Month: May 2018

10 Things I learnt this week- #Week2

10 Things I learnt this week- #Week2

I started this series last week. Click here for 10 Things I Learnt this week- #Week1 Continuing with the series, this is what I want to share for this week,

  1. Iceland is the only country with no mosquitoes. Though they do have 2 species of Midges and one of them actually bites. Source : Geography Now Youtube Channel (highly recommended if you want to know about different countries)
  2. Captain Mahendra Nath Mulla– 15th May was the birthday of Late Captain Mahendranath Mulla, who chose to go down with the vessel, INS Khukri (while he had a chance to rescue himself), when it was attacked by a Pakistani Submarine during the Indo-Pak war of 1971
  3. General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) – The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a EU-wide regulation that controls how companies and other organizations handle personal data. Many companies that are present in the EU conducts training & workshops for their employees to make them well aware of GDPR guidelines
  4. Nishan-e-Pakistan to Morarji Desai- Morarji Desai is the only Indian to receive Nishan-e-Pakistan, the highest civilian honor of Pakistan
  5. Invite only Dating Apps:- There are multiple dating Apps that are only meant for a selective few- Instagram influencers, Ivy-League graduates, filthy rich people and so on. It is difficult to have a profile on these apps as they have an extensive application process and most of them can be joined only if you have an invite. Some examples are Raya, Sparkology, The League, Luxy etc
  6. Content Marketing Toolkit by LinkedIn :- LinkedIn provides a toolkit for Content Marketing which has a Content Calendar Template, Social Media Distribution Plan and several other features. Know more about it here
  7. Miss India Universe 2012 at ISB- Shilpa Singh, Miss India Universe 2012 is a MBA Candidate at the Indian School of Business, Class of 2019, further adding it to the amazing diversity of the student & alumni base that ISB takes pride in.
  8. Incognito Mode for IRCTC train booking:- IRCTC website works better on Incognito Mode on Chrome (Personal Experience)
  9. Premium Tatkal has a dynamic pricing :- The premium tatkal facility introduced by IRCTC has a dynamic pricing model, just like the airlines- more the demand, more will be the price of the ticket.
  10. Spreadsheet course by Datacamp- Datacamp, the renowned website to learn Data Science (R/Python) has just launched a free course on Spreadsheets. You can access it here 

I hope you found this useful & interesting. FOLLOW my blog so that you get an email when I add a new post to this series the next week. The FOLLOW tab is on the right side of the screen (if you are reading it on desktop/laptop) and on the bottom (if you are reading it on mobile).

-KA

10 Things I learnt this Week- #Week1

10 Things I learnt this Week- #Week1

This series has been inspired by Mr. Ankur Warikoo‘s(ISB Alum & CEO, Nearbuy) idea of collating and sharing collective wisdom. I intend to write a post every week on every new thing I will learn on professional & personal front (will also try to mention the sources of these nuggets of knowledge and wisdom). I hope to carry out this initiative for a very long time in the interest of everyone who follows my blog.

  1. GMAT’s time has been reduced by 30 minutes- The Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) has announced trimming of GMAT exam time by 30 minutes to 3.5 hours beginning April 16 worldwide. It’s been widely speculated that GMAC has removed the ‘experimental questions’ (which do not add any weightage to the final score) from the test.
  2. Keyword Research- When typing in your main keyword into Google, look at the auto-populated suggestions at the bottom of the search page. This will give you an idea of the keywords that people are entering to search for your service or product. Courtesy- Creighton Wong on LinkedIn
  3. Kakeibo- Kakeibo is a ‘budgeting journal’ used to set saving goals and spend wisely by Japanese people. It was first popularized in 1904 by Hani Motoko, Japan’s first female journalist, as a way for housewives to manage budgets. In case you don’t want to make one, you can buy readymade Kakeibo from Amazon to track your spending.
  4. World’s highest post office– World’s highest post office is in Hikkim (pin code 172114). Located at 15,500 feet, Hikkim is part of the Lahaul and Spiti district in Himachal Pradesh. I met a person during my last solo trip to Mcleodganj. “I went there and mailed a letter to myself and all my close friends”, he said.
  5. Zostel in Chitkul-   Chitkul is a village in Kinnaur district of Himachal Pradesh. It is the last inhabited village near the Indo-China border. The Indian road ends here. Zostel, the famous chain of backpackers’ hostels, just started its hostel in Chitkul.
  6. Carpal Tunnel Syndrome among Dentists:- Carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS), characterized by pain, numbness and/or tingling into the palm and first three and a half fingers of the hand and and it used to be prevalent among Dentists. However, use of Rotary Endodontics has reduced its prevalence.
  7. (New Book Alert) Infinite Variety: A History of Desire in India : This new book by Madhavi Menon is a historical account of Desire in India. “Same-sex dargahs, a Malayali Hindu god with a Muslim boyfriend, Bhabhiphilia, the queerness of the zero: you’ll never think about desire in India the same way again” says one of its descriptions.
  8. (Book Recommendation) The Science of Selling by David Hoffeld : Not in the last week, but this book was strongly recommended to me to learn sales tactics  by Mr. Rohan Kothari (IIT Bombay and ISB alumnus) during a one-to-one mentoring session with alums last year at ISB. I thought of including it here.
  9. Custom Audience for Facebook Ads : Apart from targeting through demographics and interests, you can upload an excel sheet (in csv format) of email id and phone number of people you want to view your ad. The ad will directly targeted to those people (provided they use the same email id to login to facebook and they have connected their phone numbers to facebook). You can read more about it here
  10. Prezi for impressive presentations : Prezi.com is a website to make visually appealing presentations and the results are much better than Microsoft Powerpoint. But, it is a completely paid website. Courtesy Kashish Khandelwal

I hope this post was insightful and helpful. If you found this helpful, you should FOLLOW my blog so that you get an email when I add a new post to this series the next week. The FOLLOW tab is on the right side of the screen (if you are reading it on desktop/laptop) and on the bottom (if you are reading it on mobile).

Please let me know in the comment section about your views on this initiative.

Be good.

-KA

Placements at ISB- My Story Part 2

Placements at ISB- My Story Part 2

This is a continuation of my previous post- Placements at ISB- My Story Part 1

So I had decimated my number of shortlists from 8 to 2 for the 1st day of Day 1, i.e. 23rd November 2017. Since Directi has shortlisted almost everyone who had applied, my only hope was Danaher.

After getting the shortlist at 2.45 am, I started messaging all my close Dentist friends to have an idea about Kavo Kerr (the Danaher company I was going to interview for) as a brand. I started getting their replies when they woke up at around 8 AM. I also talked to an alum over the phone who had got through Danaher last year. Hence, by the time I sat for interview I had a decent idea about Kavo Kerr’s product, sales, distribution and marketing strategies.

I had woken up in the morning with a sore throat, runny nose and slight fever. I made coffee and somehow burned my tongue while sipping it. So, I was all set for the interview with 100+ degree fever, runny nose, sore throat and a burned tongue. I reached the interview venue (Executive Housing) at the designated time (10.30 am) and as expected the interview was running late. Finally I went in at 12.30 PM. Expecting a technical interview (since I already had had a behavioral interview last night), I was a bit surprised when this interview went on behavioral line as well. After a short conversation of 15-20 min, they asked me to leave and said they will inform me if I am selected for the next round.

I left for the interview venue of Directi. I had already missed my designated slot and they asked me to wait. After waiting for around half an hour, they told me that my interview will be taken in the evening. I left the venue to grab a bite as it was already 1 PM. I bumped into a friend from Mohali and we ordered a sandwich. As soon as we sat together to eat, I got a call from Danaher saying I should report ‘immediately’.

I ran again like a ninja, panting & sweating like crazy, only to be asked to ‘wait’. I kept waiting for another hour and they called me in.

I was again facing the same two HR Leaders (who took the pre-process interview) and they again started with a couple of behavioral questions.

What is you other option apart from Danaher? Will you accept the offer if we give it to you now? How much salary are you expecting? Are you just saying that salary isn’t your major criteria to impress us?

I guess I answered all these questions to their satisfaction, but I was again asked to wait. After a while, I was called and they said they will put me on call with some business leaders from Singapore. I said, “OK” and again a period of waiting ensued. I was called in after another 30-35 minutes and they said “We would like you to talk to another business leader who is taking interview in the next room. Please wait till he is done”

I finally got to meet the concerned person after another half hour. The interaction  started with a lot of WHYs- Why Dentistry? Why Digital Marketing? Why Dentistry if you wanted to do Digital Marketing? Why MBA and why ISB? How can you help Kavo Kerr (the dental product company under Danaher) brand to grow?

The questions also spanned across the details of my ELP. Then the interviewer said, “I understand you have taken many initiatives in Oliveboard (the startup where I worked prior to ISB) but Danaher would be different. You need to keep everyone in loop before taking any major decision. You just can’t do things at your whim. In next 5 minutes, I tried my best to explain that how I have also undertaken many projects in a ‘planned & systematic way’. “Fantastic” was the word with which he ended the interview.

I was called in immediately after 2 minutes and they said the business leader at the Singapore office has asked them to take the final call and hence I don’t need to talk to him directly.  After 5 minutes, I was called in for the salary negotiation & final offer. Once I signed the offer letter, I was led to another room to meet other business leaders.

I went back to my room, slept for a while and then left for Directi interview (even when I had no intention of joining them) because according to the rule, we needed to attend all the scheduled interviews for the day even after signing an offer.

It’s weird that I am writing this post just the night before my Day 1 at Danaher. With a bit of cold feet (as it will be first stint at Corporate Life), I am excited, humbled as well as grateful to ISB. I will keep you all updated with my future experiences.

Attraversiamo!