The following was an interesting comment which I received from Senthil Kumar.

I kick of with a heartfelt “Kudos” to Sundar. Nice work on your part. For sure this blog is of great use to all who are having and who had a reverie of HIGHER STUDIES.
I like the way in which your interview progresses.
My point here is its good that our college mates are booming with flying colours all over the world BUT a very few sorry “VERY FEW not A VERY FEW” mates of our college are concerned about the COUNTRY which brought us about. We were sculptured at NIT,Trichy which is deemed to be a INSTITUTION of NATIONAL IMPORTANCE by the Government of INDIA but we people show the least worry about the country. Not sure as to every one will be aware of this fact. CHANDRAYAAN launch not only took India to higher spirits but also a hidden fact was there in it. None of the scientist in that team was from IITs or MIT or any other foreign university. The team comprised mostly of Regional Engineering College Alumni (a thing to be very much proud about..)
But at present we don’t think so. Of course i do accept that MONEY plays a very important role. But people tend to take their level of saturation higher and higher and they never Saturate.
Many people while discussing about PATRIOTISM and INDIA tend to speak as if they don’t give a damn albeit there are traces of patriotism in them. That trace would surely magnify when people read stuff regarding that and when they discuss it without seeing persons eye to eye which can happen only via internet and i myself thought your BLOG would be very well useful for that. I am very well aware that the very purpose of your blog is not that. But my point is that people who are about to read your blog are going to be LEADERS (in what ever field they belong to.. )
For sure they would read about Ethics in books. But that may not reach the hearts though it would reach the brain.
So i would be so nice if you would also add something in this blog which would worry about the NATION BUILDING.
And various roles which OUR friends can play in that.
Take for instance ANTI CORRUPTION which is not a easy thing so deal with. This has to be imbibed and implanted in the heart so that as time flies by we can hope it would be fully grown tree to provide shelter.
ROME WASN’T BUILD IN A DAY so for a BRIGHT INDIA we can’t expect the results to be impulsive. It would take time like etching (Huh.. I am from ECE.. !!)
“On the Sands of times I build the castle of Hope ” that INDIA would be DEVELOPED. I opine you to make the thing as “On the sands of Time LET US build ” not only a castle but a real strong fort to Develop our nation in all FACETS.
JAI HIND

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V C Workshop by Samir Kumar, MD, Inventus Capital Partners

Hi All,

Its my pleasure to have Vidhyashankar from NIT Trichy 2005 batch to talk to you about life as an MBA student at Arizona State University. Here is what Vidhya Shankar has to say..

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Coffee With Vidhya Shankar – Life at ASU

Brief Intro about yourself
I am Vidhyashankar, NIT Trichy 2005 Chemical Engineering. I worked with ABB Bangalore for 2 years as a Project Engineer for refinerry automation and then joined Aspentech as an Associate consultant for refinery process supply chain. Currently I am doing my MBA at WP Carey School of Business (Arizona State University).

* Entry Criteria:
- Approx CGPA range
For MBA, they were not very keen on the CGPA. I had 8.03. However 8+ out of 10 would be recommended. Escpecially if you want to enter into consulting I would say better have a higher cgpa

- Work Experience after undergraduage level.
Almost all universities in the US insist on minimum 3+ years of experience. Does that mean a person with 2 years cannot make it? The person can, however should prove strong credentials. Also B-schools encourage relevant work experience as well. For instance, I was in Refinery process supply chain consulting and I could relate it to my MBA. However lot of people come to an MBA for a job shift or a field shift.

- GMAT -Toefl -If you are applying from India please have atleast 700. I dont have one !! This helps in several ways. Firstly Arizona state university grants lot of scholarship for MBAs. This is given mainly based on your GMAT score. I could not get one since I had only a 660. However it was sufficient to get an admit becuase of my diverse background (chemical eng) and non IT indian ..

- Typical Ranking range of the univeristy (just ranking is not a good idea.. it doesnt convey much)
Ranking here seems to have lot of weightage. WP Carey ranked 22 overall this year. MBA is to certain extent about brand value. However if not in the Top 15-20 then rest schools are equally good. Having said that it is important to choose a school based on your interest. My interest was supply chain and WP Carey has consistently ranked 3rd in the US for supply chain management. Other best schools for SCM, Michigan state, Pennsylvania state, Purdue, MIT. Some really good companies visit Carey e.g AT Kearney, Chevron, Dell, Motorola and lots more especially for supply chain recruit.

* Aid scenario – #number of ppl who come in with aid, chances of aid after coming in, more details on RA/TA/small work around campus.
Aid in MBA means TA. There is no other scholarship in general. When I mean TA, you get 50% waiver on your tuition and $3500 per academic year for living. Belive this is lot of money for AZ.

* how much money should one shell out for the entire course if it completely unfunded..
WPC is the cheapest MBA among the top 50. (ofocurse TAMU is cheaper but it is a 16 month MBA). It costs $60000 for 2 years as tuition if you are unfunded. Lot of people get a TA here. However historically all international students have ended up getting a 50% tuition waiver in their second year even if they dont have an aid in the first year. Next year WPC is planning to increase the fees probably $5000 more.

* What are the living expenses?
Most of the MBAs prefer their own lifestyle. Some choose to share some not to share. I am sharing and the living comes to maximum $400- $450 per month that includes food, house rent electricity.

* Career opportunities after the course?
Seems really fantastic for SCM, lot of companies are coming and recruiting on campus. However whether will this continue should answered by the American congress and Federal reserves. Currenly the economy is taken for a toss. Unless things get really worse SCM will not have big problems.

* Typical Money made during internships?
Average last year was $36 per hour i guess. Assuming you work 12 week during summer and 40 hrs a week it should be $17300. But I would be more focussed on getting the best intern rather than the money.

* How easy it is to switch departments?
you choose ur specilalization in the 3rd trimester and you cant switch after that.

* Any other issues/ inputs which will be helpful.
Few things which people might consider before doing an MBA in US would be,
a) Why should I do an MBA in US? (Money should not be the only reason)
b) Am I open enough to adapt to certain aspects, like culture, interaction etc.
c) Am I ready for interaction?

Something that US MBA currently gives and I am sure Indian MBAs will eventually have is the diverse class. You have people from all background and all the countries. You make lot of contacts. Further in the US there is lot of importance given on ethics, corporate social responsibility which starts right in our class. I am not sure if there is so much emphasis in the Indian schools.

* What is the system there? Is it semester or trimester? specialized MBA or general MBA with electives? How does one choose electives?
It is a trimester system. Supply chain is the whole focus here. Carey is ranked 3 for SCM MBA. The best part of Carey is you get to choose dual specialization and without additional fee. You can do either SCM or do SCMFM (supply chain management finance management). I think this link would give a good idea https://wpcarey.asu.edu/mba/ft/

Choosing electives is purely your choice. However staff , profs and everyone are more than willing to help you. we had a session on electives and what each elective is all about.

* How many people start company on an average? What are the support available for students to start their own venture if they want to?

I dont have the exact statistics. however I have heard the Dean specifically mention about the Entrepreneurship program here and there are quite a few people who start their own firm. The sports business here is highly ranked as well and lot of people doing sports business do start their firm.

* How are the students in terms of diversity? What are the various back grounds from which people come from?

US 60%, India 25%, Others countries 15% would be my batch split. Indians are mostly engineers. there are quite a few people from US army, Fashion industry, sports industry, teaching so yes there is lot of diversity and atleast me personally getting to learn a lot from all of them.

Thanks a lot Vidhya Shankar for sharing this info. Wish you all the best.

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Podcast: Rendezvous with Chetan Sankar – B school professor @ Auburn University

Hi All,

Its my pleasure to introduce you all to the Uhooroo.com founders Vinay & Bharath in this edition of Coffee With Sundar.

Coffee With Vinay & Bharath – Founders of Uhooroo
Me: Sundar Rajan G S
UF: Uhooroo founders

Me: What is Uhooroo all about? What is the business model? who are your target audience?
UF: Uhooroo provides a platform for Indian Musicians to showcase their talent, get feedback from the community, collaborate with other independent musicians and find an audience that is interested in their art form.

Our target audience falls into two categories:
(1) Indian musicians
(2) Listeners who are interested in exploring the emerging Indian Music scene.
For musicians, Uhooroo provides opportunities to develop collaborative relationships and feedback from a knowledgeable audience.
With a huge and diverse talent pool, we have plenty to offer to the Indian Music lover as well.

Now, coming to your question on business model. As a rule of thumb for web services, it is hard to achieve monetization in any meaningful sense unless you achieve scale. Having said that, at this time, we are focused on scaling to the next order of magnitude of user-base and engineering the feature-set that is going to help us get there.
This could potentially take a year or more. That’s when we will roll-out our monetization plans. What we can share is our opinion on what would not work for Uhooroo. Incidentally, our previous stint was into music services and selling indie-music. It was DoA.
We had pitched the idea to several indie musicians, and also to a few investors, and it was clear that paid mp3 downloads were not the primary need/focus of indie-musicians. Likewise, it should be clear from the Indian startup ecosystem that consumers don’t pay for non-essential services (essential services would be property sales, matrimony, etc)

Me: What ignited the spark in you to start a new business venture? How did it all begin? What are some of issues you faced, the progress you made etc during your early days?
UF: We come from a systems engineering background. One of the needs we felt as engineers on a day to day basis is being able to come up with an invention that had an immediate and recognizable impact.
For most intents and purposes, enterprise products tend to be pretty stable and driven into maintenance mode by the customers need for something that “just works”. The work we do as systems people more often than not is analogous to making a light bulb burn just a little brighter (in other words, systems engineering represents continuous innovation).
A well engineered and properly targeted web-based product on the other hand can be seriously disruptive.

Building an enterprise product from scratch usually requires a sizable team and VC investment as a prerequisite (neither of which we have any real shot at). On the other hand, a web based product could be built by a couple of dedicated engineers in a few months’ time.
These contrasts between enterprise and Web products are what led us to leave our systems background behind & a give web-dev a shot.

The inspiration for Uhooroo came from Vinay’s experience as an amateur musician. He wanted to get feedback on his vocals and electronica mixes and could not find a web-based community that offered the kind of feedback and cultural identity that he was looking for as an Indian musician. Additionally it was increasingly clear that it was difficult for musicians to compete for attention on existing platforms (YouTube, MySpace, etc). If one spends any amount of time on MySpace for example, it becomes immediately clear that it has become too crowded to be useful in any sense to any musician.

As with any entrepreneurial experience, ours was (and we admit, still is!) fraught with self-doubt. Keeping each other motivated as we struggled to release and gain traction was a challenge. The ability to spend a significant portion of one’s life working on something that may never pan out requires a certain amount of foolishness (in a good way).

Me: How do you find people to bring into your team? How big is the team?

UF: Apart from the two co-founders (Vinay & Bharath), and our designer (Nikita), we have an intern, and 2 part-time developers who have started helping out on the development front. All team members are people who we know personally or have worked with in the past.

Me: What is your typical work day like..? How many hours do you spend on Uhooroo?

UF: Work cycles have been quite bursty. Back when it was just the 2 of us, we remember times when we spent 70-80 hour weeks (including our day jobs), and even took “vacations” to meet self-imposed deadlines. Now that the team has expanded, and each of us has a core expertise area, and enough breadth to help out on other areas as well, we have time to think about strategies finally.

Me: How do you define success? Both in personal life and in terms of Uhooroo

UF: Our metric for success was defined at the outset – create something that a large number of users find useful. Each time a user writes to us saying we have done precisely that, it represents a quantum of success.

Me: Excluding yours, what company or business do you admire the most in this domain?

UF: Amie Street. They figured out how to price Indie music and their answer was simple – let the market price it.

Me: If you could talk to one person from history, who would it be and why?

UF: Vinod Khosla – arguably the greatest venture capitalist of all time for his proven ability to answer the all important question –
“What’s next?” You don’t have to be dead to be of historical importance Mr. Khosla had a ringside view to the role the Internet played in the history of the 1990s.

Me: Is there any thing else you would like to share with CWS readers?
Bharath: If entrepreneurship is what you dream of, then snap out of it and get down to business! Don’t wait for the perfect idea since ideas tend to change over time anyway. Write your first 1000 lines of code – you never know what you may end up with!

Vinay: Figure out what your key take-away is from any venture (money, fame, passion, innovation, community service, or some weighted combination of these or other parameters). It’s easy to “stay foolish” if money is not your top goal.

Me: Thank you very much Vinay & Bharath for sparing your time and sharing your experience with CWS Readers

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Coffee With Nidhi Modi! – Founder, Allindiadeals.com

The following event is a great way to interact with some of the amazing alumni of NIT Trichy.

20+ CXOs (CEO, CFO, COO…) of NIT Trichy will sit together for a panel discussion, this will be followed by a networking dinner.. Great initiative by RECAL… What a great alumni meet it is going to be.. Really looking forward to it..

The event “Meet the CXO’s” will have a glittering array of over 20 CXO’s from some of the reputed companies. The event details are as follows:

1) Venue: Indiranagar Club
2) Date: 29rd November 2008 (Saturday)
3) Gates Open : 0600 pm
4) Format: Discussions, Interaction and Networking till 9 p.m (Dinner included)
5) Registration costs : Rs 250/- per person

You can also bring one of your friends/spouses to the event, if you would like to… In that case, registration for them would also be required.

More importantly, if you want any specific areas to be touched upon by the CXO’s, kindly email us the questions/topics to recalbengaluru@gmail.com. It could be a hot cake topic like “Economic recession” or an interesting learning experiences of the CXO’s…
Registration Link is here: http://creator.zoho.com/recalbang/recal-event-registration/form-perma/RECAL_Registrations/
Looking forward to an exciting Saturday to meet you all ,

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Kutral Ramesh – Arjuna Awardee

Hi All,

Its been a while since I interviewed a fellow blogger. And today I am glad to interview Mr. Raghuram of Happy Schools Blog, striving to help students achieve their dream of studying in US.

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Coffee With Raghuram, Founder of Happy Schools Blog
Me: Sundar Rajan G S
RR: Raghuram

Me: Hi Raghuram, Welcome to Coffee With Sundar!! Can you give a brief introduction about yourself?
RR: Hello Sundar, It’s my pleasure to introduce myself to your readers. I completed my Bachelors in India(Coimbatore) and Masters in UT Arlington(2005). Currently working as Senior Software Engineer in North Carolina.

Me: What is Happy School Blogs all about? Who are your target audience?
RR: Happy Schools Blog is about all about my personal experience in U.S.. I started gathering information about GRE, U.S. Universities, when I was in first year B.E. Engineering. That gave am an head start among my friends. But, it was fascinating to learn about various schools. I started Happy Schools Blog on July 23, 2007. But, I was doing same thing what I’m doing with Happy Schools Blog offline before that. I was providing guidance to  my friends, family members about university selection, job search, visa preparation.

Every International Student has to go through the following stages

1)      Make decision to study in U.S. and take GRE Exam

2)      Prepare for GRE and TOEFL

3)      Select Universities, prepare documents to apply to universities

4)      Decide which university to attend, if there is more than one admission

5)      Prepare for student Visa interview and visa stamping

6)      Packing for travel and landing in U.S.

7)      First few days in U.S. in most enjoyable to few, but very tough for some.

8)      Classes, thesis, project, part time job, searching for scholarship, …

9)      Internship Search

10)     Job search after graduation

11)     Applying for OPT

12)     Applying for H1B Visa ( lottery in H1b, other immigration issues)

13)     Car Buying, renting apartment, buying home, building network, …

Me: What ignited the spark in you to start this ? How did it all begin? What are some of issues you faced, the progress you made etc during your early days?
RR: Articles I write in the blog tends to reflect what I went through and how I could have done things differently. Studying in U.S. is completely different experience. I have observed how one’s lifestyle changes based on first few friend students make or associate with in U.S. once they reach U.S.  It’s not just a blog, I use it as a medium to build my network. I have been in contact with students who was initially chatting with me 1 year back. I forward them internship and job opportunities that I come across or from my network.

I initially started a website, but I had to put in so much effort to develop from the scratch. But, I was reading lots of personal finance blogs, then I realized, why not use Blogger platform to start a blog. It took me 2 minutes to come up with the name. I didn’t know anything about blogging when I wrote the first post.

Initial challenge I had was to drive traffic. Within first few days, I did realize, it was not easy to get visitors.  I had about 10 articles published, created an Orkut profile and added few students to IM. That got me going.

Me: How would advise a new blogger in terms of growing his traffic? What should he/she focus on?
RR: Content in the King. That’s what every famous blogger in the world will say. If you need to get traffic, you will need to have great content. It’s not possible for someone to write contents in field/area they are not familiar with and don’t have interest. Initially there is nothing much needed more than interest in the subject.

A blog can be also collection of your ideas and information. Contents must provide ‘value’ and anything you wrote about – there are visitors who are interested to read. Challenge is to find where people of similar interests hang out. In my case, it was Orkut communities (Universities, Semester) and forums.

But, in long run, you will develop your skills in Search Engine Optimization, Internet Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Persuasive Writing, other skills to drive traffic to blog. After first 3 months, I moved to wordpress from blogger.

Me: What is your typical work day like..? How many hours do you spend on HSB? How do you manage your time..
RR: HSB is  like hobby( or part time). I get comments like “reading your articles made me feel, I’m almost there in U.S.”.  I personally know that information I write is not available in one single place in other blogs. I haven’t seen other blog in my niche, in last 1 year. As you can see from 13 items listed above, each topic could potentially have one blog dedicated to it.

I spend equal time in content research, creation, website marketing, learning to blog and networking. I have standard routine – morning 1 hr, then off to work ( 8 to 10 hours), back home and spend about 2 hours. I tend to write contents in weekends and spend weekdays on other activities.

Me: How do you define success? Both in personal life and interms of HSB
RR: Success is subjective to events I’m working on currently. HSB was getting 9000 page views in January 2008 and it ad increased to ~ 104,000 in September 2008 and set to increase coming months. But, I measure success in HSB in terms of impact it makes in students life. Each good comment I get from students, brings smile in me.
 
In personal life, instead of living life as it comes, I like to define what I want to achieve and measure progress towards that. I might get there, I might not, but considering the feeling “I have put in  best possible effort at that moment”. At end of the day, I need to the feel that there is nothing more I could have done. This applies to saving money, spending time with my family, friends, co-workers, job, ..

Me: Excluding yours, what other blogs or sites do you admire the most in this domain?
RR: I have been trying to find similar blog for some time now, but one I enjoy the most is app2us.com. There were other few blogs, but it’s not active anymore. I follow DailyBlogTips, JohnChow and 10 other blogs that thought me how to create and maintain the blog.

Me: Is there any thing else you would like to share with CWS readers?
RR: I stumbled across CWS and spend some time reading articles and other interviews. It was interesting to read success stories and experience. You are doing great work, keep it up. If your readers are looking for information about U.S. Schools or about the process, I will be more than happy to help them. My Email Id Raghuram@happyschoolsblog.com. I have published an e-book ‘Students Guide to U.S. Universities” (available at homepage sidebar)  that will give an idea on what to expect from GRE preparation to getting student visa. I’m working on second e-book ‘Extreme Job Search Methods’ which should be available in months time.

Thanks Sundar for providing this wonderful opportunity to connect with your readers.

Me: Thank you Raghuram for this interview.

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Coffee With Nidhi Modi! – Founder, Allindiadeals.com

Hello All,
It has been a while since we had a CWS interview show. Thanks to summer placements @ IIMB. Next post will be on my experiences et al here @ IIMB during the most talked about summers..

Today, we have a very special guest who is going to shed light on research from an industry perspective. It is my pleasure to welcome Sitaram Ramachandrula

The following introduction is taken from http://www.hpl.hp.com/india/people/#rnvs

Sitaram Ramachandrula is a Senior Research Scientist at HP Labs India working in PriDE project. He joined Hewlett Packard in March 2003. He has earlier worked in speech recognition for local languages. He has also worked in few projects in the areas of document image processing, video global motion estimation and location based services.

Prior to joining HP he was a senior technical leader with Philips Semiconductors, in Philips Innovations Campus, Bangalore, India, for over 4 years. Earlier he was an assistant project leader in Encore Software, Bangalore. He holds a PhD in Electrical Communication Engineering, with a specialization in “speech recognition”, from Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore; M.Tech in Digital Electronics from Cochin University, Kochi, and B.E in Electronics and Communication Engineering from Osmania University, Hyderabad. His current research interests include: offline handwriting recognition and document image processing.

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Coffee With Sitaram Ramachandrula
Me: Sundar Rajan G S
SR: Sitaram Ramachandrula

Me: Hello Sir, Welcome to Coffee With Sundar! Can you give a brief introduction about yourself. You can talk about educational background, work ex, research interests, other interests, hobbies etc.
SR: My name is Sitaram Ramachandrula, and I am a Senior Research Scientist in HP Labs India in Bangalore for last 5years. I have done my BE in ECE from Osmania university campus and M.Tech in Digital electronics from Cochin university campus and Ph.D in ECE from Indian institute of Science Bangalore with a specialization in speech recognition.

Prior to working with HP Labs, I worked with Philips semiconductors and Philips consumer electronics divisions for nearly 5 years. Before that I had brief stints in Encore software and Ammanna technologies.

My research interests are broadly in pattern recognition and applications of digital signal processing. Specifically my areas of interest are speech recognition, document image processing, optical character recognition (both machine and hand printed) and location based services.

I play table tennis when I get an opportunity.

Me: Sir, in the schools in the world, which do you suggest is the pioneering school that does the best and fierce research in your field of interest?

SR: As I mentioned, one of my area of interest is “Speech recognition”. Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), MIT, AT&T Bell labs, IBM research labs, Cambridge University UK did pioneering work in this area. I will pick CMU for its contributions in this field. Lately, Microsoft research and Nuance are the largest speech research groups.

Me: For a new researcher – can u suggest shortly the steps that s/he should take in order to become successfully established in research. (What i mean is finding a topic, then a guide, then proceeding etc., )

SR: For students before embarking upon research, picking up an area for research: This is ideally done Top-down, but many end up doing Bottom-up based on opportunities available, I mean they apply to many top universities and based on the admissions they get, they choose the best in them according to some criterion. A Top-down approach where an individual really spends a considerable amount of time thinking, analyzing and doing an honest self-analysis e.g., what is worth doing? why? what he/she can do the best? where is his/her interest? This needs a considerable time (say 1 to 2 years). Many cannot do this well while doing their BE, so an alternative is do a job for 1 or 2 years after BE and get time to do this analysis. This needs to be done very actively, by reading many technical magazines, internet etc.

This process is needed mainly not to leave out topics which are more important to the society and industry. Of course the technology and knowledge are universal, but for few societies, few topics are more important than others, so those societies end up investing in those technologies the most. Now a days this sense of importance to society is getting neglected and we end up doing research based on outsourced job potential.

For a new researcher, depending on whether he is doing an MS or a PhD, I first suggest them to get some guidance in choosing fundamental subjects/courses to deeply master in the first 6months to 1 year before embarking on the chosen research area.

The next step is to do literature survey, to establish/get a feel of the chronological developments in the area (over a span of past 20 years or in some cases more than that), to find out the importance given to different topics at different times in that area. And what are the current different topics which people are looking at. What are the popular approaches or methodologies of looking at the topics. This part according to me is a continuous exercise throughout the research, (even after choosing a topic/problem/approach), so that one is abreast of latest developments or even to get new ideas. Most importantly, people need to spend time thinking while each of the paper is being read as knowledge continuously dawns. This is needed, as the researcher needs to create a new path, which in his/her thinking is interesting or important and he/she ultimately needs to prove/validate his/her own path by implementing or by theoretically proving.

Researchers need to be ready for different types of work, reading as a student, reading as an expert, learn to implement, implement to learn, implement to test ideas, thinking, thinking big, thinking differently, facing failures patiently, spending months just brooding/thinking. All these phases will not be equally enjoyable or give immediate results but put together all train a person to be a good researcher, as any real problem, or any real solution is not going to be that trivial.

Me: Sir, How is research in Industry (or research labs) different from that done in universities? Is there any collaboration between the two?

SR: Industry research is more directed and done in larger groups compared to academic research groups or what a PhD or an MS scholar does. Industry can afford to do bigger and expensive experiments or take bigger risks. And many ideas can be pursued quickly in industry. More Ideas get generated dynamically, due to group brain storming. But finally when it comes to one individual taking up a research task, the pace will be similar as researcher is dealing with the knowledge and real problems. Only difference is in industry many take up those tasks and knowledge gets churned faster. Lastly industry research aims to produce business by creating value.

Collaborations are definitely possible, when there is a potential difference between any two groups, the knowledge flows in one direction and when both are similar, knowledge and idea exchange happens. Some problems are more theoretical or farther from business, and industry may not have time for them, until those problems reach a stage Academic research can contribute to industry. And industry can sponsor that kind of efforts by seeing their long term potential.

Me: How does a student decide if he is more suited for “Academic Research” vs “Industry Research” ?
SR: This is individual choice, industry research makes you do nearer to practical things, can make you richer economically. Academic research gives you freedom to do more profound research and that may not be nearer to market or so no market pressure but can make you richer in deep knowledge. A good researcher can anytime change to other type of research. Sometimes costly explorations attract academic researchers to take sabbaticals to industry, and more theoretical topics attract industry researchers to spend time in academic institutions/groups. Most of the academic researchers also teach, which in itself is interesting to some; apart from giving them opportunity to visit well known fundamental topics again and again, and also look at them w.r.to current developments outside. This gives opportunity for bringing a new light into fundamentals. Lastly Industry research makes people to also continuously think for the other two often ignored directions of research by academicians, i.e., the business and usability of the technical research being done.

Me: Almost any research topic connected to engineering requires a student to be comfortable in programming – amongst the huge pool of programming languages (C, C++, FORTRAN, MATLAB, Mathematica, Perl etc.,) – what do u suggest is the most suited for research oriented programming?

SR: Ya I do agree, good programming or implementation skills are helpful in research. Depending on the topic of research the programming languages or tools become appropriate. Matlab is good for many areas of Signal processing. But C or C++ and scripting languages like PERL etc are preferred in areas such as Speech recognition, here you have more control and get more knowledge of the field while developing algorithms using these languages. Based on the vastness of the area, the toolkits get gradually formed by the research communities, using these toolkits appropriate to each topic is a good approach. Of course these toolkits themselves get upgraded and a researcher is expected to learn to work on the source code of these tool kits.

Me: What do you think is the most vital and unique part of Research that can never be got in any other spectrum of professions?

SR: All the professions have their value in the society. Some professions are characterized by less range/dynamics of feelings they produce, some produce high range of feeling in the minds of people pursuing them.

Some topics of research can take people to bliss, when on a right path, but researchers also need to be patient when failures occur which can take people to their lows (e.g., all your effort could turn out to be in a wrong direction, or your costly experiment failed or all of your great ideas have occurred to someone else few years back).

Historically society has faced many unique situations, and is going to face more and more unique and specific problems, the solutions to these are not going to be simple, each of these problems need good amount of research work. Unless some healthy proportion of population takes up (or is encouraged/enabled to) research (as a profession) in each field, we are doomed to solve any problem we face in the hard way, sometimes re-inventing or sometimes spending/loosing huge amounts of time and money.

Lastly, research profession has potential to give higher value to the society and researcher can enjoy more respect and have more say on things (“Knowledge is power”).

Me: In HP R&D, which field of engineering would find most applications like, amongst Electrical, Instrumentation, Chemical, Mech, Prod, Meta, Comp Sci – who would find better opportunities in the R&D in HP.
SR: In HP Labs India major chunk of researchers are from a) Electronics-and-Communications and b) Computer Science engineering.

Me: A student has decided to do research – how do u suggest that he does a self analysis to really find out whether he is interested or can really sustain himself by doing research. (Peer pressure is very common in colleges, so he might have resorted to research just because his friends are into it)
SR: As you said, a simple self analysis will indicate, whether he/she is capable or interested in a research career. A simple test of capability is: with the current knowledge/intelligence they possess are they able to follow at least one thread of the field till the state of the art, say in six months? This makes them ready to start thinking innovatively for problems being addressed. However, hard work is an important ingredient for a research career, which is easy to figure out in self. And results will surely come to motivate if the effort is good enough.

Me: Thank you so much sir for this sharing this invaluable information. This input is going to be definitely useful for us.

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CWS co-sponsors Thyagaraja Aradhana

Satyam – A big lie

After a long time I am really writing something..

So Guys.. So butterflies in the stomach The moment has arrived.

You have been preparing for this one exam for past 1 year (3 years, 2 years, 6 months, 1 week whatever)

And just 2.5 hours to decide your fate..(does it??? I dont think so) It certainly does put your efforts into dustbin if you dont do well..

Anyways, so what to do in the last 1 – 2 week to go.. What to do now????

I am sure you have been searching “1 week to cat” in almost all possible forums remotely related to CAT.. I dont blame you for that.. Even I was doing the same last year..

Here is what I did. Disclaimer: You dont have to do what I did. I am just telling what I did.
1. Revise all basic formulas in quants.
2. Brought 2 novels & I was reading it to keep my thoughts away from CAT
3. Went out & Played cricket almost everyday.

So what should u do???

I am sure there will be hazaar forums out there.. which will recommend which movies to watch on the day before CAT.
Dont fall for all this. Do what fits you best. Do what you will naturally do to keep your focus, at the same time without getting too focussed.

There will a huge speculation about whether you should write your last mock cat, correct your last mock papers which you give in your room etc.. Again, Be yourself. If you are someone who can take a low score and still believe that you can go there and crack the paper, correct your paper. Else dont correct. Samething for last paper.

So remember one thing, be yourself. Be confident. Just believe in yourself.

I was having a conversation with my friend yesterday.. And this what he had to tell about life at IIMs & IITs.

“IIMs & IITs are like public toilets. People outside want to desperately come in. People inside want to desperately get out.”

Well, however hilarious that comment was.. it is partially true..

So dont worry.. There is life beyond CAT, irrespective of whether you do well or not.. So.. thats it.. give your best.. Enjoy the moment!!

All the best.

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Going on a vacation in a couple of days

Hey Guys,

Hope you had a great diwali!! I was damn impressed with the fireworks here in IIMB. I certainly a had time here on diwali with a couple of classes and 1 extra class

Anyways, today’s guest on Coffee With Sundar was the one who initiated a cracker of an event at NIT Trichy – Pragyan. Its my pleasure to host Arpit Agarwal, 2005 batch NIT Trichy alumni who is now pursuing his MBA at SJMSOM, IIT Bombay. Arpit is going to share information about MBA at IIT Bombay

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Coffee With Arpit Agarwal

- Brief introduction about yourself?
I am a NIT Trichy graduate from the class of 2005. I did my entire schooling in Agra (UP) before coming to Trichy. Thereafter, I worked with Ittiam Systems for two years. I then moved to join Shailesh J Mehta School of Management in IIT Bombay. I am currently studying in Second year of MBA.

My life was all about Acads before joining NIT Trichy. In NIT Trichy I learned how large organizations work and we created the platform of Pragyan, the first ever combined technical festival of NIT Trichy. This single event gave me such a grounding in the principles of management that I can now relate to fundamentals of management better than many of my classmates.

Over past three years after NIT Trichy, I have come in touch with several entrepreneurs and startups through NIT Trichy alumni, Barcamp and Mobile Mondays. With this my respect for entrepreneurial passion has increase so much that it has become the ultimate ambition for me.

Entry Criteria:
- What are the entry criteria? What are the exams which one should take? What are the typical scores?
Entry in SJMSOM takes place through IITs’ Joint Management Entrance Test (JMET). JMET gives each candidate a rank. The candidates then apply for various IITs and IISc. Based on this rank, the institutes call candidates for GD/PI round. The entrance criterion for SJMSOM is an engineering degree or a masters in science. It gets tough because only close to top 350 rank-holders are only called in the open category. This means the “gender diversity” is limited too!

- What is the selection process? (GD-PI or essays etc)
The written test has four sections: RC/Verbal, Quant, DI and LR. Some sections are further divided into sub-sections. Some of a sub-section might have mutiple choices correct. Otherwise the test is easier on an average than CAT. However, due to strict negative marking, the cut-offs are lower.

GD/PI are held only in Mumbai (IIT). This is a most typical GD/PI round with more GDs held on a case study basis than not.. The PI is a familiarization process only. No great complexity here. They also ask the candidates to come prepared with a one page SOP.

- What is importance given to workex? What is the average work ex at the university? What is the fees for the course? Are there chances of getting an aid or scholarship?
WorkEx is very important in SJMSOM. This could be guaged from the fact that close to 90% of my batchmates and 95% of my juniors have prior full time workex. The average workex is close to 25 months in both batches, with several people being above 5 years of experience. There is clearly a bias towards people with experience.

- Typical Ranking range of the univeristy (just ranking is not a good idea.. it doesnt convey much)
The latest rankings put us around 8-12 among all Indian B-schools.

- What is the fees for the course? Are there chances of getting an aid or scholarship?
The fees presently is Rs.62,500 per semester + mess + Hostel. There is a small scholarship given to student who score more than 8 (SPI) in a particular semester. But it cannot replace fees. IITB alumni also offers soft loans for students.

Life @ Campus:
- What is the system there? Is it semester or trimester? specialized MBA or general MBA with electives? How does one choose electives?
We have two terms of 5 courses each per semester (total 8 terms). It is general management degree with most courses in first year being core/compulsory and most in second year being electives from your area of choice.

- What is work load there in terms of acads? What are the other activities a student can take part in?
The academic load is significant. There is a 80% attendance rule for appearing in examination. However the load is not so much that it becomes impossible to participate in extra-curricular activities or make friends. The school has its annual business festival “AVENUES 08″ this month. We also have six “Continuums” focussed on different streams of management in addition to several industry interaction sessions.

IIT Bombay students are particularly exposed to a very strong entrepreneurship culture in the campus, mostly due to the technology business incubator “SINE” in the campus, where students get a hands-on experience in working of a startup. The E-Cell of IIT Bombay is one of the most successful cells in India. It organized Asia’s largest business plan competition “Eureka” every year in Oct and an Entrepreneurship Summit in Feb.

Apart from these, everyone vouches to visit the campus during Mood Indigo and Techfest. These events have a strong following within the student community. In addition, each department has its own calendar of activities. So does each of the numerous clubs in IITB.

- Is internship a part of curriculum? Is it a must? What are the chances of getting an internship?
Internship is not a part of the curriculum. But it is a must. Everyone in my campus gets placed through the summer placement process.

- How are the students in terms of diversity? What are the various back grounds from which people come from?
SJMSOM does not allow non-engineers to apply. An exception could be a M.Sc. Most students of SJMSOM have work experience with an average work-ex of 25 months. Most students from come from IT industry. Some others come with an experience in manufacturing industry as well.

Exit Options:
- What are the type of job profiles and companies which visit campus?
Finance: Treasury, Investment Banking, Front-End Banking, Equity Research, Credit Rating, Corporate Finance in various sectors
Operations: Logistics and Supply Chain Management, Sourcing, Distribution, Banking Operations
Marketing: Sales, Marketing, Branding in FMCG, IT, Realty, Pharma, BFSI Sectors
IT: Business Analyst, Project Management, Pre-Sales

There is a long list of companies which visit our campus.. I don’t remember all of them. Almost all top Indian firms visit our campus. Some foreign firms also make an offer.

- How many people start company on an average? What are the support available for students to start their own venture if they want to?
If entrepreurship is on your mind, IIT Bombay is the place to be. IITB acts as the hub of all elements that make an ecosystem – there is a strong research, an incubator (SINE) and proximity from market. If your plan is good enough, SINE will be interested in investing in you. Several ex-students have got funding this way.

Other Info:
- Any other information which you would like to share with aspirants?
None that I can think of.

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Thanks soo much Arpit for sharing this valuable piece of information.

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Got into IIMB

Hi All,

It is my pleasure to host Mr. Chandrakanth B N today on CWS.

Chandra is the cofounder and Managing Director India of Theorem. He has over 13 years of experience in the IT industry and a rich experience and knowledge of technical and management skills. He has a Master’s Degree in Industrial Management from Northern Illinois University and a Bachelors Degree in Engineering from Bangalore University. On completing his Master’s, Chandra managed the IT infrastructure of a manufacturing company in the Chicago area. Upon his return to India, he founded and managed a software services company, Pairee Infotech, providing software development services to clients in North America.

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Coffee With Sundar

Me: Sundar Rajan G S

CBN: Chandrakanth B N

Me: Hello Sir, Welcome to Coffee with Sundar!! Can you tell us what is theorem all about? How is it different from its competitors? Who your customers etc..

CBN: Theorem is a technology company focused on the digital marketing domain. Theorem provides online marketers including technology companies, advertising agencies and publishers with expert technology outsourcing services ranging from routine back-office support to higher end complex solutions. Leveraging a large team of 400 people, domain expertise, global infrastructure and technical skills, Theorem helps drive down costs and improve operational efficiencies. Theorem is uniquely positioned to service our customers by providing not only the technology support but also the valuable advice they need to make intelligent business decisions in the digital marketing domain. This sets us apart from other generic technology service providers. Theorem has customers globally covering the Americas, Europe, Middle East, Asia and Australia.

Me: Sir, You have over 12 years of experience in IT industry.. Can you talk about the evolution of IT & ITES.. You have seen the various phases of the industry.. What are some of the best and the worst phases of the industry?

CBN: I have about 14 years experience in the IT industry. While the beginnings of the IT industry were in the early 80s, the fast paced growth happened in the 90s. With the internet revolution in the 90s, we saw a huge spurt in investment in IT companies which created a big .com bubble. The other big contributing factor for this growth during that time was the Y2K phenomenon. With a lot of irrational investments, IT industry saw an unprecedented growth during that phase, which ended in 2000 – 01 when the bubble burst. While US was in the forefront of the IT and Software growth in the 90s, Indian IT industry showed tremendous growth, post the .com burst. This was largely due to the outsourcing which was necessitated by cost cutting measures adopted by US corporations. Post 2000 we also saw an emergence of the ITES industry in India, which has since matured and contributed significantly to our economy.

Me: Sir, you are a MD at Theorem! What are the top skills needed to do well in your position? Can you throw some light on having/not having an MBA at your positions?

CBN: I strongly believe one of the essential qualities for a leader is to have a vision, passion, ability to build teams which share that vision and be able to carry that team along. Empathy towards your people and being genuinely interested in them goes a long way in ensuring peak performance and loyalty. Empowered employees always perform much better than those who are micromanaged. The other key qualities according to me are the ability to take risks, think big in the long term but reality in the short term, swift decision making and being able to walk your talk.

MBA can act as a good foundation for a management position, but nothing is better than real life experiences. Management programs train people on the essential skills and provide the necessary tools to perform well in the corporate world. However, implementing the same in the real world becomes a challenge. A good attitude and work ethic is crucial to achieve success. Human Beings are the most complex creatures. A lot about leadership is managing this complex being while keeping one’s own emotions under check. High emotional quotient is absolutely important for managers to be able to succeed in their roles.

Me: Can you share some of the lessons which you learnt outside the classrooms

CBN: Class room scenarios are always idealistic. In the real world, there are a lot more complexities in every situation than one can envision. Real challenges and issues are rarely simulated. Dependency on people, unexpected challenges that come from nowhere and the ability to calmly deal with them is something I have certainly learnt outside the classroom. As I have said earlier, people management is learnt largely through real life experiences.

Learning never ends, each day teaches you something new. Being open to new ideas, keeping ego aside to make business decisions that ensure organizational growth and success, taking unpopular decisions in the larger interest of the stake holders, thinking out of the box are some of the key learning I have had. Crisis management is another big thing I have learnt at work.

Me: Are you looking for people of any particular profiles? Is there any job openings?

CBN: Theorem has grown steadily over the last seven years and recruitment is an ongoing process. Our numbers have almost doubled over the last year. At Theorem we’re on a constant lookout for people with potential who can be groomed into good IT and Digital marketing professionals. We recruit at several levels. For our entry level positions, we look at graduates from any stream with basic knowledge of internet technologies, good communication skills and a hunger to learn. For leadership positions we look at people who are good at people management, have the potential to mentor teams, and are visionaries, creative and innovative. But of course, since we’re in the Online Media Marketing domain, people with a background in Advertising and Digital Marketing are always welcome to make a career with us.

Me: Finally, is there something else which you would like to share with readers of CWS?

CBN: Thank you for this opportunity. I would like to share with the readers of CWS the whole new opportunity that is being created around the online media marketing space. This is one of the fastest growing domains fueled by the need for corporations to get instant real time data on ROI for their marketing budgets. It also provides a platform for cost effective means of running marketing campaigns. This has created a whole new career opportunity for young engineering and marketing graduates to pursue.

Internet is a revolutionary phenomenon and the biggest invention for our generation and the near future. Generation X and Y are adapting to Internet like never before, which opens up newer opportunities in this domain. Technologies in this space are constantly changing, creating challenges for those hungry to learn and adapt to newer IT opportunities. SEO, SEM, Rich Media, Mobile and Social Networks are emerging as new interesting phenomena in online marketing. A number of innovations are around the corner to improve the online marketing eco space. These are exciting times and I hope many young graduates look at making a career in this space. Theorem being a pioneer in this space can provide excellent opportunities to people with passion and willingness to learn.

Me: Thank you soo much sir for taking your time for this interview

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CBN: Readers, Hope you enjoyed this edition of Coffee With Sundar. On a closing note, I would like to introduce you guys to a blog started by CWS interviewees – Sean Johnson & Jake Levirne – http://artoftheproduct.com/ Jake on an email mentioned that CWS was something which inspired them, atleast in part, to start this blog.

Have nice time!

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