Pune GMP Meet with Rohit Arora

Rohit is the current(2008-09) GMPian and as he travelled to Pune, we, prospective GMPians, got a chance to meet him here in city. To get to know more about Rohit, catch him in his blog:
http://targetoflife.wordpress.com/about/
We (I, Sidhartha, Chinmaya, Yogesh and Sandip) were reached CCD earlier while Devendra has joined us later. Rohit appeared before us with a smiling and energetic face. The very first line that he added,
'Someone mentioned in group mail that we GMPians are not proud of GMP. Why do you think so? As a GMPian, we are fully proud of being GMPian and I as others, are available to take any query regarding course through mail or through blogs.'

Nice way to start the discussion and then after a short introduction, we were submerged into a long string of discussion which continued for atleast an hour and half. I will just add the excerpts from the discussions that can be valuable:

On MBA: MBA is all about setting up the priorities correctly and time-management. Take it as a long term investment rather than seeing it as placement-venue. What matters are the classes from the renowned XL professors and case-studies taken. These case-studies in diverse batch will help in getting different insight of the issue or condition from multiple dimensions.
On GMP: A life-time opportunity and we as batch need to have realistic expectations from the course.
On placements: There is about 45-50% of guys having placed where 30% have got the job through institute facilitated methods. The placement activities in the institute are mostly handled by students and 1-year and 2-year MBA programs have the guys working separately. The placement season is extended for GMPians but now most of the students are relying on their networking and contacts. Job-market is tough and so we need to be prepared in advance.
On life in XLRI: Cool and unforgettable experience. He was nostalgic about leaving the batch and institute after about a year. Professors are easily accessible and stay in just opposite area of GMP-hostels. The married candidates spouse and kids had their groups and one can find them mingling to each-other in college campus.
On Infrastructure and facilities: For single accommodation, a GMPian will be getting a single BH apartment while a family quarter will be 2 BHK. (both of these types have wash-rooms attached) Single acco* will be furnished-one with paid-electricity, Wi-Fi and basic furnishing. In case of a family acco, basic furnishing like mattress, curtails et cetra will be required by the occupant. Confirm this more from group mails/other sources and plan for things that will be required. There will be no fridge or TV type of facilities from institute but a telephone connection will be given in room with nominal outgoing charges. Most of these amenities and day-to-day stuffs can be bought in campus. House-keeping is taken care for single accommodation while family-accommodations have to be on their own.
Though there are no washing machine placed but there is a guy who takes hundii* for monthly-cleaning in 350 bucks.
He gave us a contact-person who can be reached now and who can help in confirming and procuring things. Chinmay has noted down the contact details and I will separately mention the contact person details.
Room-allocation will be on random and there are enough numbers of family and single apartments for GMPian.
On having a Bike: One may require a bike in case they have a family. A few of guys in current-batch (including Rohit) had bikes there. It will be a good idea to have one. Few of them have cars as well.
On Mess: One can join the mess on and off or on requirement basis as well(in case you are staying with family). Food-quality was good though there could be usual complaints and cribbing which people tend to have after sometime. A cafeteria is coming-up though he did not mention the planned date of opening.
On life post-classes: There could be classes during weekends. Atleast there will enough reasons to keep one busy in weekends as well. Though it varies person to person but one can have time for available sports options as Basketball, TT, Gym, Tennis and other ideas.
On Classes: The first two terms are really going to be hectic. It will include a team-building out-of-institute camp, an industry trip and many other assignments. Electives can be decided in later terms and not mandatory. However, one can select one, two or more electives depending on his/her preference.
On formals and dress-code: In general, formals are not required for classes. However, some of the classes like Corporate Communication, there is a mandate of be in formals. Ties will also be required in this class. So carry a couple of formals and atleast one suit.
On Student Clubs: There are plenty of options available and most of them are operated by students. So it will be we who will be handling the activities, the clubs and their events. The outgoing batch is having a document ready as ‘Hand-over-take-over’ which can work as torch-bearer.
Reaching XLRI first time: One can get autos from the Tatanagar station to XL campus in about 70 bucks (depending on time though). Even if it is late in night, try reaching campus and you will have someone to attend you. Rooms were already allotted so just need to locate the room there. In case, there is no-one in GMP-block, one can find a person in MDP-hostel all the times.
So don’t stay and wait till morning on Station (especially for guys travelling from Azad Hind as train reaches JSR* about 1 midnight )
On prep before joining GMP: Just be ready for accounting, statistics and fundaas on company books. Nothing to worry as everything can be done while we are in GMP-flow.
The nicest thing that he mentioned, there was no-one who fails to pass or fails to cope-up. So hope that most of us, who are settling up with books after long, will not find any difficulty.
On International Immersion Program: For three-week: International Immersion program, there are four options available with institute in Oz having 40 seats and other college in France and two colleges in US having 20 seats each. Generally one gets his/her first option and choice can be made on basis of electives/specialization. Rohit mentioned about his project, classes and business-model that they designed during his 3-weeks time in US.
And finally, On dating: Plenty of options are available but think out of box. Here box refers to institute.

The words from Rohit that is still echoing in my mind, ‘MBA is all about setting up priorities and keep your expectations right.’
Thanks Rohit and It was nice talking to you. I guess that I missed an opportunity of having dinner with you that night!!

Disclaimer: The article is prepared on basis of discussions in meeting and presents opinion/knowledge of a particular person. There could be multiple other ways or opinions from other persons on same topic.

*Glossary:
JSR: Jamshedpur
Acco: accomodation
Hundii: Contract or a charge fixed for some specified period of time

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