The dates my class (starting May 2009) have also been finalised.
International orientation program, to begin on April 20, 2009 (runs for a week). Preparatory Knowledge Program(PKP) that includes optional courses in accounting, statistics, excel and economics, to begin on April 27, 2009 (runs for two weeks). Actual classwork, to commence on May 11, 2009.
Looking forward to accepting the offer and sending the initial deposit.
So, officially am in and excited right now.
Congratulations to everyone who has made it to Ivey.
And here is the transcript...
I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it. No big deal. Just three stories.
The first story is about connecting the dots.
I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?
It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: "We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?" They said: "Of course." My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.
And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents' savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn't see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn't interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.
It wasn't all romantic. I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends' rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example:
Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn't have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating.
None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, its likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.
Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.
My second story is about love and loss.
I was lucky — I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees. We had just released our finest creation — the Macintosh — a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.
I really didn't know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down - that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me — I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.
I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.
During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I returned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple's current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.
I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle.
My third story is about death.
When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.
Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.
About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn't even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor's code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you'd have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.
I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I'm fine now.
This was the closest I've been to facing death, and I hope its the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:
No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.
Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.
When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960's, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.
Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish." It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.
Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.
Thank you all very much.
Personal
- Discuss yourself/ Walk me through your resume and explain your roles and responsibilities.
- Name three words or phrases to describe yourself to others
- What is an activity you are involved in? Why is it important to you?
- What contributions would you make to a group?
- What do you do to relieve stress?
- What are your hobbies outside of school and work?
- What are your greatest strengths and weaknesses?
- Please discuss the factors, both professional and personal, influencing the career decisions you have made so far.
Goals
- Why the MBA? Why now?
- Why are you interested in a general MBA program?
- What do you expect from this program?
- What can you contribute to our program and into our classrooms? What makes you unique among other candidates and why should we accept you?
- What would you do if not accepted?
- What are your long- and short-term goals? Why?
- Where do you see yourself in ten years?
- Which other schools are you applying to? How did you choose these schools? Why so many/few? Which school is your first choice?
- How do you plan to use your MBA in your career and your community?
- Why does this school appeal to you?
Undergrad Experience
- Why did you choose your undergraduate major?
- Which school did you attend and why that one'?
- What was your major and why?
- Would you choose the same studies again if you could do it over again?
- What overall grades did you get? What is Honours?
- Which courses were you best at? Why?
- Did you work as an undergrad?
- Do you think your grades are an accurate reflection of your ability?
- What did you like most about this part of your education?
- What did you least like about this part of your education?
Professional Experience
- What was your first job out of undergrad?
- Have you been promoted?
- Talk about experiences you have had at work. Can you briefly describe the key responsibilities of your current job?
- Describe a typical work day.
- Discuss your career progression
- Give examples of how you have demonstrated leadership inside and outside the work environment
- Discuss any experience you have had abroad
- How does your performance compare with that of your peers at a similar level?
- What specifically have you done to help your company change?
- What have you done to develop those under your responsibility?
- What could you do to be an even more effective member of your organization?
- Describe your most successful accomplishment at work.
- Describe a failure on the job.
- Why did you choose this profession? Why this company?
- What do you like best/about your current job?
- What are the key challenges of your job?
- Have you ever supervised employees?
- Have you switched firms? If so, why?
- What is most frustrating at work?
- Describe your relationship with your boss. What is good and bad about it"
- Where is your industry heading in the next five years? (all the more important if your interviewer works in the same domain)
- How would co-workers describe you?
General
- Discuss a time when you successfully supervised a diverse group of people toward a difficult goal. Give an example of when you accomplished something significant that wouldn’t have happened if you hadn’t been there.
- Tell me about a situation where you had to persuade someone to agree with your point of view
- Describe a time when you had to gain upper management’s support for an idea/proposal
- Name a time when you had to convince someone who didn’t report directly to you to do something they didn’t want to do
- Describe a time when you had a conflict with another person in a corporate or school setting
- Describe a situation in which you identified key problems early on in a project and were able to avert a crisis
- Tell me about a time when you led a team to a goal even though the individual team members were sceptical that it could be accomplished
- Tell me about a time when you worked with someone who didn’t follow through. What did you do?
- How have you dealt with a person who was difficult to work with?
- Discuss a time when you had to make an unpopular decision
- Tell me about the toughest group that you ever worked in. What made it so tough, and how did you handle it?
- Describe an ethical dilemma that you faced in your career. How did you resolve it?
- Give me an example of when you pushed back against doing something
- What is the hardest decision you have ever had to make on the job? Outside of your job?
- Tell me about a time when you took a smart risk
- Name a time when you developed a unique and resourceful solution to a problem
- Describe a situation when you had to make an important decision without having all of the necessary information at hand
- Tell me about a time when you had to analyze facts quickly, identify the issues, and develop an action plan
- Give me an example of when you thought out of the box
- Have you ever had to bend a rule to get your work done more efficiently?
- Discuss a time when you didn’t succeed on the first try.
- What is the worst professional decision you have ever made?
- Tell me about a time when you weren’t very pleased with your performance.
- Describe a situation in which you wish you had acted differently with someone in your group.
- Describe a time when you inspired someone to work harder.
- Discuss a project that required the use of your analytical skills.
- Tell me about a time when you led a team to success despite opposition from others.
- Describe a situation where you brought an idea forward, and it failed.
Spontaneous
- Tell me about a topic you just read?
- What trait you possess that I would not get by reading your file?"
- To test your communication skills: Pick a subject from the current news, assume I don't know anything about it and give me a brief synopsis.
- Describe a time when you had to convince an antagonistic group of the merits of your proposal. Explain the process.
- What team skills will you learn in MBA program?
- What are three major challenges that your industry is currently facing?
- Who do you admire most as a leader, and why?
- What was your greatest accomplishment?
- How do you define success?
- What would you do if a team member wasn't pulling his own weight?
- Who are your heroes? Why?
- What have you done that you are proud of?
- Define teamwork
- Define leadership
- What is your favorite sport? What aspect of it appeals to you'?
- What is the last book you read? What did you think of it?
###Check bookmarks --> MBA App Research for the updated list###
Where to start
- http://www.pagalguy.com/forum/international-indian-mba-schools-accepting/19927-mba-admissions-thread-of-gyans.html
- http://www.mba.com
- http://www.pagalguy.com
- http://www.managementparadise.com
- http://mbaleague.blogspot.com
- http://daveformba.blogspot.com
- http://www.mba-forums.com
Grammar/Usage Reference
- http://www.adrive.com/public/8dd39d1f444052218196e68c0416f7a2b1a1b2f23b94ca8b778575673c2678d9.html
- http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Writing/index.html
- http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar
BSchool Research
- http://www.vault.co.in/pagalguy/PagalGuyBuzz_BOOK.pdf
- http://blog.clearadmit.com
- http://www.accepted.com
- http://mba.us.com/guide
Essays
Other Good Sources and Resources
- http://www.esnips.com/web/BSchoolEntranceExamsGoodDocs
- http://www.geocities.com/gaurav.mittal83/1.htm
- http://esnips.com/web/gaurav-CAT
- http://esnips.com/web/gaurav-CAT1
- http://askpsycho.blogspot.com/2006/08/gmat-scoring-demystified-atleast.html
Ebooks
- http://www.web-books.com/
- http://www.planetpdf.com/
- http://www.gutenberg.org/
- http://www.FlazX.com/
- http://www.koobe.net/
- http://www.xpressionz.com/
- http://www.phatnav.com/books/
- http://etext.lob.virginia.edu/ebooks/
- http://www.onlyebooks.org
- http://gauravkiduniya.blogspot.com/
- http://www.managementparadise.com
Misc
##Later I translated this table to “Why MBA” essay##
http://facts.wikispaces.com/MBA+Applications#Career%20Goals
I am sure that you can find the right reasons that either directly or indirectly contributed for your low grades. Be sure to address them as part of the application, even if you are not explicitly asked for.
I am no different from a typical IIM. In my applications, I had talked about my ability to bond with strangers and build a network of trust fully utilising my enthusiastic outlook. Honestly, almost every activity that I engaged with, had coupled an element of fun and I demonstrated in my apps that this passion and high-spirit greatly enhanced my learning and working environments, with numerous examples to support.
Managing information and time was no easy task for database administrators and in particular, having come from a non-traditional background, I found that it was a huge challenge to work on multiple IT projects simultaneously and gain credibility among my team mates at Oracle, who had at least two additional years of experience than I did. But my experiences from college and enthusiastic personality helped me offset all fear and execute critical tasks successfully. I have learned to use the fun-factor as a successful tool at my workplace to build outstanding associations. I also have a history of having infused a number of fun-related activities to the work environment such as celebrating birthdays, organizing team-outings, Caroms/Chess tournaments, etc. I believe that the "enthuse" has ensured high energy across the team, building personal relationships within professional environments. The credibility earned me additional responsibilities such as team’s resource planning, workload management and tasks allocation. I had also structured and documented many critical tasks, helping the team avoid ‘reinventing the wheel’ and save time. I now serve as the point of contact for such activities and I train many of my senior colleagues in that aspect. Despite being the junior most in the team, I had played significant roles in the recruitment process and introduced several innovations. All these successes helped me achieve "Exceeding Expectations" rating at the Oracle’s employee performance review and have been recognised for demonstrating excellent information management skills.
I tried to differentiate myself with this "Enthuse" trait!
But as a rule of thumb, every school looks for one common characteristic : "Leadership". Schools expect their students to have demonstrated leadership abilities in the past and present. Of course, they do understand that Leadership is not just leading people but also managing extra curricular activities, innovating, teaching, managing multiple assignments, handling pressure, etc.
To me, my college experience provided me with plenty of such opportunities and I did highlight them on my applications. The five-year tenure provided me the best flexibilities to capitalize on non-academic activities. The "General Secretary" responsibility had put me in charge of the finances and administration of 30+ student run clubs and departments. On the job, I had to manage large groups of people and conduct events as businesses that would generate profits. The council meetings and general body meetings served as boardroom wars, helping me understand people and processes better.
The university operates two semesters and students travel home twice a year for vacations. Transit planning was traditionally outsourced to a third-party student, approved by the Institute and almost every student runs his travel requirement through this facility. In an effort to improve the transparency of financial transactions, I took it over and integrated with the activities of union council. Transiting 5000 students was no easy task and I had to group a team of 12 students to run this effort. The entire process embraced two important stages: One, having the desired train tickets reserved in accordance with the student requests and two, arranging buses to get to the nearest major railway station. Managing the information provided by students and minimizing discrepancies were the most demanding rudiments. The effort involved managing heavy finances and strategic relationships with Indian Railways and Roadways.
My enthusiastic attitude helped me build better relationships and the fact that I never hesitate to voice my opinion, served as the perfect supplement. I have eventually understood that leadership is the ability to break down complex problems into actionable fragments and drive the team by communicating the vision clearly. I have also understood that a leader must accurately define the roles and responsibilities of individual members in his team. Delegating responsibilities is important because it not only instigates involvement among the players, but also encourages their leadership capabilities and I view this as the success of the group on the long run.
I am sure that every MBA prospective student would have sweet leadership experiences. Never forget to highlight them on your application even you are not explicitly asked.
One thing people would be surprised to know about me is that I am ‘a Civil Engineer and a Chemistry Graduate’ by qualification, ‘Oracle Database Administrator’ by profession but now, aspiring to become an MBA. I simply perceive these career changes as just advancements and I consider that I have been hitting my priorities right. I intend to comprehend my full potential in every aspect of my professional career; consequently, my short-term goals have been evolving over the years. However, my long-term dream has remained the same. In my second year of college, I decided to leave behind the civil/chemistry academia and focus on IT skills to become a DBA. It is not unusual for engineers with non-computer science background to carry out such shifts, but to me the decision was not so obvious. I had ruled out options such as MS/PhD that could narrow my career options and deny the generalist perspective. In contrast, the DBA career seemed to provide the perfect broad focus that I needed. I was thoroughly impressed with the fact that Information Management is a critical aspect that a firm has to effectively deal with, for survival. Consequently, I discovered that no other immediate career as the DBA could couple as much, with my skills, before I stride towards my ambition.
I knew that this career change would be an uphill task for any fresher, especially for one with a non-computer science background. Companies rarely invest in inexperienced DBAs because the DBA tasks are highly critical and even a slightest mistake can cost millions. The risks that I, as a fresher, won’t find a job were high. But despite all the threats, I decided to move ahead and carefully designed my game plan. I pursued numerous electives and projects to diversify my IT skills. I also had the opportunity to instruct graduate level senior students as a professional assistant for a database related course. Finally, the DBA certification facilitated me the crucial breakthrough. The very fact that only experienced professionals pursue this and that I was able to clear it in record time, right during my college tenure, helped me sell myself as a competitive DBA. And now, with around three years of experience as a DBA, I trust that an MBA would be the next perfect priority that can significantly accelerate my dream.
Unquestionably, it’s essential that an applicant clearly articulates and demonstrates past successes in the application, but make sure that it doesn’t sound arrogant. Talking too much of successes can apparently have an egotistical tone, but sticking to the central theme of relating past successes to future goals, can significantly reduce the “overconfident” factor. On the other end, being over modest can sometimes provoke you disregard potential successes, which is again a bother. Make sure to maintain a good mix of both "Marketing" and "Modesty" and not "Exaggeration".
I am sure every MBA aspirant will have great dreams and am no different. Ambitiously, I aspire to establish not for profit ventures and associations, operating similar to those of profit-businesses, but measuring profitability in terms of social impact. I chose a path that allowed me to develop problem-solving skills both as a manager and team player. The General Secretary/transit planning experience at BITS, co-ordinating of medical camp and sporting events at Oracle offered me priceless value additions to my administrative abilities. My contributions to the social activities group and canteen committee at Oracle, various clubs such as Marketing, Sponsorships, Publications, Correspondence and National Service scheme at BITS provided me plenty of opportunities to work as a team. The database administrator career offered me invaluable experiences on prioritising tasks, resource allocation, client interaction (requirements understanding, data analysis, solution proposal, negotiation, implementation, etc) and managing information. I picture myself with certain business skills however, I seem to lack a fundamentals-toolkit that will help me build frameworks to counter business problems. I believe that MBA is the best available enhancement to supplement my skills, at this time of my career to make the most of unforeseen opportunities. Given that I do not have a previous business experience, I intend to take up management consulting as a strategic career step immediately after my MBA. I believe that researching and implementing solutions across cross-functional issues will add tremendous experience in terms of having a mindset to run an organization. As part of various consulting assignments, I look forward to cultivate potential contacts and this will have straight significances in advancing me to my second strategic career phase: A top-level position in a small/medium or entrepreneurial venture. Focusing on multiple business units, as a leader, will help me learn to discover opportunities, formulate strategy and manage risks. This will be the final cog in the wheel, before I make my mark in the entrepreneurial and eventually social entrepreneurial arena. I have had many short-term goals that eventually evolved all the way, however, my long-term ambition has been the same.
“Why MBA” question, ironically, turned out to be “Why not an MBA”
It offers a massive 50GB of online free storage space. Handling uploads is graceful: simple drag/drop of a directory from your local PC uploads files and the associated sub-directory structures. It does support online file sharing.
Personally, this is one of the most awaited update from Google Calendar. Thanks to Google’s innovation. You may now sync your Google calendar and Microsoft outlook either ways.
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