Placements at ISB

Last year I was desperately searching for blog posts on placements at ISB but no one was writing anything about it. I have therefore decided to throw some light on light - don't jump the gun, I'm not going to write any numbers or details here, rather I would like to focus this about the emotions people are going through.

This is without doubt the most difficult part of the one-year-at-ISB. While it may appear that studies are the toughest, they can be handled pretty easily with focus and some hard work. It is more difficult for people to make choices and in particular career choices. ISB placements scene makes it all the more difficult. It is so much resembles the IPO process of Reliance Power.

When the high profile IPO was announced everyone was bullish, people were talking about how many demat accounts were opened and how the IPO broke so many records and so on. Yesterday and the day-before even after the recent turmoil in the markets, everyone was expecting the stock to go up straight and even lift the market as a result of that. But surprisingly the actual investors thought differently and stock ended less than its offer price, may there were too many flippers or may be too many novices, whatever it may be. End of the day stock ended lower than offer price and instead of making 18% return on day one (historical average return of IPO's), investors lost 17.27%.

While the averages always sound great, each individual story would be different. Some will ride the tide only to quickly slide later, some will get what they want, some will compromise, some will be disappointed.

Yesterday, after India won against Australia (I felt so good about India's bowling performance),Dhoni, in his interview made some excellent comments. He said, "it is so easy to plan and say you should do this and that but it is so difficult to implement," which is so true.

Outside world would be eagerly waiting for the averages and they would get what they want. Co 09 admits would want to know how much the average salary has gone and I'm sure they will have a lot to cheer about; no one would think about their case. The school is now raked 20th in the world by FT, Professors are excellent, peer group makes you work hard but at the end of the day, it's you who matters. What you believe and what you do would bring results for you and nothing else. How one takes advantage of the system is important than the system itself. ISB would definitely open so many opportunities that you wouldn't have even thought about earlier when one comes in, but by the end it becomes so difficult to make the choice and maintain focus. There will be so many distractions that it is easy to get lost in the stream.

The main point that I want to communicate through this post is that averages and statistics don't matter so much; what matters is what you do with the opportunity that you have got, what choices do you make, that's all. You are always the largest stakeholder in your life and it is your responsibility to deliver results that matter to you (and your family) the most. Keep wishing me Good luck :)