Saturday, March 04, 2006

B School brings out the worst in some people

This post is rather controversial and I’m not even sure if I should be posting it. But it’s something that has been on my mind for a while now and it would be good to let it all out. Yesterday, a senior (let’s call him A) posted a message on Bracket, our internal messenger, mentioning that he had heard that we had lesser Slot 0 companies than IIMA and IIMC and that something should be done about it.

The thread soon grew, with another senior, a good friend of A, posting that he had just spoken to A and it turned out that A was not even aware of this post! It turned out that some outsider, probably from a rival IIM, seemed to have cracked A’s password and posted this message so as to get information on the Slot 0 companies coming to IIMB.

Now I know most of you reading this would have found this conspiracy theory rather far-fetched. Despite close to 2 years of witnessing the fierce inter-IIM rivalry and the secrecy that accompanies recruitment companies, even I felt that the conspiracy theory was rather far-fetched. However, more happened – a friend of mine replied to A’s post, telling him about the number of companies actually coming to campus and a few other such details. Now my friend thought A was working in British Gas and started asking him for Gyaan about the company, and the guy on the other end freely started dispensing with it.

However, A was actually not working at British Gas but at some financial services company. This alone points out that the person who was posting and messaging from A’s account was an impostor. My friend sent us the conversation he had with this impostor, and throughout the conversation, the guy has just been asking my friend about which companies are coming for Day 0, how many, are certain XYZ companies recruiting from IIMB this year, etc.

Meanwhile, IIMC was caught in the middle of a scandal when it was found that atleast one of their Placement Representatives had fudged his CG and probably other details on their resume also. The batch got suspicious when he started getting a lot of Slot 0 shortlists and investigated his resume and then discovered that he has fudged some details. I don’t know what action has been taken against the guy but my guess is that he has been debarred from placements.

Now this is not a post accusing IIMC of wrongdoing. My guess is that fudging of resumes happens even at IIMB and IIMA. It is just that most people would be careful enough to fudge it in such a way that they wouldn’t be found out easily – now CG can be easily verified but if you do some outsourced work for a senior working at an international investment bank and then claim to have done a live project with that bank – now that is a subtle lie and it would be more difficult to verify such a point on the resume.

All this is despite the placement committee checking each and every resume by asking the students to substantiate each point they have mentioned with proof, and then checking each of the hundreds of resumes that are submitted before forwarding them to the company.

I’m appalled at the kind of things people can stoop to, all in the name of placements. Hacking accounts, spying on each other, lying on their resumes – how low can we get? Sure, for most people who join an IIM, the ultimate aim is placements. And it’s good to work towards it. But this is not the way to do it! If you want to join an international consult or I-bank, slog your ass off so you have a high CG, work on live consulting assignments, work on consult cases – do all that you can to ensure that you get the kind of company you want.

My friend argues that ‘yeh sab chaltha hai’ because people do this for their placements and after all, people join IIM’s for placements. Sure, we are here for placements but just because we haven’t worked hard enough over the past two years to be in a position to join the company one wants does not mean you resort to underhanded methods. I appreciate the idea that there aren’t a common set of values and ethics for everyone but where does that leave us if some of us refuse to follow the most common and basic ethics involving honesty

9 comments:

Ramya said...

trial

Anonymous said...

hmm ....... i am not aware of any such development. quite serious post.

Vijay

Anonymous said...

hmm ....... i am not aware of any such development. quite serious post.

Vijay

Anonymous said...

strong agreer. the levels some people can stoop to is simply amazing (for the lack of a better word).

wonder if there's any feasible way to check this fraud...

Anonymous said...

i think this has its roots somewhere in the entrance process to iims. ppl with excellent acads , excellent extra currics and everything excellent (not to mention CAT score) are supposed to get in. so the standards are so demanding that ppl fudge. its not justified , but hey! in the local engg college its the teachers chamchas who get good marks in vivas , termwork etc . these ppl think they are above the system!

anywho, i guess the IIMs are so proud of their placements etc but why dont they make such info public. the iims do have a darker side and its better to let ppl know abt it BEFORE they actually end up joining it!

Arvind said...

A thought provoking post.
Guess its high time IIMA,B,C stop their petty bickering and fighting over companies/salaries/placement figures.

We could argue for hours on the IIMC CV fudging incidcent that youve mentioned though.Your guess on the nature of the "action taken against the guy" is correct.

"My guess is that fudging of resumes happens even at IIMB and IIMA" - I couldnt agree more to that.

Great writing.

Anonymous said...

well its controversial for sure but i'm pretty sure ppl at these iims are quite capable of doing such a thing for the sake of reputation of college or wotever their resons could be.. failing to understand that the whole purpose is lost when these things come out in the open

Anonymous said...

well its controversial for sure but i'm pretty sure ppl at these iims are quite capable of doing such a thing for the sake of reputation of college or wotever their resons could be.. failing to understand that the whole purpose is lost when these things come out in the open

Anonymous said...

Interesting ... the so - caled 'best' b-schools in INDIA host such 'adventurous' happenings...long time ago I once wanted to go for the CAT ...I did not ... guess stuff like this happens everywhere...anyways I am happy wid my quualification ... and have no right commenting on the IIM's ... I would not want to even if I can do ... I am just too above this lol ...am working already !!! And as far ur postings... u seem more like a spokeswoman and ethic oreinted , good for you... but my dear time makes changes...lets see if u can hold on to ur ETHICS

Da ENIGMA

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