My office timings are very reasonable. I leave at 8 AM and am back by 6 PM, 5 days a week - which is unusual in the financial world. My team, like most of HMC, is very talented and diverse. I like working in the team and never feel left out or alone. Work is intense and challenging, requires attention to details and am still learning the details. Working in these places makes one humble. When we see so many smart people, it is difficult to fall under any false hubris.

I live near the university in a place called Cambridge, which has its own history. It takes me 35 minutes to reach office from here by taking a subway. Cambridge is a student area and almost everyone is a student at Harvard or MIT. While I have not interacted with many people as yet, there is a palpable feeling that these kids are smart - and most importantly - diverse in their interests and hobbies. The local laundry house is proof of that. Laundry mats are places where you really miss the good old dhobi twice a month. They are the US equivalents of Indian barber shops - just like barber shops in India they are full of popular movie magazines and tabloids. Thanks to them, I have known that Kim Kadarshian is having a fight with her mom and that there are tension brewing in Brad Pitt and Ms Jolie. BUT, the Laundromat near my house has Vogue/Cosmopolitan as well as books on East Asian food, Michelangelo’s life, Louvre’s collection, and Rocky mountains among other things. The clientele looks different and they demand different entertainment

Boston is considered to be a ‘Old money’ place in stark comparison to New York’s nouveau riche population. Locals don’t like the big apple that much and neither do they that emotion. Loyalties to football/baseball/basketball teams are almost jingoistic in appeal and I even saw a car sporting(?) a sticker - Yankees S*** ( ref to New York Yankees baseball team). I have no idea about these sports and thus find myself as the only person in bars on a Friday evening ho isn’t agitated.

I would however have to admit that Boston is much more beautiful and calmer than New York, if you leave out Manhattan’s Central Park that is. People are not running all the time and they usually have a better standard of living than their Yankee counterparts. Perhaps people are more well mannered too. The architecture, though not impressive as some other cities is special because of its association with many historic events. Khalil Gibran was here, just like Swami Vivekanand and Robert Frost. Boston is in fact over-educated , more than 40% of citizens have a college degree which is very high by American standards.

Over the summer months I plan to explore the city and make excursions to Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire. There is so much to see here and I don’t want to miss any of it. Visiting Grand Canyon and Yellowstone national park is on the cards too, will keep you posted on this.

इस कविता को समझने के लिए प्रेम में होना (या किसी समय रहा होना ) आवश्यक है. साधू!

कविताकोश के साभार ली गयी है ये रचना.

===

हफ़्ते भर से चल रहे हैं
जेब में सात रुपये
और शरीर पर
एक जोड़ कपड़े

एक पूरा चार सौ पृष्ठों का उपन्यास
कल ही पूरा पढ़ा,
और कल ही
अफ़सर ने
मेरे काम की तारीफ़ की।

दोस्तों को मैंने उनकी चिट्ठियों के
लम्बे-लम्बे उत्तर लिखे
और माँ को लिखा
कि मुझे उसकी ख़ूब-ख़ूब याद आती है।

सम्वादों के
अपमान की हद पार करने पर भी
मुझे मारपीट जितना
गुस्सा नहीं आया

और बरसात में
सड़क पार करती लड़कियों को
घूरते हुए मैं झिझका नहीं

तुम्हें मेरी दाढ़ी अच्छी लगती है
और अब जबकि तुम
इस शहर में नहीं हो
मैं
दाढ़ी कटवाने के बारे में सोच रहा हूँ।

This is not the first time that I have come across sweeping statements like these. Some people in India inculcate this notion of India being the best in everything - from culture to science, from ethics to nationalism. This jingoism reminds one of mussolini’s Italy, Hitler’s German or in more recent times, Kim il Sung’s North Korea (c.f. North Koreans are told that the “beloved leader” of North Korea ‘invented’ the Hamburger ). Growing up in 1990’s Ajmer, I often heard comments of how Indian minds are superior to those in west and how Indians abroad control the intellectual seat of knowledge. And who has not heard the local pundit touting hinduism over everything else?

I call it BS. The mere idea of one culture being superior to other is the root cause of so many problems in the world. How can one say that Hindi Literature is better than Greek literature? For subjective qualities like these how can one even make a statement of one thing being better than other?? For objective things we still can compare notes and the reality is no where close to this illusion. Who wins the Nobel prizes? (science ones - not that farce called ‘peace prize’ ) Who excelled in studies in Columbia University? ( answer - French! ) Which countries are top ranking in HRD indexes? Can the people who have made comments about India being the Greatest country have name the other 192 countries?

I think people who claim one culture/language/literature is better than others are too blinded by their beleifs to appreciate things. Those who have very limited knowledge can make idiotic comments of their culture being superior.

Those who know the world, those who have a quest for knowledge , inevitably end up realising that the world is only a repetitive pattern of same basic things. That no one is superior to other. That we all are same wine in differnet bottles.

….and that’s exactly what Lao Tsu realised 2500 years ago:

“The tao that can be told,
is not the eternal Tao.
The name that can be named
is not the eternal name

The unnamable is eternally real.
Naming is the origin
of all particular things.

Free from desire, you realise the mystery
Caught in the desire, you see only the manifestations.

Yet mystery and manifestations
arise from the same source.”

(Tao te Ching)

…

चलो हम दीया बन जाते हैं
और तुम बाती …

हमें सात फेरों या कि “कुबूल है” से
क्या लेना-देना

हमें तो बनाए रखना है
अपने दिया-बाती के
सम्बन्ध को……… मसलन रोशनी

हम थोड़ा-थोड़ा जलेंगे
हम खो जाएँगे हवा में
मिट जाएगी फिर रोशनी भी हमारी
पर हम थोड़ी चमक देकर ही जाएँगे
न ज़्यादा सही कोई भूला भटका
खोज पाएगा कम से कम एक नेम-प्लेट
या कोई पढ़ पाएगा ख़त हमारी चमक में ।

तो क्या हम दीया बन जाए
तुम मंजूर करते हो बाती बनना।
मंजूर करते हो मेरे साथ चलना कुछ देर के लिए
मेरे साथ जगर-मगर की यात्रा में चलना….कुछ पल।

Let’s celebrate spring by reading amodh’s poem of Springtime in 1962 - exactly 50 years young this season! ( This page has been taken from KavitaKosh)

Note: Kachnar looks like this

फूले वनांत के कांचनार !
खेतों के चंचल अंचल से आती रह-रह सुरभित बयार ।
फूले वनांत के कांचनार ।
( वनांत = wilderness)

मिट्टी की गोराई निखरी,
रग-रग में अरुणाई बिखरी,
कामना-कली सिहरी-सिहरी पाकर ओठों पर मधुर भार ।
फूले वनांत के कांचनार !

घासों पर अब छाई लाली,
चरवाहों के स्वर में गाली,
सकुची पगडंडी फैल चली लेकर अपना पूरा प्रसार ।
फूले वनांत के कांचनार !

शाखों से फूटे लाल-लाल,
सेमल के मन के मधु-ज्वाल,

उमड़े पलास के मुक्त हास, गुमसुम है उत्सुक कर्णिकार ।
फूले वनांत के कांचनार !
( कर्णिकार = a wild tree)

मंजरियों का मादक रस पी,
बागों में फिर कोयल कूकी,
उत्सव के गीतों से अहरह मुखरित ग्रामों के द्वार-द्वार ।
फूले वनांत के कांचनार !
(अहरह = daily, continuously)

The times haven’t really changed much. There is a Poonam Pandey who decides to strip if india wins the match, and then blatantly backtracks. I remember there was a Rakhi Sawant before her, Mallika Sherawat before Rakhi, Raveena Tandon before Mallika, and Mamta Kulkarni before Raveena. And before all of them was the American Porn industry, with black and white videos dating to 1920’s.

There is a Baba Ramdev who hides in women’s clothing. I remember there was a Nithyanand baba, who was caught in porn scandal. Then there was a sathya Sai Baba who was gay before nithyanand, and a certain asaram babu who was a child molestor and the baap of all of them - osho who openly said, “leave me for the rich people”.

There is a generation that wants to earn more money than their parents, or grandparents, or all previous generations combined. And then there are the sons who want to waste more money than their parents,or grandparents, or all previous generations combined.

A simple poem, but very deep. Mr Mathur blogs at http://www.govind-mathur.blogspot.com/

इस तरीके से नही
पहले हमें
सहज होना होगा
किसी तनाव में
टूटने से बेहतर है
धीरे-धीरे
अज्ञात दिशाओं में
गुम हो जाएँ

हमारे सम्बन्ध
कच्ची बर्फ से नही
कि हथेलियों में
उठाते ही पिघल जाएँ
आख़िर हमने
एक-दूसरे की
गर्माहट महसूस की है

इतने दिनों तक
तुमने और मैंने
चौराहे पर खड़े हो कर
अपने अस्तित्व को
बनाए रखा है
ये ठीक है कि
हमें गुम भी
इस ही
चौराहे से होना है

पर इस तरीके से नही
पहले हमें
मासूम होना होगा
उतना ही मासूम
जितना हम
एक दूसरे से
मिलने के पूर्व थे

पहले मैं या तुम
कोई भी
एक आरोप लगाएंगे
न समझ पाने का
तुम्हें या मुझे
और फिर
महसूस करेगें
उपेक्षा
अपनी-अपनी

कितना आसान होगा
हमारा अलग हो जाना
जब हम
किसी उदास शाम को
चौराहे पर मौन खड़े होंगे

और फिर जब
तुम्हारे और मेरे बीच
संवाद टूट जएगा
कभी तुम चौराहे पर
अकेले खड़े होगें
और कभी मैं

फिर धीरे-धीरे
हमें एक दूसरे की
प्रतीक्षा नही होगी
कितना सहज होगा
हमारा अजनबी हो जाना
जब हम सड़कों और गलियों में
एक दूसरे को देख कर
मुस्करा भर देंगे
या हमारा हाथ
एक औपचारिकता में
उठ जाया करेगा

हाँ हमें
इतनी जल्दी भी क्या है
ये सब
सहज ही हो जाएगा
फिर हमें
बीती बातों के नाम पर
यदि याद रहेगा तो
सिर्फ़
एक-दूसरे का नाम

I’m writing this post to summarize what I learnt. I hope the reader ( perhaps a Columbia University IEOR Grad student like me) benefits and adds his/her observations along. I did not do all these things, at some of them I failed miserably. But a wise person is one who learns from others mistake.

Before Starting College

1) Your job hunt does not starts 1 semester before graduation. It starts from the day that you get your college admit letter. You should have only 3 focus areas in college. a) Learn (study) as much as possible b) Enjoy your college life in a responsible way and c) never forget the end result of education - a dream job.

2) When you arrive in college, You should already have the first draft of your resume ready. You should have ideally spent atleast 20 hours on making your resume. The only thing that should change is the top line of education heading, where you decide your courses and put relevant courses,

3) You should read every page of your university’s career website. For Columbia University, it would mean that you have read everything at http://www.careereducation.columbia.edu/resources/

4) Make a Linkedin Profile. Your goal should be to have 500+ connections before your last semester.

The First Semester

5) Arrive in US one month before course starts. Give yourself sufficient time to find an apartment and to acclimatize with the new culture. Contact seniors. Get all stupid things like phone, housing, food etc sorted out so that you waste minimal time thinking about them once school starts.

6) Talk to seniors and alumni before selecting courses. Although you should select courses that you like, keep in mind that certain classes are very important for jobs. For example, Security Pricing is a must if you want to be in finance.

7) Dont bite more than what you can chew. Select at least one ‘easy’ class each semester to maintain a decent GPA.

in light of points 6 and 7 above, Talk to your advisor ( or better still Jenny Mak in IEOR department ) before settling on a course,

9) Once college starts, You’ll be always short of time. For the first month, try to participate in everything possible. After first month, concentrate on a few things that suit your interest. Don’t compromise on studies for extra-curricular work. The only thing that may take a upper hand is interviewing where even if you have to miss classes, its ok.

10) GPA is not absolute. There are “bands” of GPA. below 3.0 you are pretty much screwed. 3.0 - 3.3 is just ok. 3.3 - 3.5 is average. 3.5 - 3.8 is good. 3.8 to 4.0 is very good. 4.0 + is excellent. The positive impact of a 4.0+ GPA is very high, just like the negative impact of a 3.0 and lesser GPA. That said, a higher GPA is always better

11) Sometime after the mid-sems, start applying for Spring and Summer Internships. I suggest you concentrate on CCE and IEOR job postings for the start. I ask you to wait till mid sems so that you can make some sense of job postings’ work description. This way, u’ll come across as a smart applicant who knows what he/she is talking about in cover letter.

12) A spring internship will mean that a) Your free time will disappear completely b) You’ll have to compromise on your social life c) You’ll have to work extra hard for grades d) you’ll miss out on some required extra-curricular activities. The good thing is that you’ll add a US work experience on your resume which will help you find a summer internship as well as a full time job.

Winter Break

13) Take 3-4 days off after the hectic first semester. Then, get down to work. The two odd weeks should be used to remedy your coding and math skills. I suggest you pick up 1 language - VBA or C++ preferably, otherwise MATLAB and try to code as much as possible. Make a schedule so you don’t waste time in spring semester to learn these things. ( I regret that I did not do this - big mistake)

14) Go to various companies website and note the deadline for summer internships. Make an excel sheet where you note the designation, deadline, and required documents. Mark your calendar so you don’t miss any stuff.

15) Good time to go to Linkedin ans see where your school alumni are working. On the excel sheet in point 14, make another column for people you should contact about jobs details in the specific company. EG. “UBS - ER Intern - 12 Jan 2012 - resume/CoverLetter - Contact Mr XYZ of MSOR 2004 to know more”

Second Semester.

This section assumes you have a GPA of 3.4+

16) This is when you’ll learn the most. There are amazing courses available in this semester. Asset Allocation, Term Structure, Volatility smile, Security Pricing, Application Programming etc are all good courses. You should try to audit as many courses in the first two weeks as possible. Remember, what you choose to learn in this semester will modify your job hunt in a major way.

17) If you are not interning this semester, study very very hard. Don’t limit yourself to 3 hard, 1 easy course rule. Take all those subjects where you think u’ll learn the most. In addition, audit another subject if you so wish. Crux - this semester forms the bulk of your knowledge base for any job you will do. Think of this semester as on-job training.

18) The only other objective in Spring semester is to find a Summer Internship. Be ready to apply to 50, 100 or even 150 places. Your objectives in the internship should be - firstly Brand Name, Secondly job content and thirdly Money. . Don’t feel bad if you are not earning as much as some others in summer internship. Brand Name and job content are far more important in long run.

19) Again, CCE and IEOR postings are my preferred way of searching for jobs. Others say that websites like internship dot com, monster dot com and efinancial careers are also good. But as you will observe, you’ll get around 200 - 500 job postings for relevant internships. For me, that was more than enough.

20) Don’t be disappointed if you don’t get an internship by April. People got internships as late as June. In the end, about 70% of my (known) classmates of MSOR ‘2011 had internships. Some unpaid, some paid. Mostly paid between $9 and $43 per hour.

21) The best way to find internship/jobs , apart from CCE, is networking.

Summer Internship

I’ll post another article here mentioning what you can do to maximize your benefits from Summer Internship.

The Last Semester

22) Try to have a light courseload in your last semester because you want to focus all your energy on job hunting.

23) Right after summer internship, make at-least 4-5 types of cover letters. Rework your resume. Have 3-4 types of resumes ready as well.

24) These cover Letters and resumes should not be longer than 1 page each. They should be easy to read and be specific to major types of job roles that you are planing to apply to. For example, in finance they can be one each for Equity Research, Portfolio Management, Credit Risk, Market Risk, Aset Allocation, Quant Research, Quant Trading, Technical (coding), Structured Finance etc. Bring out your different qualities as needed in each job. For Example, Equity Research should focus on your ” seeing the big picture” trait while Quant Trading should focus on ” Quick mathematical mind”.

25) Get your Cover letters and Resumes reviewed by someone in CCE.

26) For heaven’s sake, make sure you are addressing the correct company/person/job in your cover letter. Dont be stupid to send one cover letter to another company. ( I did this and I truly regretted it)

27) Not all jobs in CCE will be for Grad students. Some of them will only be for undergrads or postdocs. For these posting, go to the website directly and apply.

28) Not all jobs will be open to International Students. Don’t waste your time for jobs that require US Citizenship !!

29) My personal experience with job fairs is that they are useless if you haven’t researched the company and roles before visiting the fair. If you go there, the only way u can separate yourself from 100’s of people is when you ask quesntions like, “So I saw your profile at website and you mention that you need so-and-so. I have this-and-this and am good at such-and-such. Do you think I’ll fit in/ can you enlighten me abt this/ can i speak to someone in your this department/ I met XYZ and really liked the role, can you tell me what differentiates a good candiate from others?” etc. Moot point is - don’t sound dumb and ask stupid qns which amazingly enough, 90% of people do.

30) Don’t loose heart if you are rejected! Everyone who got a job amongst my friends received at least 40-50 rejects. Some people like me received 174 rejects. You’re not the first one who’ll receive a reject nor the last one. There will be times when you’ll just not know why u didnt get a interview call, when you clearly were the best. Instead of pondering too much over it, move on.

31) In light of point 30 above, if you are tired of job hunt, take a break, for as long as a week. Leave some applications. Its ok to miss a few deadlines. Don’t take it too hard on yourself. I suggest after every 30 applications, you take two days off and do no job hunting.

32) If everything fails, mobilize your networks and LinkedIn to full force. If you have been diligent, you would have already spoken to a number of people over the past 15 months, and now is the time ( on your 3-4th interaction) to very tactically ask, “is there any job that you know of? “. Please note that you’ll need to raise this topic very sensitively with your networks, I’ll write another post on this topic sometime.

33) If you have done all the above things, the only thing that can stop you from getting a job is your poor luck. And if that happens, remember what happens, happens for the best. Have faith in the Lord for He who creates is He who feeds.

First the disclaimers : We only surveyed people whom we interact with and took into account facts known among friends. There may have been job offers that were not disclosed. Also, the sample size is 31 while the class size is perhaps 200. We did not consider any visa restrictions and our facts may be horribly wrong. Most importantly, The course has not even finished and people still have 1 month of course + 2 months of grace period + 3 months of OPT = 6 months more to search for a job offer. It is highly likely that (almost) everyone will get a job in the next 6 months. It is certain that the next round of great jobs will come from freshers ( first quarter of 2012 )

Now the results:

Sample size = 31
Of which Indian citizens = 31
People with job offers = 15 ( 48.4%)
People with job offers who are happy with status quo ( no more job huntng) = 8 ( 25.8% of sample size)
People with Work Experience = 19
…. of which who got offers = 12.
=> 63 % of work ex junta got offers as of December 2, 2011

People without Work Experience = 12
…. of which who got offers = 03.
=> 25 % of freshers got offers as of December 2, 2011

Number of people who had a summer internship = 24
…. Of which got offers = 13

=> internship considerably inreases your chance to get an offer.

Sample list of companies: AmEx, PwC, E&Y, Thomson Reuters, Goldman Sachs, Nomura etc.
Sample Designations: Analyst, Senior Analyst, Associate, Consultant, Sr. Consultant

Notes:

1) Work experience is defined as anyone who has more than 12 months of work experience in any field.
2) Only relies on publicly available information
3) Salary disclosure is rare, so no statistics are available.

But!

c) If you love someone, there is no guarantee that the favor will be returned.