XLRI GMP 2010 Batch's Placment Summary as covered in Media

Here's XLRI GMP 2010 Batch's Placment Summary as covered in Media


Yahoo News

Financial Express

CoolAvenues

GMP Power for the Married

It was my dream to do MBA. Getting into XLRI was more than I had dreamt. While I was rejoicing the start of a new life, I realized that XLRI GMP would be a challenge with respect to time management. Armed with faith, committed husband and supportive parents, I decided to join the XLRI family.
Family accommodation is better than I expected. Apartment has a spacious bedroom, living room, kitchenette and storage area. Bed, cabinets, desk, chair and book stand were provided. The common area of the building is cleaned and maintained regularly. Canteen has great food and friendly staff. There are doctors who visit the campus twice a day. I have the fortune of having 5 great doctors as my batch-mates including pediatricians. I could not have asked for more.
There is a beautiful park right in front of the building for the children to play. My daughter who is now 10 months old waits to go down every evening and watch other kids play. Well, that is a GMP baby club :)
The second term has started. You are wondering what happened to my fear of time management problem? Well, the fear has transformed into a new found confidence. In the first term, there was no time to breathe and I lived in this constant fear of ‘how will I manage everything’. Married people struggled between family and studies while most singles struggled between movies and studies :) [Secret - You get access to lots of movies here]. Back to my fear story - I learnt to sleep less and make the most of my time by focusing well on the task on hand whether it is spending time with family or studying. I am also an active member of four extracurricular groups.
First term has passed and I have realized that I can do a lot more than I thought I could. GMP has shown me how I could exceed my own expectations. I know that whatever happens, I will find a way out to succeed. GMP has made me strong and efficient. Wondering what happened to effectiveness. I was always effective - that is why I joined XLRI :)

GMPians travel not to go anywhere, but to go!

Sometimes GMPians prefer to take the path less travelled. For they know that in every walk with nature they would receive far more than what they seek. They drop their suits for sneakers and wander around with their backpacks. Backpacking, they discover en route is more the art of knowing what not to take but they trudge along nevertheless knowing fully well that joy lies in the journey and not the destination.

Walk the Talk

We, GMPians had preivlege to listen to Mr Malli Mastan Babu's brave and inspring stories. Sachin Rawat has already exqusitely covered the talk in previous post http://xlrigmp2010.blogspot.com/2009/09/led-by-free-will.html Thanks to Prof. Munish Thakur for inviting him to address us.

The Balls and the Urn Theory

7:30 PM, Wednesday, the 29th of July 2009, this was the time which will go down in the history of XL as the day when the GMP 2009-10 finished their first series of mid-term exams. It was history indeed as for most of us it was weird to be back in exam mode with our first exams in XLRI GMP. Most of us had forgotten that sinking feeling that we used to get just before you walk into the exam because you don’t know anything about the subject. I thought I’d left that feeling behind when I finished my engineering, but apparently, its a feeling you carry for life. It’s like learning a bicycle – You never forget it.

We had our first QT Quiz (Quantitative Techniques aka Maths) on the 17th. This was one of the two quizes that we had as part of the mid terms. Although QT is one of the most dreaded subjects we have, for this Quiz most of the junta was pretty confident. The reason was the syllabus for this quiz was being covered by one of the "supposably" lenient prof and where the students were hoping to cross the elusive "C Grade" barrier because the so called "probablity" of scoring in the other part of the syllabus was very low. Anyways, Most of the students who went confidently came out a bit shocked and directionless for all the pre-exam probabilities that they had worked out regarding the expected questions had went haywire. The dance of the C's, D's and F's had started.

In between passed the other exams such as Economics, Accounting, Marketing etc. Even abstract subjects such as "Ethical Leadership" had left students shaken and drained. Finally, came the D-day - the day of the second QT Quiz. The date was much hyped and dreaded...not only because of the subject but also because of the hoopla created before the exam. There were supposed to be special random seating arrangements, special questions and there was historical evidence (scores of the last batch) which weren't a great source of inspiration.

The exam was supposed to be an open book exam (something very common in XL) and it was told to us that the recommended text given in the class would be of no use. An open book exam generally make matters worse for students.We’re allowed to bring in any textbook/notes/reference material into the exam, but all of us know what that means – The answers are not going to be in any text book.

Even without a text book to do last-minute mugging from, the familiar exam-hall scene didn't disappoint. There were scores of people reading through some printouts and notes, trying desperately to grasp on to the subject – to get hold of something that sounds familiar, but no use. It’s like a drowning man in the middle of the sea, desperately splashing about trying to get hold of something to float on to, but finding nothing. And you all know what happens to the man next – He drowns into the vast ocean, which has euphemistically been called the ocean of knowledge. If you drown into an ocean, even if it is the one of knowledge, isn’t that a bad thing? ‘Cause you’re drowning for god’s sake! How can that be a good thing?

Anyway, we are made to enter the exam hall - odd roll nos. enter first and take their alloted seats; Even roll nos. enter later. The Question Paper and the answer sheet lay sealed in front of us. Once everybody settled down there was a few minutes of silence and people attacked their booklets gingerly as they heard the golden words “You may begin”.

‘Please let me understand the first question. Please let me at least know what the question means’ – I utter my silent prayer to myself. And then there it is – The first question. Just as I finish reading it, I feel the sudden juxtaposition of humor and a slight confidence. "Okay !! I think I can manage the first 10 marks, Lets take it step by step. Don't get excited !!". and then somehow I managed to to pass through the next 90 minutes. Somehow I had managed to put some formulas in place for every question and I didn't even want to crosscheck later whether the answers were right or not. Since I did’t leave the exam paper blank and had written some formulas with some figures, I hoped to get marks for my handwriting at least. Not because my handwriting was good, but because it was so bad that the prof won’t understand what’s written and give me the benefit of the doubt. That was one of my chances I was considering for calculating the probability of getting some marks.

At the end of the exam I saw a lot of happy and relieved faces as well as disappointed faces. I realized that the entire "thriller" show created around the quiz was what we can call the "Balls and the Urn Theory". Management students like us will always argue that Maths is one subject they may never need to use in their actual jobs post MBA and some even question its inclusion in the curriculum. However, At the end of the day, It was this "Ball and the Urn" theory that had made students study maths - for they were left with two choices before the exam - either study to save your "balls" or choose your "urn" before you get cremated in the exam.

Not the usual flock, folks!

Talk about GMPians of '09-10: Where would find them? In libraries, in lectures halls, in group study rooms, slogging late at night, busy making presentations, case studies?

Well think again.....you'll be pleasantly surprised. Watch this video.

Synergies within GMP

The notice reads—After the economics & quantitative technique classes group ‘A’ has to attend a seven course dinner with a senior faculty member—“PLEASE BE SUITABLY DRESSED FOR THE OCCASION”. The same night a doctor goes to room C-31 & asks a guy, an engineer 15 years younger to him, to help him out with maths & stats. After finishing here, he approaches an IT guy, with thirteen years IT experience behind him, to teach him how to work on excel-sheets. During the day this doctor had delivered a talk on how the healthcare insurance sectors in the US, the middle-east & here in India were different from each other.
Five years means five years. People with 59 months of experience are not considered. There are classes on corporate etiquettes & Ethical Leadership & Corporate Citizenship. Faculty members are accessible round the clock. Projects, assignments, classes, quizzes, speeches & presentations drive you to the limit of exhaustion. You are left wondering why you had to take the condensed version of the regular programme and slog this much after a hiatus from studies of at least five years. You wish that the day had more hours. The guy in C-37 goes to bed at 4am after waking up the person in C-38. The sun never sets here. Then comes another day & matters of common concern are sorted out in the dining hall, where all one hundred of them, along with their families, gather four times a day. This is the support system that keeps them going. It is a matter of relief that the professor of maths is taking extra classes for the entire batch before the mid-term tests. The faculty members encourage discussions in the classes & critical analysis of subjects is not frowned upon. WELCOME TO THE GENERAL MANAGEMENT PROGRAMME (GMP) AT XLRI, JAMSHEDPUR, the oldest of its kind in the country.
The diversity of the batch is carefully structured at the time of selection of candidates. The current batch comprises of Architects, Army personnel, IT professional, Engineers, Doctors and Entrepreneurs. The Institute provides the best accommodation in the country, keeping in mind the experience of the students & in order to ensure a suitable ambience to enable students to handle the rigorous nature of the course.
The course is unique in that, among other things, it lays a lot of emphasis on leadership skills & excellence by organizing outdoor adventure programs & village exposure programs in order to allow the students to interact with social entrepreneurs & NGOs & to study the needs & aspirations of the “REAL INDIA”. This is interspersed with an International immersion programme to allow the students to interact with students & faculty abroad & to work on international assignments of common interest.

Cyrus within...??

Most of us have a "Cyrus Engineer" within us, smaller or bigger.
Cyrus represents the dissatisfaction and dissolution within ourselves that keep us restless.
Desire to grow and prove oneself to others are some reasons of Cyrus getting larger in some of us.

So what's a solution to fight the Cyrus in us...we either ADAPT or SURRENDER or FIGHT..

Compromising with the handed decision of others, what most of the people around us do, will be ADAPT.
What Cyrus did…was SURRENDER…
and
What we are doing…that is joining GMP to upgrade..is FIGHT.

Those guys who scored HIGH(more than 120) in test designated to identify Cyrus, should be happy with the fact that..they have taken the third solution and that is to fight.

This is my analysis apart from all the great words given in one more interesting and intriguing class of Managing Human Behavior(MHB) by Prof Jittu Singh.

(Context: Case Study of Cyrus Engineer in MHB Class)