Thursday, July 31, 2008

Inspirations galore

There are inspirations and then there are inspirations

last post i talked about a professor who inspired me with a life well lived, but today this kid seems to be living a life impossible to live.

This was sent to me by one of my dearest friends, who happens to be an ophthalmologist (eye specialist). Its about a kid who went blind, has no eyes at all.... and can play video games and skate on the roads

He has, on his own, developed echolocation. Thats what dolphins and bats use to make out their surroundings.

Watch and be amazed



Best Video of the Year - Blind Kid Uses Sound to See - The best home videos are here

Saturday, July 26, 2008

My alternate career

One of the questions that has left me stumped is Ross's Q3: What would you be doing if you were not pursuing the goals you said you wanted to pursue? (this is a paraphrase)

Gimme a break people! I am a surgeon, have worked in two separate specialties within surgery (Trauma, and Cancer) and now am looking to totally change the career path and enter corporate world. And you want one more path? Check in some parallel universe.

Then I was reading Mandy's Blog. She is a Darden student, and she posted this video.


 


This man is the sort of professor you dream about. He is exciting, and excited, he is informative and funny, loves Star Trek AND Football!! (Seriously, how many people in this world want to be Captain Kirk as well as play in NFL?) 

But most of all, he is excited about teaching. Not the traditional academia, but teaching, helping, nurturig (Now i sound like a New Agie)

And i remembered it felt like to teach. We teach undergrads when doing post-graduation. And it was fun. We used to take our students to late night operations, (thats not a euphemism),  there were impromptu discussions during ward rounds In 1998-99, even an internet search was a new and exciting thing, and we used to have chat sessions in yahoo on weekends. None of these was traditional, none of these were done anywhere close to the extent we did it either before or after us, we all had fun, and we all learned.

I was, for a year, an assistant professor too. It was a new college for me, a new state, and a totally different set of students. Indians will understand when i say that the earlier college was Government, this was private. Nowhere near he same aptitude, or attitude. I taught enthusiastically though, and within weeks, felt confident enough to ask the group of 25 students allotted to me to attend the emergencies. It was unprecedented, but they did come, and we did have fun. To the extent that in a multidisciplinary class that I took with faculties of other departments, i got a applause on arrival. (there were some pissed senior profs that day) 

This is what I would have loved to do: teach by participation. I am good in a team that learns and does at the same time. This will be an asset in college as well as (presumably) in corporate life, especially healthcare sector, which will always keep changing.

This is going to be my theme for that essay. I know its crude, doesn't properly connect the dots and all that, but i was excited to have atleast found a theme. 

And by the way, if you have an hour, watch the video. If you only have 5 minutes, jus watch the first 5 minutes. Randy Pausch passed away on 25th july. RIP

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

A Great Post

Read this if you are interested in ISB

LBS ahoy

I have been working on my resume... can't make it fit a single page. There has just been too much, with my vaious jobs and responsibilities, even the fact that i have a postgrad degree in addition to the undergrad one! 

All this brought to focus the biggest weakness that i perceive in my application.... I am an "older candidate".... so i have to be even more careful about my school choices. Given that european schools are more friendly to older applicants, i had to iunclude atleast one from there. INSEAD.... somehow i have always felt that it was less substance than I wanted.... and because I am a career changer, i'd like a 2 year course better anyway. LBS was enticing, it seems like the right kind of place to me in a lot of ways, and the fact that a team from there climbed the Mt Everest just makes the place look cooool.....

I now had to think again about the other schools.

Darden, Tick and Fuqua have a relatively older-friendly reputation. Wharton.... its HSM is something i just really really want to do.. even though i know its been tending younger recently.... I was tempted to chuck out Ross, but decided to keep it, it is a good school and I'd love to study at a place where C K Prahlad is a faculty. 

SO there's a new school in the list.... lots of more work, and the essays have started to pour in.... wish me luck

Saturday, July 19, 2008

New IIM on the block

IIM bangalore has (finally) decided to jump on the 1 yr bandwagon.  I don't know when they posted this, but I saw it today.

Although I'm very excited about it, I have some reservation about being a part of the first batch of anything. Someone close to me is in IIM-L first batch (1 yr)  and was complaining of still incomplete facilities and reigning chaos. 

Early adaptors, anyone?

Monday, July 14, 2008

B-School Videos

Its hard for an international applicant to get a feel for a school, harder for someone like me who knows no one who has a US MBA (surprisingly most of my friends tend to be doctors)

Enter "Web 2.0". We all know, read and love the student blogs, but I don't know how many of us have seen the B-School videos. I certinly didn't know about them, but saw a reference to an INSEAD video in a blog. It was fun, international, well executed... it gave me a better idea of what INSEAD students are like. Then i saw this Desi Week video... it was hilarious. Even though INSEAD is not on my radar, it was interesting.... so, naturally, i searched for schools on my radar


Wharton brings up a lot of results. The videos are mostly student made, and predictably amateurish. They utilize al formats from spice-girl videos to Mac v/s PC ads. However, they are made for their community, and so I don't get some references.

Darden is another end of the spectrum. Most videos are obviously promotional, made by the coolege, not students. Remind me of public service ads on doordarshan.... In student-created videos, Darden daze looks at a day in life, in first year v/s second. and Darden follies are not bad. 

Most Fuqua videos look syndicated too.... they are in the form of music videos, with (presumably) students singing and dancing, but are way too professional. Clearly a marketing strategy. there's even a channel where you can get all those videos.

Tuck's students could only interest me with one video, a take on Good Riddance (Time of your life). All the other videos were academic ones, presumably posted by the school, and while they are interesting at times, they are not what I'm looking for here.

Ross students have this clip making fun of the easiest target in the world, George W. Whats most interesting is the approx 5000 references to him being a harvard MBA, and what that has taught him about leadership. The follies were a disapointment, the B-team was oooookay, but "its business school" sucked like nobody's business

And ISB.... they have the more videos than I expected. Predictably many promotional ones, but the ISB jingle sounds like they meant it, whatever it was they were trying to say. ISB videos remind me more of the IIT/NIT kind of atmosphere. (I didn't go to one, but my wife did) 

All considered, I did get a pretty god idea of the atmosphere and the students. Some schools are more bureaucratic  than others, and some schools are more fun. Will it affect my judgement in the dream scenario of multiple admits? I don't know....

Friday, July 11, 2008

Concrete Goals

I read this post by ahembeea This is what i replied:

I read somewhere.... it was about either stanford or MIT-sloan. In the first class of MBA, the dean routinely asks how many people here are not sure about what they want to do post MBA.... and about 80% people raise their hands. Thats reality, remember, all these students have written outstanding essays that were convincing enough to pick them above a lot of really smart and motivated people...... thats how this game is played. You need to articulate well enough to be convincing, you need to sound serious enough to be taken seriously..... I think what they are looking for is your ability to make plans, your ability to tell a story, sell a story. It has to be plausible, but all schools know how many people end up doing what they wrote in their essays
This may turn out to b the biggest decision of our lives, and getting jitters is what we all expect. It would be abnormal if you didn't get jitters. Your list is doable, get a comfort school if you want, but you may very well be comfortable with the list you have, you have worked on it. Give the schools time to grow on you, work on generic essays in the meantime.... there's still time, there's still opportunity to explore further..... and when you get into your school, that will be the beginning of aother lifetime of exploration..... lets enjoy the process... before long we'll be nostalgic about these days.


Tuesday, July 8, 2008

City Lights

Ever since I can remember, I've wanted to go to a big city. I was reading this blog when I realized how much that pull still works. I have spent a few years in Mumbai, now live in Dubai, but NY still has a special place..... (Very very special, considering i have never even been that side of the Greenwich line, much less in the City itself. )

This is what happens, I suppose, when you live in small places all the time. I used to hate the much romanticized 'laid back' life. When not pushed, people tend to take things easy. You are pushed to the hilt in Mumbai. If you can't take grueling  commute, forget Mumbai. What this inevitably leads to is a population with more grit. And thats what makes Mumbai unique. When there is a terrorist attack, the people bounce back so fast that the terrorists manage only to kill, not terrorize. 

Dubai, while big, is not a city in that sense. There are no rural areas in UAE, so all people aggregate here, there is no selection. In the last few decades, the oil boom has also ensured that life is never too hard for most people. Thats why this city, though glamorous, is not vibrant.


MBA-wise, I'm working on my 'why MBA' generic essay. Being older and non-traditional means I need to be more specific than most people. Still trying to collect that specific information, and formulating it in a meaningful way.

Monday, July 7, 2008

MBA Action Plan

I don't know how many people are aware of this idea by Julien Gordon. Its a plan for MBA that lists a lot of things I didn't think of. I'm going to use it all the time, I hope. 

Of course being an International means I have to conduct the 'interviews' over email, I think I'm taking some steps in that direction.... lets see how it all pans out.

Thursday, July 3, 2008

Thanks

Thanks a lot folks! Within no time of me expressing doubts about my viability for Wharton, i got encouragement from three people whose blogs i follow and respect. Nitin, Tinydancer and ahembeea all wrote to encourage me to apply to wharton, and I think I will.... That means a lot of extra work, but ateast I'll know where i stand.

BTW, this post by Tinydancer further encouraged me to give it a shot. 

Changed List of Schools

I have decided to not run after Chicago and HBS. I'll concentrate on 4 US schools (Fuqua, Tuck, Ross, Darden), 3 Indian (IIM A & L, ISB), and HKUST, a wild card. This is my final list for now.

Reasoning.

My aim is to go into healthcare management, reaching Strategic position ASAP. While wharton may be my best bet for that, i'm not too excited about my leadership record. I mean, as a doctor, there's only so much you can do. My "leadership" things only include things like talking to the CEO to make laparoscopic surgery packages more attractive for our patients, things like this. I have also worked in 5 institutes in seven years, and while i was always moving towards something, its not something you boast about. So i feel the top 5 are beyond my reach. I therefore stay within the top 20 or so, and concentrate on the schools good at general management, where very few indian doctors would be applying.

I am 34, and this may well be my last chance..... If I have a chance at all

The choice of indian schools is obvious

The HKUST is the joker in the pack. It's not all that well known in India, is a good program with good recruitment, and although its focus is finance, and the brand name in India non-existing, its very well recognized in rest of Asia. It will be a last resort, I guess, but is a good last reasort, if one is needed.

IIM-A musings

I read an old blog from an IIMA class of 2008 PGPX student/alum. The rates of selectivity for IIM A are amongst the highest in the world. While this is good for someone already in, its a scary scenario for me. Being "international" would be a great advantage here, but I'm not. In fact, i bet atleast 99% of the apps are from Indians. Other factors will be the GMAT, IIT Status, and Undergrad GPA. 

On te plus side, the number of experienced doctors will not be overwhelming, i guess. And my score is not too bad. Also, my age would not seem as big a drawback in this class as in most others. Worth a shot, i guess.

Btw, the pplication format is totally crazy. No essays, just the biodata details, and even in that, all you have to do is run through drop down menus one after the other, asking your expertise from nil to excelllent. These menus are all about things that won't be a part of a doc's work life, so i don't know how to answer them at all!!! Stalled on this for more than a month now!! 

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Indians beware!!

Another bad news for us desi applicants, Neo2000 found out that average GMAT for Indians is 730. I mean seven fishing thirty! And thats the average? Well there goes my one big advantage. 

Actually you can kind of see this at Pagalguy's Forums where everyone and his neighbor's nanny posts a score well above 700. We have been raised on such competitiveness that we complete the standardised tests well.

Or, a darwinian explanation would be that Indian education system selects and rewards a more standard tester, so our institutes are full of bland personalities with brilliant testing abilities

Monday, June 30, 2008

Is it wise to opt for safety schools?

Continuing the talk about lists, i came across this post where Maverick talks about the futility of safety schools, esp for an older candidate. If its not something you REALLY want, its probably not something you want at all!

Where's my list?

My B school list is my first major decision..... sort of like Obama's Veep decision B-School bound says he has the list. I hope I was so sure. But there are a lot of similarities between our lists.

Tinydancer's MBA Blog: The Economist It Is!

Tinydancer's MBA Blog: The Economist It Is!: "Create a Link"

I Can see Tinydancer's dillemma, but I can also see a clear winner. Economist has a much clearer view of the world, or so it seems because i seem to agree with its free market recommendations. BW, on the other hand seems intent on fear-mongering and 'research' showing how bad things are for the common man

Unprofessional

I talked about an appointment not materializing yesterday.... here's the scoop.... it was with an alumnus of a reputed US MBA program, which will obviously go unnamed..... And i was thinking all the time, this would never happen to an american, or by an american, i suppose. The guy was not western and that's all I'll say about him..... kept me waiting, even after I was clear that I was keeping myself free for him, postponing surgical procedures!!

 anyways, wanted to rant this to the blog, which essentially means myself right now..... 

Sunday, June 29, 2008

Moving right on

My first post was the perfect example of all thats right And wrong with me. I started to talk about myself, so, to be thorough, i started at the beginning, (a very nice place to start, i've heard). Nice, but where's the hook? its not an autobiography for god's sake. who wants to take 15 minutes to read what you did in grade school? And sisce i realized it was wrong at some level {good}, i didn't write again {bad}

whatever, here I am, sitting in a mall with ly laptop, waiting for an appointment that i suppose won't materialize, and intead of deleting the poat, i'll try to move on. 

I am a surgeon now, work in Dubai, and am hoping to get into a B-school to help me move into healthcare management..... I took GMAT last year & got 770, which was a relief. Didn't have time to apply to a lot of places, chose columbia (can't remember why) & got dinged. And here I am, an applicant for the class of 2011..... lets start making waves

Monday, June 16, 2008

A Journey Of Thousands Of Miles

My life has been a journey. As a kid, i moved from city to city, often within city.... i lived in thirteen houses with my parents, (Eight since), and have studied in ten schools/colleges by the time i finished my post-graduation. But my biggest journey is yet to come. This will hopefully be a story of that journey.

I was born in Central India, & moved within the heartland state of MP for 24 years. My father is employed by state government in a job that for some people may involve a significant moving about. It did for him, & so I moved from one small city to another, one school to another, one set of friends to another. I did medicine, because I could, & because i really wanted to be a doctor. In that order. It was more of a challange than i had bargained for, and i faultered at the firt hurdle. For the first time, I flunked. It was only a term paper, and 75% of my class was with me, but that was a poor consolation. That was when REALLY worked hard, i mean REALLY REALLY worked hard. 

That was also when i introspected really hard, what study method works for me? What are my strengths & weaknesses? Till then, studies had always been something that took care of itself. Now I realized I'm hopeless as a rote learner, but much better than others in grasping something complex. 

I also realized the utter sham of Indian education, where even in medicine, all I was expected to do was remember more stuff and reproduce in exams what the professor dictated in class.

But I was in it for better or for worse, and i had to perform now. I read more and more authors, read to grasp things I was asked to memorize, and built up a base of knowledge and a method of learning that has been helpful even since. I was in top 10% in the next term, and maintained that position in the overall rankings during MBBS. 

Next: Physician discover thyself