Sad, but true

Placements in B-schools are geared towards optimizing the number and quality (!) of jobs. Considering the constraints and the stakes involved, it appears to be the most sensible thing to do. But is it an efficient process?

My belief is that it is not, for it does not match the interest and competencies of a student with his/her job profile. But then, that's practically impossible. Now why is it so?

One reason is the students themselves. Premier B-schools are interesting places. Best minds come there...all excited, but most of them have little idea of what they want to do in life. At best, they know what they don't want to do. But that’s how one moves on in life…and it’s perfectly fine.

The problem is, sometimes students don’t think for themselves, and just form opinions on what they hear. Sad, but true. Ask any freshman on campus about what s/he wants, and you will hear consult, i-banks. Ask what does an i-banker do, and chances are that they might not be able to speak more than 3 sentences about it. And still, that’s what they want to do in life. But can you blame them for that? May be, but to some extent only.

The issue is rooted further down in the Indian psyche. The reason for this is the same as for why does a person good in maths goes for engineering and not maths honours? It’s a question of social security rather insecurity. Money, still to a very large extent, determines what we like. Sad, but again true.

And on the placement day, call it peer pressure or influence or whatever...it so happens that most people end up thinking and behaving similarly. Which slot, what day and how much? That's all that seems to matter. It is not just stupid but criminal to look for a lower slot company when you have shortlists from higher slots. Media also doesn’t help by hyping salaries...almost making it impossible for a person to take a long term view of his/her career by ignoring the m-factor. Trust me, almost everyone buckles down.

In the end, a student lands up at some place while s/he is meant for some place else. Sad, but still true.