Takeaways from a year of transformation at ISB

I have recently completed my MBA from one of the premier business schools in the world, the Indian School of Business, and graduated with 900 others as part of the PGP Class of 2020. With over 7 years of experience in the Oil & Gas sector after completing my Chemical Engineering from Jadavpur University, it was a big change for me to step out of the security and comfort of my job at Reliance Industries Limited. It was a difficult decision to give up the luxuries of a salaried income and opt for the rigor of academics and take up the burden of a Rs. 36 lakh education loan. But I soon discovered the truth of what they taught me in Finance classes – debt is good. Debt keeps an organization operating at its best and ultimately leads to higher gains. I can safely say that the same has been true for me at ISB.

Last April, stepping out of my comfort zone and starting the PGP course had suddenly plunged me into uncharted territory. At ISB, I had suddenly found myself sharing the stage with peers who were academically more accomplished than me, peers who had far greater professional achievements despite being many years younger than me and peers who were far more competitive than I.

Over the year, I kept working hard and smart. Things started to fall in place and I no longer found myself feeling left out. The surroundings and the people grew on me. I leveraged the competition to improve myself and I embraced my shortcomings to plug the gaps in my know-how and skills. I learnt from my peers and found myself contributing to the knowledge pool as well.

From the very first day, ISB has been incessantly driving it into our heads that this was a “year of transformation”. In many ways, it has been such a year for me and I would like to share some of the most important things I have learned on the way.

Goals matter

In a way, the one year at ISB is a super-compressed version of life. Just like in life, I was constantly faced with multiple options of what path to pursue even at ISB. With so little time to do so many things, it always boiled down to choices. From choosing between academics and extra-curriculars to choosing electives to choosing which companies to apply for jobs to, life at ISB is entirely about making choices.

What this experience has taught me is to always start a journey with a goal and take decisions keeping the goal in mind. This is a great way to steer clear of the “shiny object syndrome” and achieve success faster. Taking time to introspect and set your goals helps to avoid judging tasks by their individual marginal value. Instead, it helps to paint a better bigger picture. You can be the most talented or intelligent individual in your class, but you will never be the highest achiever unless you have your goals defined clearly.

At ISB, I was inspired to see my peer, who is 8 years younger to me, reject a lucrative offer from Microsoft to work in an Indian start-up because he was clear about his long-term goal of starting his own company. These stories and my own experience have taught me to look beyond short-term gains and work towards larger goals.

Network is King

When it comes to being successful in the business world, network is what matters the most. Academic qualifications, work experience and skills are basic requirements for success in any field. They are not differentiators. When I look around at my peers and the jobs that are on offer in the marketplace, I can safely say that most of them can carry out the responsibilities of all the jobs expertly. The only way to stand out in a crowd like this is to have a wide network that enables you to be selected for these coveted jobs.

While I saw many of the students at ISB take networking seriously, there were only a few who did it right. Faking smiles, asking questions to pretend to be interested and attending each and every social gathering in the fear of missing out on a networking opportunity – these are some of traps that I have seen many of my friends at ISB fall prey to. Trust me, these almost never work.

The truly successful Heidi Roizens are the ones who don’t look at networking as an activity. They embrace it as an outlook and way of life. True networking involves taking an active interest in what the other person has to say and genuinely listen to them. Its essential to be empathetic and emotional in conversations and its important to contribute to build strong relationships that you can rely on to leverage in the future.

In my experience, the best networking opportunities arise when you are not looking for them. As a team owner for the ISB Super League (ISL), I was actively involved in managing the team for various sports events. Through this opportunity, I have built stronger relationships and received more job offers than through any formal networking event.

I am very glad to say that ISB has given me access to a diverse network of peers and alums. I have tried to make the most of it and will continue to do so. Today, I can proudly say that I know enough people who will surely be leaders of the business world tomorrow. I can safely assume that if I ever need it, I can call them up and ask for their help and they would do their best.

Impressions count

“Be yourself” is a common motivational expression these days. While I find deep value in the basic message the saying tries to convey, I have come to realize how it is equally important to be flexible and adaptable as well. While fitting in is, on most occasions, a matter of time rather than individual capability, its important to have an open mindset. Top business schools are tests of character and while its important to maintain individuality, its also essential to tick boxes.

You may pride yourself in being an introvert or being straightforward, but it’s important to realize that in the business world, these aren’t necessarily the skills that people look out for. In interviews which last only a few minutes, I often found friends complaining that they weren’t asked any relevant questions or that someone who spoke a lot of “faff” made it through. The truth is, most companies are looking for outspoken and energetic individuals. While one cannot change one’s nature, its important to create an impression that fits the bill.

Impressions you create in meetings and conversations and on your resume, go a long way in deciding your faith. The business world is fast-paced. No one really has the time to stop and dig deep to find out about your qualities. If you can’t sell your qualities yourself, then they will probably go unnoticed.

Honesty trumps everything else

While it may seem unbelievable to many of us, honesty does trump everything else in the long run. Be it in dealings with your professional network and friends or in the effort you put into achieving your goals, nothing beats honesty. While we are often faced with situations in which we are tempted to take an easier dishonest path, it almost always catches up in the end. Moreover, nothing earns respect more than honesty. One observation that has stood out for me is that people often forget the good things you have done but they always remember instances when you have wronged or been dishonest.

Failures are integral part of life during and after MBA. In fact, “fail-fast” is the mantra that we are taught. All of us at ISB have been high achievers throughout our lives. Failure has not been something that we have faced often. During the times that I have failed at ISB, I have found that I have always had the strength and courage to get back and try again whenever I have been honest in my efforts. Although it has often been painful journey, the learnings along an honest journey has helped me build a stronger base and achieve higher.

I am very fortunate to be part of such a unique learning experience. Beyond academic development, the one year at ISB has been transformed me in multiple facets. I am thankful for the friends I made, and I am eager to contribute in a meaningful manner in my professional life ahead. I hope the learnings I shared resonate with some of you and encourage some of you to pursue MBA from a premier institute like ISB.

Is your GMAT score good enough?

The very first step in your MBA applications journey is taking the GMAT. There is enough content on the internet about the intricacies of the GMAT exam and how to ace it and I will not delve in to the matter and bore you. In this post, I’ll be focusing only on figuring out whether your GMAT score is good enough to get into a top MBA college in India.

If you do want to read more about the how to crack the GMAT, I suggest you visit the links at the end of this post.

I scored a 710 (Q47; V40; AWA 3.5; IR 3) on my GMAT and did not receive an interview shortlist from top MBA programs in India like ISB’s PGP, IIM-A’s PGPX and IIM-B’s EPGP. While a score of 710 doesn’t do much to make you stand out in the crowd of Indian Engineering applicants, it is above the average GMAT score of admitted applicants in all the three colleges mentioned above. (Average GMAT scores at ISB:709; IIM B EPGP: 700; IIM A PGPX: 700)

So why was a score of 710 insufficient?

Firstly, a lot of us tend to overlook the sectional scores in the GMAT. It’s a usual trend in India for an engineering or science student to score high on the quantitative section. Typically, they score in the range of 48 to 51 in this section. Hence, its important as an applicant to the Indian schools mentioned above to try and score a minimum of 48 in the quantitative section. This corresponds to a percentile of approximately 70%.

The verbal section is difficult to score which is evident from the high percentiles achieved with slightly lower scores compared with the quants section. For the Indian schools, target a verbal section score of atleast 36. Again, this corresponds to around 70% as well.

The most ignored and under-prepared section of the GMAT is the Analytical Writing Assessment AWA. Although it’s a fairly straightforward section and hardly ever a deal-breaker when it comes to interview shortlists, it is important to score the bare minimum. In my GMAT score of 710, I had an AWA of 3.5 which corresponded to 13%. This was astonishingly low. It stood out as a black mark in my otherwise exceptional application with the result that I did not get a shortlist from a single top tier MBA program in India. During my ding analysis, all my evaluators pointed out the same thing. Surprisingly, while applying, it had never crossed my mind to check whether the AWA score was good enough or not. None of the alumni that I networked with asked me about my AWA score. In fact, I came across an ISB alum who had an admit with an AWA score as less as 4.5. Since none of the schools specify a minimum AWA score as an admissions requirement, it is my suggestion to try achieve an AWA of atleast 4.5.

I re-appeared for the GMAT and scored a 720 (Q48; V39; AWA 5; IR 7) which wasn’t a huge upgrade from my previous score of 710, but was definitely a more holistic performance with high percentiles in all the sections. I went on to get interview shortlists for IIM-B’s EPGP and ISB’S PGP. You’d be interested to know that in the same year, I didn’t get shortlisted for the IIM-A PGPX. This re-enforced my belief that a low score in the different sections was what was mangling my application.

From my experience, I have the following tips that you might find useful:

  • Make sure you have a holistic GMAT score and not one with sectional skews.
  • While preparing for the GMAT, if you have to spend money on a single source of material, I encourage you to spend on the official GMAT coursework and mock examinations. The difficulty level of their questions and the examination scoring simulation is identical to the actual GMAT. Work intelligently. There is no point in practicing questions which are way more difficult than the questions you will actually encounter in the exam.
  • Give yourself enough time to prepare for the GMAT but don’t let it stretch for too long. For a first-time applicant who is familiar with mathematics, a preparation time of 1.5 months is more than adequate. You may take a little more time but anything beyond 2.5 months is going to drag things along and make it worse. For a re-applicant, don’t spend more than 20 days in preparing for the GMAT.
  • The GMAT isn’t as difficult as the CAT (Common Admission Test) in the quantitative section. Also, unlike the CAT, remember that you are not competing with others. If you perform well in the exam, your GMAT score is going to stand out no matter what the difficulty level of the questions was or how others performed. However, the GMAT does have its own challenges, especially the long duration of the exam, the difficult verbal section and of course the Computerized Adaptive Testing. Remember that the GMAT is not a test of your intelligence. Rather, it’s a test of your consistency and discipline.

Further recommended reading on the GMAT:

https://e-gmat.com/blogs/understanding-gmat-score-gmat-percentiles-good-gmat-score/

https://www.prepscholar.com/gmat/blog/720-gmat-score/

About Nilayan:

After being rejected by admissions teams, Nilayan worked on his profile and application to bounce back with admits from top B-schools in India. Eventually he went on to join the ISB class of 2020. He wishes to share the learning from his journey so that it may help other MBA applicants to successfully work towards joining their target Business Schools.

If you want to know more about how NIlayan dealt with a B-School rejection then go ahead and click here.

If you are interested to know Nilayan’s thoughts and tips for a re-applicant to the Indian School of Business then click here.

The Re-applicant’s guide to ISB

After being rejected by the Indian School of Business, I took some time off from B-school applications to introspect about pursuing MBA. The biggest obstacle as a re-applicant to a B-school is balancing between being confident about one’s self and taking care not to repeat mistakes. Feeling motivated and being as enthusiastic as you had been when you first applied is essential if you want to succeed as a re-applicant. No amount of learning from mistakes can make up for enthusiasm and passion.

If you want to know about how I dealt with my rejection from ISB before deciding to re-apply then you may visit this link.

The first step in the re-application procedure is obviously figuring out what went wrong the last time. The best way to go about this is to seek feedback from people who have a good idea about the admissions process. Since I was focused on ISB, I waited for feedback from them regarding how I could improve my candidature. Unlike earlier years, they did not come back to the students with any feedback. However, it’s a good idea to go the extra mile and get in touch with someone from the ISB admissions team. You can reach out on LinkedIn or ask any of your friends who got an admit to share the email ID of the concerned person. Wait till the workload of the Admissions team recedes. This is typically between May and July. ISB is a very applicant friendly school and everybody associated with ISB is eager to encourage deserving students to apply and help them get selected. Make the best use of this culture to try and figure out what went wrong.

The next thing you should do as a re-applicant is make sure that you have a clear understanding of the selection procedure of the B-school you are interested in. ISB follows a unique “buckets and pools” process of selecting candidates. Here is an article in which the process is described in detail by V.K Menon, who has previously been the senior director of careers, admissions and financial aids at ISB. I strongly recommend that you go through the article even if you have a good understanding of the application process at ISB.

After you are confident that you understand the screening process at ISB, you should start analyzing which aspects of your previous application did not meet the school’s requirement. Put yourself in the evaluator’s shoes and form as neutral an opinion you can. It’s important to understand that ISB is not a school that rejects your application easily if you have above average work experience and extra curriculars. During the course of my “ding analysis”, I felt that there are 3 possible reasons of rejection from ISB:

Insufficient GMAT score

While ISB does not mention a cut off for the GMAT/GRE score and stresses that there are other factors that carry more weightage in your application over the GMAT, its important to realize that the initial shortlisting process for ISB is a “checkbox process”. There is a checklist of criteria that your application needs to satisfy (the GMAT score being an essential one) and unless you tick all the boxes you will not pass the shortlisting process. Although it’s a hackneyed topic on the internet, I’ll put up an article shortly with my two cents on the subject of GMAT/GRE scores. As a reader, you’d be interested to know that the year I got rejected, I had a GMAT score of 710. During the course of my analysis, I was surprised to find that it wasn’t sufficient! More on this in a separate post.

Inadequate essays

There is enough content on the internet stressing the importance of essays in B-school applications. I will reiterate only a couple of points because I had realized their value only after I had been rejected.

Firstly, no matter what the essay topics are, you have to clearly convey what your short-term and long-term goals are and how ISB is going to help you achieve them. Hence, it is essential that you introspect and be steadfast in these goals during the course of writing essays and consequently during the interview.

Secondly, be clear that you are applying to a B-School program and they are interested in knowing your business and leadership skills only. Step out of your own shoes (and sometimes down from your high horse) and look at your work experience from an evaluator’s viewpoint who has no idea about your domain of work. Avoid technical jargon and pick out only the achievements that project the relevant business and leadership skills. For example, in your opinion your biggest achievement at the workplace might have been a complicated engineering calculation that you performed. However, there might be tasks that you do regularly that has a much higher business impact. It would be a better idea to highlight the latter in your essays.

I will definitely put up a post later on what you need to focus on to make your essays stand out.

At this moment I’d like to point out that if you were rejected without an interview call, you can be pretty sure that it was because either your essays weren’t good enough or your GMAT score was insufficient. However, I reiterate that ISB doesn’t reject candidates easily and are eager to interview them. So, unless you have written essays that are absolutely irrelevant or grammatically incorrect, if you didn’t receive a shortlist for the interview, it’s probably because your GMAT wasn’t good enough.

Dissatisfactory interview

I was rejected by the ISB without being called for an interview. However, I had a successful interview 2 years later. I have also spent time talking to candidates with stellar profiles who got rejected after their interviews.

From what I have gathered from other applicants, from my own experience and from discussions with an alum who has been part of the interview panel numerous times, the ISB interview is more of a conversation. Panelists are given guidelines by ISB which recommends that they do not stress the candidate. The focus of the discussion is on verifying whether what you have written in your application is true or not. The discussion is also focused on trying to understand how steadfast the candidate is about his/her goals and how much research he/she has done about the school. The panelists love candidates who have spent time to talk to alums and find out about the PGP and how it has helped them shape alumni’s careers.

It’s important to realize that ISB is not interested in testing your IQ in interviews. While its good to give clever answers to questions you do not know answers to, its not a necessity and will not result in a make-or-break situation for you. For example, if you have written in your hobbies that you play cricket, the interviewers aren’t going to ask you the weight in kilogram of a stump and expect you to give a smart answer in case you don’t know the real answer. They would however ask you how well do you think you play and ask you to tell them about an innings you are most proud of!

Things which you should definitely avoid in the interview and might lead to rejection are dishonesty, arrogance, being politically biased, being sexist and rudeness. Also, while it is important to feel comfortable and being conversational, remember that you are being evaluated every moment. Be specific and relevant. If the interviewer asks you what you want to do in life, don’t say something philosophical like “I want to be happy”. Be professional and try to answer questions to convince them that you can contribute in the class and be able to cope with the rigor of the PGP.

The last step in the re-application procedure is to work towards improving yourself to make your application more holistic and suitable to meet the requirements of the selection procedure. From re-taking the GMAT to taking up a different job role or completing professional certifications, it requires hard work and dedication and varies from person to person. Make sure everything that you do is in sync with your goals and not done just because it looks good on the resume. ISB doesn’t give brownie points for shiny certifications in your resume that do not serve your goals.

In conclusion, I would like to mention that while embarking on the re-application process by one’s self is very much a viable option, it is not a bad idea to consider hiring an applications consultant. After a lot of cost-benefit analysis and setting my ego aside, I had opted for a consultant the second time around. It’s important to find someone who gives you personal attention and treats you individually. I took the help of Mr. Autrri Chakravarti who is Director of TOP-GMAT. He was incredibly helpful and assisted me to prepare my application. Starting from the resume to the essays and preparing for the interview, he always guided me and spoke in terms which were easy to comprehend. I do not know what other consultants do, but Autrri didn’t write my essays or resume for me. Neither did he make me mug up answers to the interview. Besides offering his services at very reasonable rates, his approach was very constructive and having done everything myself eventually helped me in the interview where I was very confident and sure of everything that I had written on my application. Feel free to use my reference if you get in touch with him for applications assistance.

Dealing with a B-school rejection

I had been refreshing my inbox and logging in to the admissions portal every 5 minutes for 2 entire days when I finally accepted the reality. I had not been shortlisted for an interview for the PGP Program at the ISB.

While applying I had heard a lot of encouraging words from my friends and acquaintances who had been part of the Indian School of Business at some point. All of them had assured me that my profile with 5 years of experience was in the infamous “sweet spot” of ISB applicant pool. I had drawn confidence from the words of an alum who had reviewed my essays and remarked that I had achievements that projected outstanding leadership qualities. My brother, who is an ISB alumnus himself, had assured me that my GMAT score of 710 was more than enough. I had my application essays reviewed by 6 different people including ISB alumni from diverse backgrounds and even a friend who worked as an editor in a publishing house.

Yet there I was, rejected by a B-school that admits nearly 900 candidates every year and interviews many more.

I spent the next 10 months distancing myself from anything to do with MBA.

I tried to convince myself that my Engineering knowledge and invaluable experience in the Oil and Gas industry were enough for a successful career. Grapes are sour. Who needs a MBA to be a leader? ISB’s brand value has degraded over the years. Nowadays anybody and everybody gets into ISB. In the name of diversity, they select undeserving candidates who are unable to perform in the real world later. Their selection procedure has no basis. I really don’t want to be lost in a crowd that is increasing by 900 every year.

These were the consolations that I kept harping on for almost a year. Whether they were true or not is immaterial. These were simply justifications I kept giving myself for my failure. These were facts that were not unknown to me before I had applied to ISB.

A turning point was a discussion I had with my HR manager. I had met her to get a “No Objection Certificate” to enroll in a part-time MBA program with a top tier IIM. She looked surprised that I was opting to spend 15 lakh rupees to do a part-time MBA. She said that at this stage of my career, if I had to study MBA, I should do it full time. She stressed how the peer-group and the entire on-campus experience was such an integral part of the takeaways from MBA and how a part-time MBA would never make up for it. She added that MBA was a big investment and I should not commit to it if I am not ready to go all in.

I didn’t look back from that day onwards. I cast all my biases and ego aside and analyzed the reasons for my rejection. I did not rush things and apply the very next year. I invested in myself and improved my candidature to re-apply 2 years later. Today I have been admitted to the ISB PGP class of 2020. I am excited to join my peers in a week to kick off what I anticipate to be one of the most hectic and enriching years of my life!

My tips for anyone dealing with rejection from a B school:

  • Allow yourself some time off (at least 4 months) from all the admissions discussions and post-mortem. A rejection is a rejection and you cannot go back in time and change it. Engage your mind in other things so that if you do decide to re-apply, you can approach things with a fresh mind and a broader perspective.
  • Don’t take things personally. Remember that a B-school admissions process is not a judgement of your capabilities. Unlike other academic institutions, most B-schools are driven by placements statistics. They do not reject you because you are not intelligent enough or you gave a wrong answer in an interview. They judge whether you are a good fit for their class. They gauge whether you will be able to cope with the rigor of academics and competition and be accepted by a recruiter at the end of the course. Let’s face it – no B-school in the world likes students who can’t pass the course or don’t have a job offer when the course ends.
  • Before starting to analyze what went wrong, spend time to decide why you want to do a MBA. Convince yourself that getting into the B-school of your dream is worth investing another year for. Hit reset and try to circle back to why you wanted to do a MBA in the first place. If you feel strong enough about the reason, then its definitely worth fighting for.