Term 3

We are well into Term 3 now and its quite a distinct atmosphere in the batch. Core modules have finished, electives have started, new teams formed, projects started hence some real interaction with industry going on, but I think the main driver behind the buzz is the job hunting. Almost everyone is involved in some stage of job search and some of us have already clinched that dream job.

There is another regular activity happening on the campus, which is MBA preview days and interviews and tests for the next batch. I get a lot of enquiries from Indian students about Cranfield, course structure, job prospects post MBA and the like. I thought in this blog I will focus more on the life at Cranfield beyond studies. There is so much happening all the time that convinces me that we here do have a life. Some of the recent activities have been - London Marathon enjoyed as much by runners as by supporters, Ski trip and MBA football world cup in US. Forthcoming events are Russia trip, followed by our International Study Tours, Cricket matches with Alumni, International Regatta and Cranfield Trust 10K run in July, Colin Javens Charity Auction in London, Tough guy and many many more. So come to Cranfield and have a truly enjoyable experience.

Term 2 and Marathon

Felt like a never ending week - first week of term 2. After 3 weeks of break the studies started full-force at the beginning of this week which finally ended with six back-to-back tutorials. No one cares for a slow start anymore, well that's the way it is then. Anyway Chrismas and New Year break was good, rested a lot, then Namita and I went to Italy over New year on a six-day trip. The sights of Rome, Venice, Pisa and Florence were enough to make me forget all about MBA blues for a while; didn't take long though to come back to reality.

We have to choose the electives this month for next term and I am still confused whether to choose Globalization or Managing Strategic Innovation. Both look interesting to me and Joe Nellis tells me that this is the confusion faced by many students every year. So what are the factors to keep in mind when finalizing electives - post-MBA career options, chosen industry, relative ease of learning yourself later on, Company preferences, managerial qualities or just plain personal interest? Its a good thing though that we can attend the lectures of those electives we have not chosen, provided we have time.

I made a commitment to running London Marathon in last term and have started to feel now the weight of the enormity of training and of finishing the Marathon (on 23rd April 2006) in a decent time. But I am up for it, I have made a promise to the charity - Whizz-kidz - and I have every intention to keep it. Raising charity on this scale is new for me but I am counting on the sponsorship of well-wishers. Well following is my weblink for fundraising, please donate generously to support me and the cause:
http://www.justgiving.com/sourabhjain

Living-by-the-minute

My life in last few days can easily be described as living-by-the-minute, literally. I am looking over at the clock over 100 times in a day, every day. There are numerous time-keeping devices around me when I made a note of it. The most frequent clock is the one on front face of my mobile, then there is the watch on my hand but I don't use it much, there is time shown in laptop (lower-right corner if you forgot), radio-clock at home, clock shown in TV (when you press status on remote) and wall clocks in the lecture rooms and Forum.

I find myself looking at one of these clocks very frequently, whatever I am doing - whether I am attending a lecture, bored or otherwise, whether I am watching TV, preparing reports, checking emails, partying with friends, sleeping (never without wake-up alarm), reading books etc. I just hope that I don't have to do SOME activities while looking over at the clock, otherwise my personal life will be over.

All this shows to me that I am always planning in my mind what to do next, when the current activity is getting over and when the next one is starting and what I need to do before that starts. I must say that I am normally not like this, but these are abnormal times - end of term exams, reports, immediately followed by the hurried Warehouse Simulation exercise. With the well-deserved break for Christmas and New Year I hope I can get some of the sanity back.
Wish you all Merry Christmas and a Very Happy New Year.

WAC and DIWALI

What a week that was, started with the drama and suspense of our first WAC unfolding, so talked about by everyone, with hints dropped here and there by Sean and John and picked gleefully by us. Well it wasn't a damp Squibb as such but wasn't an atom bomb either, Neal did mention last week at Halloween party that the first WAC will be cool and they will become tougher later, so I really had mixed feelings about it. The day went well with never ending discussions about it, followed by pizzas and finally retreat to our homes. The deadline was 2.00 PM next day. I finished most of mine by midnight and went to sleep comfortably, woke up at 10.00, revised it and submitted by 1.00. A good mind exercise, in following the word limit and putting all the economics concepts to writing. OK post WAC now, what next, Diwali ofcourse... the big Hindu festival and which was as much talked about in our Indian community here at Cranfield since last week as WAC. We decided to celebrate Diwali in two groups - one with Indians only and one with MBA batch. Since Diwali was falling on actual WAC submission day, and people are prone to head for Socials after submission, we thought to celebrate that day with only Indian community at the community hall. The evening went very well, we have a sizeable Indian population here (actually was surprised as I didn't know that Cranfield is so popular in India for its post-graduate courses), got to meet many new people, from South India, Maharashtra and UP as well. We had a small puja, followed by fantastic Indian food (shared cooking) and antakshari. Good fun, Diwali well celebrated this year, though I did miss fireworks.

Now the preps started for MBA Diwali, Hema called everyone at her house and shared this brilliant idea of enacting a spoof Ramayana with background Bollywood songs. We were all sold on the idea and started rehearsals, my role being of music arranger, I downloaded songs, clipped them and put them together in a new file. It was great fun to watch the characters rehearse their roles with great gutso. At one point we had our differences though, the religious aspect, the humour aspect and the whole-point-of-it aspect. But we marched on and come Thursday its show-time now. let me just briefly mention here that Friday was the submission day of another 1500 words individual report on OB, and I could see the tension building among people. Well tickets sold, rehearsals done, invites sent and we were there at Forum in traditional Indian dress welcoming everyone, the Anchors started Introduction of Ramayana, I started my music and here we go. After 10 minutes I could only hear loud cheers and laughter all around, guess we did well. Butterflies in the stomach subsided and rats took their place, Indian food aroma was everywhere and calling. And so it happened, another evening of fun and socializing. Thought I would started my OB report after reaching home but was just not upto it, ditched the idea until next day.

Got up at 8.00, started writing, did a lot of thinking about my learning team mates, and about myself, finally wrapped it up at 3.00 and submitted. It did give me some creative satisfaction, as I had not written before on people's behaviour. A good learning exercise, hope it will be more fun with the group report coming up later. So that's it, a fruitful week gone by, saturday already half-spent and looking forward to my afternoon siesta now.
Guten Tag

Fourth Week

Just came back from the jogging session, its very sweaty round my study table right now, but the cold air is coming through the window, don't know if its a good idea to let the body cool down fast, probably not. I am not a big time jogger, today was my second run only. Anyway came back home, wife still asleep, turned on my laptop with a thought of going to factiva, and go thru some news pages. But here I am blogging, got to do it though sometimes, very interesting this really, just keep on typing what you like, funny though because I don't speak as I like, being an ISTJ type, I like to think about what I am going to speak. But hey MBA has already taught me lot of things, my learning group has couple of mouth-shooters and I have tried it myself, its fun, speaking on top of your head, that is. It can make you look very silly sometime but I say its worth a try because I never felt bad afterwards, on the other hand, it was kind of stress reliever ( not that I have any stress at the moment, big WAC coming soon though, be careful in how you manage stress).
Well I have spent 10 minutes now on blogging, time to take shower, have breakfast and go through some news, in that order.
Guten Tag
Yeah I am learning German too :-)

Orientation Week

Time is fast running out, so I will keep it short and simple. First week was orientation week, had intros on first day, had a campus tour, registrations, intro about the school and learning methods. The evening was superb, we had a inter-steam race night event organized at Stafford Cripps, our first informal event together and it was great fun. I was involved in interacting with a lot of new people and everyone enjoyed it greatly. Blue Stream won, just to mention btw.
Second day we got our big study case packs, did a desert survival simulation, got our laptops, received intros to learning teams and did a case study. Evening's theme was International Dress. So everyone (mostly) turned out in their traditional dresses, that was a lovely evening, truly international. Loved it, will surely put some pics from that evening on this website, later. Wednesday saw a lot of presentations given to us by various depts in the school. Afternoon was booked for Sports - Rugby, Football, Tug-of-War, egg throwing and lot of miscellaneous fun games. Faces were painted in red and blue and despite chilli weather, everyone was in great spirits. Needless to say Blue Stream lifted the trophy. Evening was planned at Social Club with Barbecue, but it was drizzling, the event got delayed, I didn't go.
Thursday saw briefings on reps, activities, reps for Social, Sports, Stream, Diversity and Career.
Then there were case study presentations, week 1 learning team meeting and discussions, and so on and so forth. Thursday evening was superb, planned as a Cabaret night at Stafford Cripps, it involved doing your bit - play, song, dance, skit etc - and what a show people put. Highlight was Beautiful Dancing Girls - guys in Drag and 2 lovely ladies - everyone was in splits. I participated in a short metaphysical conversation about Santa doing his do on Chrismas Eve. It was a night that will remain in memory for a long long time.
Friday saw the reps elections, class photo in business dress, personal reflections by the orienteers, and orientation week summary by Lead Orienteer and Director of FTMBA. All in all a great week, the orienteers were very emotional at the thought of final leaving the school. I must say they did a fantatstic job of handling everyone and taking through the motions. They are great people.
2 weeks have passed since orientation week. I should find more time to write about these 2 weeks, but it is half-past mid-night now and time to say Good Night...

First Week at Cranfield

I arrived at Cranfield with dreams in my eyes on a Sunday morning of 25th September, 2005. It was cold, dull and grey as usual in UK, but I was looking forward to the warmth of my fellow mates who I was about to meet. The orientation week started with a bang, lot of new faces, welcomed by the Dean and Director, flanked by the Orienteers, who were from outgoing class and had stayed back to guide us through the week's chores. Started with the division of class (66) into two streams - Blue and Red, I am in Blue. Lot of shouting, cheering and banging tables, a round of introduction, by way of selecting one partner, asking details about him/her and then introducing to the class. I introduced Therese, from US, been working in Central Europe for past 12 years. Great people overall, I guess 15 different nationalities represented, majority of them Brits though but a good number of Americans, Indians and Russians too. Well that's why I chose Cranfield, diverse set of experienced smart people.
(to be continued)