CAT and placements

On January 2nd, when I checked my CAT score, (which incidentally happens to be 99.89 percentile) I was not elated. Nor was there any sense of achievement. Frankly speaking, I was just plain relieved. Relieved that I need not offer excuses to anyone for not getting any calls.. relieved that I need not be answerable to people for my thrash talk.. relieved that I cleared all the individual cut-offs! :D I've got calls from 5 of the 6 IIMs, the lucky exception being IIM B'lore. Bangalore, I'm happy for ya! :D

Now that everything is out of the way, and things are slowly settling into place, I think its high time to face the reality. I am not ready for IIMs yet! I am not ready to put in hours of hard work.. I am not ready to sleep for only four hours a day. Please note that I am just plain nocturnal and not an insomniac as maintained earlier because I get my share of sleep in classes like Data compression and Globalization. And neither did I work hard for CAT. It was just a slightly planned effort and luckily everything fell in place. And believe me, I am NOT modest! But then, there is quite a lot of pressure from various quarters (not as much as dada is facing) and I am not very sure if I'll be able to pitch in with the kind of effort I put in for my EAMCET exam. Lets just hope that once I get in, I become one of THEM.

Attended a few Group Discussions sessions. Some tips on how to be more effective at GDs for some of the other B-school aspirants:

1. Speak. Opening the mouth and getting the words out is the biggest hurdle one tends to face in his/her first few GDs. The saying "Don't speak unless you're spoken to" doesn't apply in GDs. In fact, no one is going to offer you a chance to speak. So stand up, face your fears, and talk whatever crap comes in your mind.
2. If people start fighting in the GD, or the sound levels reach an all-time high, it is better to sit back and enjoy the situation instead of getting into the GD. Because you wont be listened to, if you enter the discussion at such a juncture. And you get extra points for not contributing to the already-high sound decibel levels :D
3. Read a lot! You need to have some kind of content to speak. If one were to ask you to talk on SEZs, you need to know what an SEZ is. Unless you're really good at taking someone's points, repackaging it with examples and sharing it with the group, it is advisable that you start taking in as much content as possible by reading a few business magazines and some general magazines.
4. Never start the discussion if you know very little about the topic. And if you're going to start the topic, its better to have a structure in place so that its easy to retrace one's path, if your group digresses from the topic.
5. Always make sure your voice reaches the other end of the room i.e you're audible clearly. But also it is important to keep in mind the fact that when no one else is talking and everyone is listening to you for a change, you need not shout! It kinda gets annoying.

Now that I am done highlighting the mistakes I've committed in my past few GDs, lets move on to the placements front.

How the optimist aced the test, got shortlisted but did not get placed!

Personally, its been quite fruitful as I got shortlisted for the interviews twice from the 4 tests I've written, the unlucky companies being Infosys SET labs and DELL. I was pretty confident of making it to DELL. But I guess when I showed reluctance of coding for four years on the trot, they decided not to select me. Sid tells me I came second in the IBM ISL test and cleared all the cut offs. I just don't friggin' understand why I didn't get shortlisted if I cleared all cut offs! Anyways, getting a job is just a backup option for me, so I don't care if I get placed at Wells Fargo (my dream company :D) or IBM global services. I just want to get placed!

The DELL interview was purely HR based and it was fun :D Thought of blogging about it, but I've forgotten how it went :( Anyways, lotsa friends are getting placed and everyday we've got something to celebrate.. :D Placements are fun.. Rumours tell me placements for our juniors are going to start after their 4-2!! :o For their sake, lets hope they are JUST rumours.

PS1: India LOST to SA.. a golden chance of winning a series abroad floored! No comments. x(
PS2: Classes have started again. Still in holiday mood.. :-<
PS3: Of late, GAG has been bearable.
PS4: Preparation for the GDs and PIs has been a pain in the a-r-s-e. My first GD/PI is on Feb 1st - IIFT. My second GD/PI is on Feb 5th - IIM K. So two back-to-back GDs.. am gonna get screwed BIG time!!