B-school Placements

If you thought I'm  using this post title to get more hits on my blog - damn right I am! But hey - isn't this what they call a win-win situation? !
Anyways, its circa 2006, a fulll three months after graudating from ISB and I am sitting in a nice office in B'lore employed by the world's fourth largest company and I'm thinking  - heck! What'd I do right?
Well-first-the qualifiers - (and you should be used to these by now) - a. I got what I wanted. And that could be very different from what you want. So be careful about drawing wide-ranging interpretations from these.
My goals were
A. I wanted to get into consumer goods marketing
B. I wanted to understand what the fuss on rural marketing was all about.
C. Considering the global energy crisis and its implications for the future, something to do with energy would be nice too,
D. Get paid enough to   i.pay my EMI  ii. Buy my kid sister some nice clothes  iii.buy myself a few beers
Well, I got all four, and let's face it, I'd only the remotest clue that it was all going to pan out like this. I focused on the first two, and the rest sorta fell in place. Lucky me! But let's get hard on the facts and see……… what'd I get right? And what'd I get wrong?
What I got right.
Focused on specific role
Focused on few industries/sectors
Chose the right people to prep with - passionate as opposed to strategic, Fun as opposed to pure "value-add" and completely willing to humiliate you.
Didn't focus on grades and drank lots thinking it wouldn't matter anyway.
Did lots of fringe things (Competitions / sport) hoping it'd add on to my application (It did but not in the way it would)
Did not give up on watching F1. (And you have no idea how much this helped me in my interview)
Overestimated the prep required for cracking a marketing interview
Clarity on my market value - (heck! How much could a glorified salesman make?)
Scored a direct hit and managed to con an awesome girl into figuring prominently in my life (if you think that's not related to career, boy..are you in the wrong place?!)
What I got wrong
Underestimated the weight of 'pedigree' (reputation of your undergrad school and so on)
Overestimated the weight of work-experience
Got completely blindsided by the shortlist factor
Did not analyse other possible roles / sectors and possibly missed out (?)
Underestimated the value of what those divine profs were teaching us
Scoffed at B-jargon.
Focused on one strong concentration
Skipped the strat courses

And it worked out fine. I'm sure some of the above is anathema to you, some cryptic and some sensible. But I think the broad take-away is that you've got to be thinking about how you are going to get your dream job and do stuff to make it. Some of it will work out and some of it won't - but hey - I bet in a few months time, you'll be sitting on your lazy rear in a plush office and posting a blog like this one!
Cheers.