Its' not been a good day. No my friend, it has been not. Kolkata lost in the IPL & Man U lost in the EPL. Why do all my favourite teams falter on the big days? Ah...I hope I had the answer to that one. A few of us had thought of ganging up & watching the IPL. The only good thing out of it was the Tandoori Chicken & the beer we had. Seeing the meat find its way to oblivion lifted our spirits to a high which no sports can achieve. On top of it, we are still not getting ESPN/Star Sports in our rooms. In a way that's good, because our fragile spirits probably cannot handle seeing both of our teams losing on live TV at the same time.

On a different note, the pre-terms are coming to a close. I had spoken about my disastrous encounters with both maths & stats. So I decided to use my superior intelligence & came up with a solution - I will not attend any more classes. To be frank, I feel better off. I am positively chirpy. It's infinitely better to sit in the sidelines knowing that you don't know rather than the fact getting hammered into your mind, body & soul in the classroom.

We had our first session of consultant gyan yesterday. Couple of alums from BCG decided to address the fertile minds of the current batch. Catch the students raw....they have been here for what? Only 2 weeks. That fortunately or unfortunately was not a deterrent. So we had the session from 10 pm. By the look of it nearly 250 people turned up crammed into a room which could take not more than 80 people. I along with SD & DD turned up around 10 mins late & we could not get anywhere near the door. We immediately beat a retreat.

Somebody had done a great job & summarized the entire discussion & sent it to the whole class. Unsurprisingly, I saw nothing new in the whole discussion. I have been in PwC for the past 5.5 years & I know how consulting functions & what the work entails. Like in all discussions/forums at ISB there were arbit questions. Got these gems from one of my friends who attended the session.

Student : So what is the exit policy of BCG?
Alum : ?????????????
Me (on hearing) : ??????????

Student : So where does BCG rank among the consultancy firms?
Alum : Well, the Tier 1 is Mac, BCG, Bain then 2nd tier is ATK, Booz, Accenture & so on...
Student : So where is McKinsey??
Me (on hearing) : Did you think Mac means McDonalds????

I have taken part in a lot of arbit discussions during my stint at PwC. I have been part of teams where a deal has taken 6 months to close & we have had meetings for an entire day from which nothing has emerged. But they have been cases where there has been a difference in the opinion between the 2 parties on the table. I mean, guys, have your fundas in place. Consulting is glamourous but it is tough to get into, it is tough work & the life you lead is also very very tough. It is not a career meant for most people.

If the first question or even the tenth question you ask from a prospective employer is about their exit strategy then all you can say is Bye Bye. Why would you even want to know that at this stage? Is it because you are not convinced that this is a right fit? In that case, why are you here at all?

As of now, I am still in the sidelines looking on at all that is happening. What's the hurry...I tell myself. We've only just been here. Like I laugh at the enthu people mentioned above, they also must be laughing at me....this idiot sits in the atrium all day, he's falling behind. Hmmm....food for thought. But I have seen pressure like few other professions have, all thanks to PwC. I know how to meet deadlines...& I have worked & made my team work for 30-35 hours at a stretch. The work pressure doesn't scare me, the prospective time schedules don't scare me. What scares me is my utter lack of knowledge in all these subjects. And that my friends, is not a nice thought.

Cheers