Make your life easier at Cranfield

I have written a lot about successful job hunt and how to adjust to the cultural differences whilst your stay at Cranfield.

Let me give you some tips as to how can you make your personal life easier. These are all based upon my personal experience and feel free to ignore them:

1. You would always have a number of pending tasks. Learn prioritising. Do not follow others. Remember not everyone is here just for the career sake. Everybody has different objectives for doing an MBA. Some want a break from the hectic corporate life, some want to learn to the maximum and are not eager about taking up a job and others might be company sponsored. So you have to decide what you want to get out of this year. Focus your efforts and energies towards your goal.
2. MBA is more about networking rather than academics. Do not be a bookworm and spend time sitting in library. Attend socials, make friends and explore yourself. You would forget your MBA learning over a period of 2-4 years. Your network and your friends are going to stay with you forever.
3. Whatever budget you have finalised for your MBA, please add at least a 1000 pounds. It would take care of your social gatherings, parties, outings and numerous tips to London that one requires to make for attending interviews.
4. Many of us use pay-as-you-go connections for our mobile phones. This is similar to what we call Pre-paid in India. Some of my colleagues took contracts and I found that contract phone turns out to be a cheaper option if you want to buy a handset as well. Moreover, for MBAs with families, I would definitely recommend post-paid connections.
5. Use internet based calling services for making overseas calls. Some of the best options are VOIP-Cheap, Skype and Yahoo.
6. Do buy a formal suit for yourself from the UK. Though there are good options available in India but the style is bit different and I would recommend that you buy a new suit from local shops here. It should not cost more than 200 pounds. And please no such colours- brown, white, green etc. for your interviews. Strictly black/ blue/ grey.
7. Get engaged with all what you like- sports, extra curricular activities and if you feel something is missing at Cranfield, take an initiative and start your own club/ society. You would get support from all corners.

This is your year, it’s your MBA. You would reap as much as you would sow and whatever you would sow. All the best.

The ‘Culture Gap’

Well all my dear ones who are coming to the UK from India please be aware of the culture differences between the 2 countries. This is more important for those who are coming here for the first time.

1. Do not plainly believe the spoken words

Well this was the problem I faced in the beginning. Everybody will praise you on your face and might not tell you what they actually mean. You have to read between the lines and try to comprehend what other person actually wants to say.

2. Keep your tone soft and polite.

3. Dont try to be casual, in fact be formal most of the times. Express sorry and thank you as often as possible.

4. Adhere to deadlines and be punctual- you cannot afford to be a minute late.

5. Do not point fingers while talking to other people. Use your hands and other types of body language to better express yourself but do not point fingers to the second person.

6. Arguing with faculty or other senior people is not considered to be disrespectful. You are free to share your opinions. Many of us get shocked the way lectures are conducted here. You are expected to put forward your own opinion and even disagree (where you think you are right) with lecturers. It is taken on a positive note.

7. A casual hug, peck on the cheek, or an arm thrown around a shoulder may not seem out of place in the West. So please do not get offended by these casual acts of touch and neither take it as if other person is attracted towards you.

8. Take an appointment before you plan to visit someone. You are not expected to walk-in straight into someone’s office without an appointment, even if it’s just for a casual talk. Though you may do it in case of urgency but you have to make sure that it is really urgent.

9. Respect rules and regulations.

10. Do not expect someone to work on weekends. Weekends are usually sacred and I would suggest you not to contact any recruiter on Friday. Best days are Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and the best time is morning 9 a.m. when the person is fresh and has just begun his/ her work.

11. Last but not the least. When you approach someone for any sort of help- even at Cranfield campus, go with zero expectations. You have paid high fees and yes you are eligible to get Cranfield services; but remember you are eligible to services and you have not hired people. If you have zero expectations I am sure your approach would be right and polite. You would also enjoy what you get in return. On the other hand if you approach with high expectations, you will be miserably disappointed.

Remember friends, it’s your hard work that matters. You would have a lot of assistance and support but the most important aspect is how much of effort have you made. How much of resilience have you showed? And whether your efforts have been in the right direction?

DOs and DO NOTs

For new admits into the Cranfield MBA, please take care of the following during your job-hunt:

1. You would be asked by career services to prepare a CV for the Cranfield’s year book. The year book compiles the CVs of all the MBAs and this year-book is circulated widely among alumni and other companies.

Many of us got interview calls and even final offers from the yearbook CV. Do not ignore it and start working on your CV the very first day.

MBA course is very hectic especially in the first term and you would not find time for working on your CV at least in the first term, when you are trying to get used to this new place and settle yourself. So, start working on it. My first appointment with Peter Fennah, Director of Cranfield’s Career services, was during the O-week (your first week at Cranfield). The point I am trying to make here is that do not waste any opportunity; your CV is the most important asset that you have.

I finalised my CV after about 3 months and after having about 25 iterations of the first version. I asked alumni for their comments, discussed with Cranfield careers counsellors who provided invaluable suggestions and even asked my family members to comment on my CV. I would say that your target should be to have such a CV that lands you with an interview where ever you apply. The only reason for rejection of your application at CV stage should be non-availability of a fitting role.

2. Do not show over-enthusiasm in interview. In India, a candidate is expected to show high willingness and enthusiasm in an interview. You are expected to express your strong desire to join the company.

Well you are expected to do that in UK too but at a lower scale. If you express even a slightly higher enthusiasm, you would be rejected saying that you are over-enthusiastic (read- desperate to get a job)

3. Dress clever

You would be advised to dress smart for your interviews. I would suggest dress clever. Everybody wears formals- a nice suit and a tie. Along with this, keep in mind the following factors before deciding what you are going to wear:

Consider where you are going to be interviewed.
Try to get as much information as possible about the person who will interview you. Consider what the interviewer might like you to wear- colour, design etc.
Consider what kind of the company and sector you are being interviewed for.

4. Be clear of what you want

Your interviewer would definitely like to know what you want post MBA and where do you see yourself in the long run. Do not say something just for the sake of an impressive answer. Be clear of your goals. Talk to yourself, discuss with Cranfield careers and with everybody with whom you feel you are comfortable.
If you would give a fake answer, your interviewer would definitely come to know about it.

5. Be aware of the recent trends in your field of expertise

Many of us just concentrate on what we have done in our past jobs and what is being taught in MBA. I suggest that you should keep yourself updated about recent trends and new technologies in your sector/industry/ function. One may even consider certifications such as

CFA, FRM (for Finance guys)
SPSM, CPIM (for Procurement professionals)
TOGAF, FSA, ZACHMAN (for IT guys)

Well the list is long and I suggest get in touch with alumni of your functional area and they can guide you better.

6. Identify your differentiators

Your experience and CV would take you to interview stage. During the interview, you have to exhibit your differentiators (from the rest of the cohort) through examples. Keep your examples ready and that too multiple examples. Examples of leadership, team-work, crisis management, organising abilities…. whatever you can possibly think of.

Differentiators can be either professional or personal. Think about your strengths and how are these different from others.

7. Get rid of your humbleness

Generally the people of Asian origin are humble do not like to boast too much about themselves. Please get rid of this habit, at least during the interview phase. Be open about what you did and how excellent your performance has been. Tell the interviewer about your success- academic, professional or personal- whatever.

8. Focus on ‘I’ rather than ‘We’

Usually when we are asked about how we accomplished a task, the people from Asian origin tend to reply by saying- ‘we did this’ or ‘we achieved this’. No. You are not going to talk like this.
You have to say- ‘I did this’/ ‘I added value to my team through….’/ ‘I accomplished the most difficult part through….’/ ‘I was the mastermind behind that project’

The interviewer wants to know what you did and not what your team did.

For Cranfield’s 2008-2009 MBAs

Well as this academic year is coming to an end at Cranfield, I really want to give some tips and suggestions to the next batch, especially to people who are coming from Asia (particularly India).

There are a lot of differences between an Indian B-school and a global B-school. Since an Indian student is never exposed to the environment at a global B-school, I guess one faces a tough time to absorb all the differences. I have tried to summarise my experiences here:

1. When a student joins an Indian B-school, he/she has a guarantee of the sort that they would definitely have at least one offer on finishing their MBA. This offer, of course, would be arranged by the Indian B-school itself.

The scenario is totally opposite in a global B-school. The school just assists you in your job hunt. It cannot guarantee you a job. Cranfield has a career services cell which helps you in developing your CV, in preparing for your interviews and in networking with potential recruiters. If you check some of the other reputed B-schools of the UK, you would not find such an elaborate career services support.

2. The process of selection by companies is entirely different.

In India, a company visits a B-school on a designated date (Zero-day etc.) and makes an offer for appointment on that very day. All selection procedures and interviews are completed in a day.

However, companies have long recruitment processes in this part of the world.

Firstly a company visits campus and gives a presentation regarding what they are looking for and what can it offer? Then it invites applications- your CVs.

The shortlisted candidates are invited for a first round of interview- usually on campus.

The first round shortlists are then asked to attend either an assessment centre or a second round of an interview.

The successful candidates from second round are then asked to go into third round which is usually the final round. However, there have been instances when people had 4, 5 or even 6 rounds of interviews.

One must be surprised on such an elaborate selection process; however, there is a basic difference in selections that one needs to understand. The candidates selected from an Indian B-school, usually go into lower or middle management level positions. At times it may not be a management level position at all. In global B-school, companies are looking for experienced people whom they can directly fit into their senior management roles. If a company has to hire for a senior position, it would definitely want to determine the exact fit of a candidate into the company.

3. Cultural differences

There are a lot of cultural differences which I would mention in a separate blog.

There are many more tips and suggestions on personal life at Cranfield. I would cover these very soon with support from my wife, Sherry, who would like to give tips to MBA partners.

Perseverance and Optimism

If I look back, on the past 6 months that I have spent on job hunt, the two most important factors that helped me attain my objectives were:

Perseverance

Optimism

I had always maintained a positive attitude, despite so many rejections. I have never shirked from hard work and kept on applying to my target companies.

You must be desperate to know how did I get this job and how many rejections did I have. Firstly let me make one point very clear here. I did not apply to any job on internet (job-search engines and websites) or through head-hunter except 3 jobs, which were recommended to me by my MBA colleagues. However, I did not even hear back from the companies to whom I applied through internet.

When I joined MBA, I was told by our career services that networking is the key to successful job hunt in this part of the world. I started making contacts with alumni and friends since January this year. I attended all the company presentations held on Cranfield and in total I put in about 40 applications. All these applications were either to the companies that visited Cranfield for recruitment or through Cranfield alumni. I got interview calls from 10 different companies. There were a few interview calls from Cranfield’s year-book CV as well. I travelled widely, for attending interviews and assessment centres, through the UK, Singapore and Dubai.

I had an open mind regarding location and sector. I was clear about my post-MBA role and that was my only target. I did not mind where I would be posted or what kind of sector it would be. This worked well for me as I am from supply chain background and I guess my skills are transferable to any sector or any company.

Since January 2008 I used to spend about 50% of time preparing CVs and in networking. I would tailor my CV to each and every company. Having one general CV for all companies/ jobs is suicidal. I would interact with alumni from my target company, would spend hours on Google trying to find more about the company and would thoroughly access the company’s website as to what that company values the most. What is it that I can match between the target company and my experience and competencies?

At last, I was in a position where I had final confirmations from 4 different companies before accepting the offer from Arcelor.

DONE!!!!!!

Well I have achieved it finally. When I joined Cranfield MBA, I had following objectives in terms of my professional development and my career:

To join a large MNC- globally recognised
To get into a global position- that gives worldwide experience
To get selected for a Business Leadership Programme (BLP) of the company
To work in a Strategic Procurement role (though I finalised my role target only after long consultations with Cranfield’s Careers Services department and Cranfield alumni. When I joined Cranfield, I did not know what kind of role would best suit me and my aspirations)

Today I am glad and proud to say that I have finally achieved all my objectives. I have been selected for a strategic procurement role under the BLP of Arcelor Mittal.

I have earlier worked with one of the largest corporations of India- ONGC and now I am going to be a part of one of the largest corporations of the world.

This success would not have come without the support of my family, my parents (who have backed me at every step), my friends, Cranfield Careers and most importantly Cranfield Alumni. I guess I owe big to Cranfield. It has truly been a life-changing experience for me at least.

The last term of the MBA

This is the last term of the MBA and contrary to our expectations, there has been no relaxation in the amount of work-load that we have. In the beginning of the MBA, we were told that last 2-3 months are really cool and there is not much to do. I believe those guys failed to recognise the fact that one has to spend a lot of time and effort in job hunt too. Though academic pressure is low but there are a large number of other activities such as projects, job applications and interviews. Most of the time you are travelling to London or other places for your interviews and a single visit to London absorbs one full day of yours.

Our classes would last till first week of August and MBA would finish in the first week of September. We have a month for completing our projects. I am keeping busy with projects that I secured from Cranfield alumni. One of the projects is with one of the largest banks of the world and it is quite a strategic one. I am enjoying working on this project.

The other thing that is keeping busy is Cricket- sounds strange!!! We are supposed to play a couple of matches here in Cranfield and I am trying to rediscover my lost passion. The last time I played cricket was around 2000 and revisiting this royal sport is real fun. We had a match on 23rd July and we lost it. We lost because we were playing against University team and their players had been practising regularly. For MBAs, it was like playing after a gap of many years and we did not perform well. On a personal note I was happy as I opened and closed the bowling, picked some wickets (missed a hat-tick, shit!!!) and scored some runs too (boundaries…J). The best part of the game was that MBAs played with ethics and we could all observe Cranfield’s education coming into play. I cannot divulge into more details here, and I would just say that it was a moral victory for us.