Day of landing at Oahu, Hawaii

Our flight was scheduled at 5:15PM in the evening. My friend cum driver reached on time to pick us up and took us to the airport on time(Thank you Pradeep :-)). No hassles at the airport security. Flight departed on time and reached Oahu by 9:15PM.5hrs 30 mits of flying time spend effectively reading one of my MBA books. Met a couple from Turkey in the flight and they were also visiting Ohau for a week. A smart Microsoft developer and the conversation was centered around new microsoft products and the Microsoft stock. Reached Oahu on time at 9:15PM and felt so refreshing to feel the warm climate (77F). Coming from the cold and windy Seattle (35F), it felt like heaven and a good start for our week long vacation. Boarded the shuttle to the rental car place and took a Hyundai Elantra. Got a free upgrade and a free driver addition on the car.

Took the car and reached the hotel by 11PM and checked in to the Condo. The condo is well kept and have a full kitched (hotel/condo interchangabily used. A spacious condo with a full kitchen, dining and bedroom with a beautiful mountain view from the balcony.

Long time no see

Its been a long time , I havent scrapped in this space. Lots of changes happened in my life during the last couple of months.I got married and then I travelled back to US. I got a new project with Microsoft and have started loving Seattle.
Its too late now. Watch out this space ....

My GMAT Experience

I took the GMAT last Friday and scored 640. I won’t attribute this score to a bad day or anything like that, but would attribute to under preparation.

Couple of things I learned from this exercise.
1) Assuming a 3 month preparation, first month should be devoted to get the basics right as well as to get accustomed with the kind of questions in GMAT. From the start of the second month, you need to take full length tests on a regular basis, say once in a week. This is very important. I don’t know how to stress more on this point. I concentrated on the individual sections and as a whole didn’t quite know where I stood in the overall score. This was the biggest flaw in my strategy.

2) RCs are very important. I think I should have screwed it up in the RC section. I found the RCs to be different from the usual ones I see in the 1000 RC document. Most of the RCs I got were a short single paragraph. The questions are quite tricky and it’s difficult to form the Kaplan’s road map approach. Usually on all forums, we do more number of CRs and SCs. RCs take more time to answer and hence was neglected in the lot and this was my second mistake.

3) The CRs posted on the forums and in 1000CR document is quite good. You need to work these CRs. This will definitely help in the exam.

4) For SC, 1000SC document is more than enough. All questions are in the same pattern as we see in the OG and 1000SC.

I am still contemplating on whether to retake the exam.

Apr 1st

It’s been a while I scribbled something on my blog. Today is the perfect day to be back in action. Yesterday night I went to a good restaurant with four 3 other guys. I love this crowd - a guy is doctor, another guy a lawyer and the third is an IIM A pass out, working as a Manager in a retail firm, and me :-) .

The discussions were far fetched with varying topics. The issues with the current Quota system in IIMs, the scams happening in hospitals, the advantages of being a doctor in a military hospital, the difference of taking an MBA from IIMs and the foreign universities, the life style of investment bankers etc. To add fire to these discussions, I had couple of Smirnoff vodka with lime cordial :-)

Days are running by and I have 19 days left for my GMAT and 28 days left for my marriage. I took another exam and got a 640 (Quant - 48 and Verbal – 28). I am not at all satisfied with this score. This will not help me get any where near to a top 10 American university. I am looking for a score of 700. There is huge scope of improvement in Verbal. With Quant, I would assume that I should be able to score around 50 with some more practice.

Marriage preparations are in full swing. I am planning for a bachelor’s party in Bangalore. Most of the invitations are sent out. Some shopping activities pending which I plan to complete today.

Infrastructure bottleneck

Government officials were shocked last year when Intel Corp. (INTC ) chose Vietnam over India as the site for a new chip assembly plant. Although Intel declined to comment, industry insiders say the reason was largely the lack of reliable power and water in India.

Check out the full article.
http://aiiireports.blogspot.com/2007/03/india-go-home-boys-its-all-over.html

amazing..

This is truly amazing. An oppurtunity to invest in the New York’s Nymex commodity market.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/What_B-schools_wont_teach_you_about_trading_on_Nymex/articleshow/1676104.cms

and the best part is ..like Ratan Tata, LN Mittal and Kumaramanglam Birla, he too has understood that India has opened its doors to opportunity overseas. The facilities available to Vishal are available to all of us. It only needs thinking big.

What i really loved is the last statement by Vishal

FIIs are our enemys, they take money from our share market.
This is very true, can’t agree more. These guys suck our blood, their heavy selling crashes our markets and they exit the position by making huge profits.

Comments Pls.

Folks, I need help. I am an MBA aspirant and planning to apply to the top 10 US colleges in 2008. I am putting up my profile in the application fashion. I need your comments/advice on the areas of improvement in my profile.

Here it goes...

Academics
I have a run-of-the-mill performance in my career starting with the 10th, 12th and the Engineering degree.
* 10th - 76%
* 12 - 77%
* BTech in EEE - 71.32% (College not in the well known names)

Professional
* Around 6 yrs of experience in the IT industry by the time I join (2008)
* Got a campus placement in Infosys - worked for 3.5yrs
* Worked in Birlasoft,USA - 6months
* Currently Working for Thomson Financials
* International experience - Around 4years in US

Extra Curricular
* Active participant in Infosys Hyderabad Toastmasters club
* VP Membership in Infosys Chennai Toastmasters club
* Active participant in the GE Asset Management Toastmasters club in US
* Active trader in the Indian Stock Market. Does a lot of trading in the Indian stock esp. options.
* Have traded in the US stock market.
* Member of a real estate investment group. This group runs by buying/selling real estate properties.

GMAT - Will be taking it in Apr 2007. Targeting a score of 700+.

Plan of action
I am planning to do my MBA in finance. The strengths which I can project are
* Worked for GE Asset Management at client location(US)
* Currently Working for Thomson Financials
* Knowledge of Indian and US stock Markets
* In Thomson Financials, I am supporting the high profile products which are widely used in the industry for Investments / Trading and a good knowledge of these products.

Weakness
* No NGO experience.
* No significant achievements in academics / sports.

Schools - Top 10 in US. Will give preference to those with better ranking in finance.

Essays - Planning to project my experience in the stock market industry. I think this will answer the Why MBA question.

After MBA - I would like to be associated with Wall street as an equity analyst(concentrating on the IT firms) in one of the big corporations like JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs or in private hedge funds. In the long term I am planning to open my own Hedge fund or a brokerage firm.

Advice required on the following
* The schools I need to target with respect to my profile and in alignment with my future dreams.
* Areas of improvement to project my profile in a better fashion (GMAT, NGO experience or anything which makes my profile look better).

I have around 1yr in front of me to work on these.

Comments most welcome.