you are at IIMC or at any other B-School?

Well the unbiased and candid answer to that is yes and no. Like any other place IIMC has its merits and demerits. I my opinion the image that IIMC has in the outside world is because the merits outweigh the demerits.

It has been 3 months since I joined and now I am going for my first break since then. I am waiting at the airport which seems like it is at the other end of the world. It took us 3 hours to reach travel from Joka to the Airport. That is one of the biggest disadvantages that IIMCians face. Joka is way out of the city and has little support for needs which are a little more than basic. Although you hardly get any time to think of going around, you have very limited options when once in a blue moon you are free.


That brings me to the hectic schedule. When we join we all are aware of the hectic schedule that is in store for the next two years. However, my assessment of the rigour, like many others’ was not even close to the actual. There are pressures of all sorts. Everyone who joins has Einstien’s brain and Newton’s creativity. To add on, the loads of achievements – mostly national and international – that many of them have give you the fright of your life when you start coming to terms with your competition for the ultimate goal – placements. As a consequence, as soon as you join you feel that the only way to salvage some of your lost identity is to top the first term exams. With almost all your hope pinned on academic performance, you study for the mid-terms and what comes your way is a rude shock. You would hardly have got time from the induction process when you realize that mid-terms start in 2 weeks. With no prep leave, to which I was so used to after 4 years in college, and classes till the last Friday, you reach the exam hall with negligible sleep and more or less under-prepared. The second half of the shock comes when you look at the question paper. All of that is hardly from the book, it seems. And it is that way because the questions are from what the prof has spoken in class. My first exam experience By the end of it a sinking feeling takes over you because you have lost the only chance you had to survive here, you feel. That is followed by the CV making process which adds to your worries – you find it very difficult to complete 1 page of worth mentioning points. In addition the anxiety that whether you will be able to collect substantial proof for those few that you have gets the better of you. The mental pressure meter shoots through the roof. As time passes you again start feeling that mid-term went bad because I was new to the relative grading concept and the exam pattern. If I conquer end-term I am still in so what if not the topper. All this adds ‘load’ which is reduced only with time.

But the question is – Is it a shade easier in other schools? The answer is no. The only thing that might help in some other schools is their location which allows you some avenues to vent your frustration – which, I think, is at dangerously high levels at times among all of us here. The other question is – Is it worth it? The answer, thus far seems yes. To understand this you need a couple of days off from the hectic schedule and sit calmly and think. That is why I am writing this article [:)]. While in the grind of things you always curse the tough regime and routine, a little time out of it makes you assimilate your learning in all the time you’ve spent here. After just one term you definitely would not have added substantially to your technical/analytical skills but what you would have developed would be something that the world calls business acumen. Many of the readers might argue saying “What would I know of business acumen just after the first term of a regular MBA course which is not even the best in the World”. However, when you sit down and compare yourself when you joined and when you are at the airport waiting for your flight 2 weeks into your second term, that is the only difference. You never come to know of it, but somewhere in this hectic and crazy looking life you develop a perspective and approach to some of the most mind-boggling decisions managers face. The only difference is that till now your decisions don’t earn or lose you money. In addition your body gets prepared for sustaining loads of pressure. Once you realize this then you start appreciating all that you have done – your participation in cases, the presentations you worked on, the awesome looking CV you prepared and in some way you start thinking probably the hard task masters on campus were doing all that because IIMC has to be IIMC. No one of us has the right to let its image down. Undoubtedly, the maintenance of such elite standards requires at least this much effort.

Many of my batch mates might disagree to this. What they need to understand is that the company presentations that they feel are thrust on them are part of the reward for the effort we put in, in maintaining the high standards at IIMC. Many of the companies that come here do not even go to many other campuses in India forget about hiring the same number of students. I hope all these things come true during the placements. After all most of the junta here comes for that. In some way that is a pity but this is how life is.

My flight has been announced… I better get going. Home sweet home finally I come…