MBA has cooled down????

I am here once again and after a long gap. Probably now everyone is busy with their electives, projects and most important of all- jobs!!! I guess ‘job’ is a million dollar question that weighs heavily on everybody’s mind especially when the market is not doing well and companies have put a virtual freeze on hiring. I have been getting a lot many queries regarding post MBA job scenario. I would just say at this moment that I would be in a position to reply only after July as currently almost everyone is amid the process of job hunt and nobody is sure about the results.

I got a mail last week from a prospective student, who remarked that probably my study load might have reduced than what it was at the start of MBA. Well in the last one month, I also thought that MBA has just cooled down a bit and I have more time for myself (read… for job hunt). As I thought MBA has cooled down, things started catching up the steam in June and now I am loaded with many projects, assignments and reports. I have secured 2 corporate projects and both are very interesting. A point to be noted here that both the projects have been secured through alumni and that’s where I feel Cranfield has an edge over other B-schools that are in the same league.

I would suggest to the prospective students to not to compare Cranfield with LBS/ Harvard/ Wharton. Compare apples with apples. LBS/ Harvard are in different league especially they are 2 year courses and involve greater investments. I reiterate this point that amongst its league, Cranfield is the best. Best than the rest!!!!

And/ But

In term 2 (Part 1) there was a week-long course in Project Management. A whole of the week was devoted for studying Project Management. We were involved in simulations and theoretical studies including risk analysis, programme management and project planning and execution.

It was another amazing experience especially with one of the most enthusiastic and interesting lecturers of Cranfield: Stephen Carver. Steve has also been teaching us about the presentation skills and communication skills. One cannot afford to miss him when he is around. He has an extensive industry (oil and gas) experience and is still involved in providing consultancy.

The best learning for me out of the course was: ‘replacement of BUT with AND’. We were told by one of the faculty that it would be lot better and easier to work in teams especially while executing projects, if we could replace ‘but’ with ‘and’. When I thought in retrospection, I found that it really means a lot when you start your sentence with ‘and’ instead of ‘but’ which usually gives a negative meaning. After that I have always made it a point to minimise the use of ‘but’ in my conversation. Thanks John (Algar) for this wonderful tip.