How to make the most of your MBA? Part 3/5

Sharing the links of the first two articles in this series:

Part 1: Your first month

Part 2: Committees and Clubs

Part 3: Staying away from negativity pockets

A b-school is an ecosystem of a diverse set of people. The diversity need not be in terms of academic background or gender; it is in the form of one's upbringing, socioeconomic status, exposure to experiences during formative years, ideologies, work ethic, stories that they have told themselves, and so on. This basically means that there will be multiple perspectives to every event that happens on campus ranging from strongly appreciative to strongly critical.

While critical thinking is extremely important for your intellectual development, giving time and attention to fresh ideas is also important. In a lot of situations, you will see that there will be a group of individuals who will be criticizing each and every aspect of the b-school. The conversations will go like this:

• I should have taken up another b-school instead of this/should have repeated another year and got into a better college
• The teachers here are not good enough, they have been teaching the same thing for the last many years and have not evolved at all
• How can freshers who are in their second year teach me about how to behave in a corporate setup
• Any internship, live project, competition goes to the favourites of specific committees and nobody else gets a fair shot at them
• Placements are a sham; only people who look pretty get through (just to address this right away you can be presentable without spending much money on procedures or clothes, you just need to look tidy)
• Companies are unfair; they apply filters on 10th and 12th marks while shortlisting
• Nobody cares about the content I have, everybody is looking for flamboyance, life is unfair

and the list goes on...

You have to understand that some of these could actually be true but you have no control over most of it. The only things you can control are your CV, your content, and your presentation (there will be an initial expression of mild shock to a gift, however thoughtful, if you give it in an Amazon cardboard box; analogy courtesy Preethi Puram ). Tempting fate by not taking care of any of these is not going to help you, especially during placements. Similarly, once you are inside a b-school, you will be better off focusing completely on what you can do there instead of wondering what could have been. The grass is always greener on the other side, you see.

You have to be mentally prepared to deal with situations that might arise because of your profile. If you have more than 2 years of work experience, chances are high that you might not get shortlisted by the first few marketing companies on campus, if you have average academics, chances are high that the MBBs and Morgan Stanleys of the world won't shortlist you, if your communication skills/body language are not good, chances are high that you will not convert your first interview unless you work hard towards improving them. Address these issues upfront (if you have poor academics, perform exceptionally well at the b-school, if you have higher than average work experience, be realistic in terms of the roles you are expecting and/or build counter points in your CV) and by the middle of your second year, you would have made significant progress on these fronts. This way, your final placement will be significant upgrade over your summer internship.

Overall, the best way to use your 2 years at a b-school would be by being open to experiences, and suggestions irrespective of who is giving them to you. It is up to you to introspect and filter out things that aren't relevant in your context. But outrightly rejecting them wouldn't benefit you much. Do not forget the reason you went to the b-school in the first place: to improve your soft skills, understand what you wish to do for the next decade at least, and build content to enable you to do so. If you find a group of people consistently spreading negative energy, move away! Surround yourself with people who are proud to be a part of the institute and are driven to make the most of their time at the b-school and you will enjoy your stay.