How to prepare for Deloitte?

The basic process of company recruitment consists of three stages:1.     Written test
2.     Group case study
3.     Interview
Written test primarily consists of aptitude and verbal. Quantitative aptitude is quite easy and will be like slicing a piece of butter with a hot knife. Verbal section consists of three vocabulary based questions, Para-jumbles and a small RC. In all, there will be ten questions in English and this section was the deciding factor. I am talking this with respect to the 2011 test paper.Now, for those who cleared the first round, comes the second stage which is group case study. In this round, groups of 6 to 7 students are made and given a particular problem or case and time of 15-20 minutes. Now you have to work in a group (Mind it: work in a group) and provide a comprehensive solution to the problem. This round tests your so-called personality traits, namely team spirit, leadership skills, ability of work as a team and help team members. In this stage, you have to be an individual as well as represent your group.Interviewis mainly HR. stress is laid on activities mentioned in your CV, and few puzzles are also asked. I would suggest you to prepare standard HR interview questions as well as these are asked inevitably in all interviews.For case studies, you can study any case study like Vault’s guide.All the above suggestions/points are based on 2011 campus recruitment procedure of the company.

To read, interview experiences of students who got selected in Deloitte, click here.

Click here to download placement paper of Deloitte.

Importance of Goal Setting

I will begin this article with a small story.

There were two guys standing on a road. A car at high speed passed them and dog sitting nearby started to chase the car.

First person asked,” Will this dog be ever able to catch the car?”

Second person said,” This does not matter whether he will be able to catch it or not. What I am thinking is what will he do to catch it?”

Are we like that dog which runs after each and every car that moves nearby?

What is your answer to this question?

Yes or No?

Here comes the importance of goal setting. We need to set a goal and then chase it. It should not be the scenario that whatever we are chasing becomes our goal. Our goal should decide our path and not vice-e-versa.

Let me again consider a small situation.

You are one of the members of a group of five students who are planning to go for vacation to Leh  (deliberately using this place, I wish I could go there). Now I am considering that all the students live in hostel and then being short on finance becomes obvious (No offences to those who have lot of money). So you plan to go by train (general coach :P) to the nearest railway station and then by bus (remember: you are short on finances). And finally you reach Leh (No need to write this line because it is obvious that when you are planning to go to Leh then you will reach Leh for sure).

Did you ever think of boarding a train to Jaipur to reach Leh in this journey?  (You must be thinking that I am mad and talking such insane by asking this)

Answer is blunt NO. Why?

The reason is your focus towards your goal. You decided your goal and your destination before starting your journey and every step followed it. Same applies to our life. We need to decide our goals and destinations before hand so that whatever decisions we take follow it. We have to live a life in which each and every decision of our life is decided by us because we want it to be that way. Life should follow the direction given by us and not vice-e-versa.

Many people after reading this article will contradict my view point but I will ask one thing: when we can decide our small actions in life then why bigger decisions can’t be taken with utmost planning? 

Will banning fashion shows and New Year parties save Indian culture?

For the motion –

·         The culture of fashion shows and new year parties in India borrowed from the western countries and Europe has become a slow poison penetrating the youth of country and hence becoming congenital, thus leaving no space for any respect whatsoever for their own rich heritage.

·         A strictly implemented and well-knit plan is a must for the restoration of order which will not only help in saving the already half corrupt youth of the country but also help the cause of development.

·         Parties invariably have uncontrolled alcohol consumption and smoking hence resulting in numerous health hazards.

·         The stories of “rave” parties and drug addiction among people of all ages especially teenagers are self-descriptive and hence show the ill-effects of the tradition.

·         The fashion world is deeply embedded into the habits of taking drugs especially the models who get lost so badly in the blind desire to look the best which is way outside the realms of Indian culture.

·         Banning these ill traditions, although a very tough task is a prerequisite for the improvement of the existing conditions.

·         Under the effect of the wrong set of beliefs and morals, developed by the freedom given by party system, it is commonplace to see teenagers disrespect their parents and hence, defy the very basics of Indian culture.

·         The fashion world is also responsible for sexually-provoking lot of people and hence the increase in cases of rape and sexual harassment. The Indian culture gives the women the respect they deserve and hence needs to be preserved.

·         It is really unbelievable to comprehend that the recent efforts of Mumbai police to implement laws concerning the consumption of alcohol and asking for licenses from the restaurants holding parties are met by resistance by the public.

·         The party culture and fashion shows have a tendency to promote unrestricted freedom and hence the disrespect for morals of Indian culture, which all calls for a ban on these western traditions to save our Indian culture.

·         The fact that the glamour and attractiveness of parties and fashion shows is inescapable even for the most morally upright, a ban becomes a necessity.

Against the motion –

·            The big question is – aren’t we citizens of a democratic country? Why should the government decide what is wrong and what is right? Why fashion shows and parties are a problem given that the basic rules are observed? Why should the entire industry suffer for the wrongs of few who fail to observe rules and practice self control? Why can’t designer clothes be showcased by models when they are ultimately designed to be worn? Why can’t people enjoy with their friends at parties considering ill-practices are avoided?

·            The Indian culture we believe is about respect for elders, keeping integrity intact and not about absence of free will.

·            No, wearing only ‘saris’ is not Indian culture.

·            No partying is not Indian culture, for it was ‘Indra’ the Hindu god who had all his so called ‘apsaras’ and enjoyed the ‘madira’. It is, as we see it, just a matter of observing one’s limits and not go beyond so that it may hurt others around you.

·            Now let’s just see the effects of implementation of such a ban-

1.) Only the political hoopla over such a decision to be passed as a law with consent of the various coloured politicians of our country will require great effort which is usually why people are used to blame the government.

2.) The economic aspect of the ban is pretty perilous as the fashion and partying industry produces a substantial amount of country’s GDP and if such a ban is implemented, it is basically a shut down and hence a whole new cause for poverty and unemployment.

3.) The drug or alcohol addicts which are irrevocably present due to lack of morals and depression will revert to more illegal ways of obtaining their fit which if not present will result in an outbreak.

4.) Socially, very large part of the society will not be willing to accept such a ban and hence shows of disagreement may burst down to the roads resulting in the disruption of peace.

·            The strategy of the government to preserve Indian culture should be to get to the neck of those who are responsible for the breaking of limits, to get to the necks of drug suppliers, to get to the neck of those who fail to observe rules related to drinking, to get to the neck of rapistss and all those who disrupt the basic principles of Indian culture.

What is LPO: Legal Process Outsourcing?

Legal Process Outsourcing (LPO) is one of the value added BPO services or the practice of a law firm or corporate legal department obtaining legal support services from an overseas law firm or legal support services company(low wage market), so that it turns out to be more economical. Countries like United States of America, Europe, UK, Germany, Australia outsource to cheaper destinations like India, Philippines etc.

The services given in LPO are:

·         contract drafting,

·         contract review and monitoring,

·         document review for due diligence,

·         patent drafting,

·         legal coding,

·         corporate secretarial services,

·         legal memo development,

·         transcription,

·         document management,

·         litigation support ,

·         data entry,

·         trade mark and copyright registration,

·        Simple filings and legal research.

·         Outsourcing is said to help firms to perform well in their core competencies and mitigate shortage of skill or expertise in the areas where they want to outsource. Outsourcing can offer greater budget flexibility and control. Law firms across the globe can greatly benefit from off- shoring legal services to India. Along with the low labor cost, India possesses a large, highly-qualified labor pool.
India also boasts one of the largest pools of English-speaking graduates in the world. Also, India's legal system is grounded in British common law which makes India a ready market.

The demerits of outsourcing include:
risk of leakage,

·         reduction of client confidentiality and privacy ,

·         Security concerns,

·         Cutback in the domestic legal jobs in the US and UK ,

·        Initial cost of training the respective Indian lawyers to maintain quality and Malpractice / Practice law without license.

Part-2: Do we need to pay for motivation?

I hope you gave a thought on previous post. If not please go through it on (Do we need to pay for motivation?) otherwise this post will be irrelevant to you.

So, what do you think? Is it really expensive and such a hilarious task to be motivated? Just read it and discover yourselves because obviously you can judge yourselves the best.

Let us consider a normal Indian day and see how your surroundings are and can be the best inspirations for you to get motivated. In this post I am listing how the people around you can motivate you in every thing to achieve whatever you want.

1)      The Milkman that comes to your house. Just ask him, At what time does he get up in the morning so as to able to deliver the milk packets at your doorsteps at 6-7am in the morning, which I believe is too early for us. I am sure the reply will make you realize that when you are awake all night to read an inspirational novel, watch your favorite TV series, and yeah, to study ( a day before the exam), he gets up at 3-4am every day, arrange the milk from some dairy and then get sets so that he delivers it at the right time at your house, otherwise your parents will say, “ kya bhaiya, 6 baje chaiye hota hai, aap to harr roz 6.30 kar dete ho ( we need milk packets at 6am, but you always delay it unnecessarily till 6.30am)”.

2)      The second most motivational person I believe is your vegetable seller. I would request you to ask the same question to him. If I consider that maximum of you reading this are Indians, you will notice that if you visit a Mandi ( Wholesale vegetable market: from where the vegetable sellers collect the vegetables to sell in your locality), you will find that though the “official” time for a sunrise is 5-6am, its already “out” in those Mandi at 2am or 3am. They sell vegetables all day, and then stay awake the entire night so that they can arrange vegetables to sell and earn their living. And we thought we are the biggest achievers staying up for 5 consecutive nights during our exams in our “luxurious” rooms.

3)      Have you ever visited a construction site? I recently got a change to visit one. On asking about the duration and type of work, a worker told me that he works 7 hours a day, and his job is to collect bricks from the ground floor and take them to the third floor the entire day as the construction work is going on there. (Studying 4 hours a day seems a tremendous victory).

I thing the post is getting a bit long, and some of you may not find it that interesting, so just the last one for today

4)      Visit a chaiwalla (a tea stall) by the road side, and ask him his work and his earnings from it. Once I asked him, and the reply was “Rs.1800 per month,” where from he should pay his room rent, educate his daughter, and arrange for basic food necessities? (Grail only offers 6lpa. :/, very less).

I think if you carefully observe, you will notice that all of them motivate you to work, to strive and to achieve and sincerely they are the biggest source of inspiration we have in our daily lives.

There is a third part of this post as well, which I will write if you guys like it. 

How to apply for off-campus Placements?

There are three kinds of students who go for off-campus placements:

1.       There is a category of genuine students who do not get on-campus placements and therefore, they have to try for off-campus placement because they don’t have any other alternative.

2.       There is a second lot of students who get placed during on-campus placement but due to some genuine reason they don’t want to or cannot join particular company and so they wish to go for another placement.

3.       Third category belongs to students who despite of having amazing placement go for off-campus placement in order to flaunt the number of placements they get and similar other reasons.

Let me leave this thing here only because this is none of my business to talk about these students. My task is to tell you about the various ways to go for off-campus placements.

One can go for off-campus placements in various ways. But for most of the ways we need to have some reference in order to apply to a company.

1.       First way is to remain in touch with company people (your seniors, friends, relatives or anyone else) because many times when companies have vacancies, they recruit people referred by present employees. So, if you are in touch with them, you will come to know about the vacancy and will get chance to apply. In this case, having contacts is the most important factor. Remain in touch with your seniors and ask them about any opportunities in their companies.

2.       Sometimes companies post vacancies on their websites and relevant pre-requisites for the candidates. So you need to check the company’s website regularly and apply whenever they have suitable vacancy for you.

3.       Other way to go for off-campus placements is when companies pool various campuses and call students at one central location. In this situation, students from various colleges and in large number come and apply. This is generally applicable to small colleges where placement is a rare phenomenon and students have to seek external support to get placed.

4.        Other option is to apply on various job hosting sites like naukri, monster, etc. You can develop your profile and upload your resume and then go for the desired companies.  

Above four are the major ways to apply to a company for off-campus placement. But remember one thing: sometimes going for off-campus placement can be very tedious and tiring task especially for those who do not hold degrees from so-called elite colleges. 

The government should stop funding the IITs and the IIMs and, instead, divert the funds to primary education.

IITs and IIMs are India’s premiere institutes providing education in the field of engineering and management.

FOR THE MOTION

·         India is not a developed country with very high population; here literacy ratio is very less so government should concentrate on making more people literate rather than concentrating on small group of population.

·         Students from IIT IIM are moving out of India serving other nation's organization that is really awful as it results in the wastage of all the investment made by government towards educating these students.

·         India is a democratic country. And democracy can only be successful by achieving 100% literacy rate which is possible by concentrating on primary education.

·         Government should make a conscious effort to make more people literate rather than concentrating their sum on a small and confined population.

·         Spending huge amount of money on IIT & IIM is dividing the nation in 2 different communities one community is not even having primary education where other community is having higher education that will result in rich becoming richer and poor becoming poorer.

·         Students studying in IITs and IIMs can avail loans and can easily refund them because of the higher pays they are getting from their jobs after completion of the degree but that won't be case for poor children

·         The most of the people going for the IIT or IIM are self capable, so funds should only be used for those students which are financially backward.

·         IIMs and IITs are huge organizations and have enough money to cater to their needs and should instead help Govt. to put the money to the right use. After all spreading education is the real motive.

AGAINST THE MOTION

·         IITs and IIMs are India's premier institutes. They choose the creme of the country. Funds given to them by Government would only help them to be more recognized and impartial. These institutes have the long way to make their presence felt in the world's list of premier institutes

·         India is in development mode so need of these institutes is to promote our young talent to international platform.

·         Also, money invested by the government in IITS IIMS is very less as compare to money required in supporting primary educations. So the benefits earned due to investment of money in primary educations are much less as compare to losses caused by it.

·         It’s true that students from IIT IIM are moving out but the main reason for their moving out is lack of opportunities in India and also they are sending back money to the country and eventually that money is getting utilized in India itself thus increasing the GDP growth of our country.

·         Earlier fees at IIMs was less when compared to other B-schools but now the fees has been hiked and is more when compared to other top B-schools. The Govt. can use the money for improving primary education condition. For e.g., it can pay the fees of good but poor students in private schools or can bring PPP (Public-Private Partnership) model by funding for the poor students as private schools are never so keen on admitting poor students. This is a better option than forcing quota system

·         The phase of development through which India is passing, needs more reorganization of Indian talent pool, which is possible by providing better higher education for young Indians. There are lots of students who have skills and talent but don’t have funds. So for these students it’s a duty of a government to provide them these IIMs and IITs kind of places where they can upgrade themselves by investing fewer amounts of fees.

·         For democracy we need policy makers so we needs few people who are Indians who can create better systems for us IIT's IIM's producing such kinds of brains.

·         Students from other countries are coming to India so eventually revenue coming back to government pocket.

·         Funding to IIT IIM can be self financed but there should be proper mechanism and student should get scholarships in case of fees hike.

What is Investment Banking?

Investment Banking is a specific division of banking which aids in arrangement of capital for other companies. Investment banking is a field of banking that relates to the acquisition of funds for a company. Investment banking also offers aids in the form of "advice" which a company might require in its dealings and transactions that is the issue and placement of the company stocks. In addition to it, it also acts as agents or underwriters (underwriting the securities by buying all the available shares at a set price and then reselling them to the public. Or the banks may act as agents for the issuer and take a commission on the securities they sell.) for companies.


They also help to facilitate mergers and acquisitions, reorganizations and broker trades for both institutions and private investors and provide services such as market making, trading ofderivatives, fixed income instruments, foreign exchange,and commodities.Thus they act as an intermediary between an issuer of securities and investors. Unlike commercial banks and retail banks, investment banks do not take deposits. 


There are two main lines of business in investment banking.One line of trading facilitates transactions, market-making, thus providing the Trading securities for cash and acting as underwriters and doing research and thus helping in the promotion of securities. This line is often referred to as the "sell side". The other line deals with pension funds, mutual funds, hedge funds, and the investing public (who consume the products and services of the sell-side in order to maximize their return on investment) .This side is referred to as the "buy side". Many firms have buy and sell side components.Through investment banking, an institution generates funds in two different ways. They may draw on public funds through the capital market by selling stock in their company, and they may also seek out venture capital or private equity in exchange for a stake in their company.


The processes that investment banks take to help companies raise money are :
1)Lending their expertise to a company and help it by giving a valuable advise about the best place to raise either debt or the stocks and capital.
2)Preparing all the necessary documents to accurately present the value proposition for funding and to protect both the company and the investor from any misunderstandings. 
3) Ensuring that all government rules and regulations have been followed in the raising of any capital.

What is KPO: Knowledge Process outsourcing?

A form of outsourcing in which knowledge- and information- intellectual, analytical related work is done by people with a pay scales much higher than the BPO sector (business sector) generally in a different geographical location.

To handle the problem of a shortage of skilled professionals and to have the opportunity to hire skilled workers earning lower wages in another location for a lower cost of the resources, Companies resort to knowledge process outsourcing. Examples of KPO functions are intellectual property or patent research, R&D in pharmaceuticals and biotechnology, data mining, database creation, and a range of analytical services such as equity research, competitive intelligence, industry reports and financial modeling.

India has a lot to offer to the KPO companies.
The ideal KPO requires a worker with domain specialization, computer skills & English proficiency. With the Indian way of education which lays great emphasis on higher education & specialization, a talent pool with specialized knowledge in any field is readily available. This skilled and trained manpower is accessible at very low cost as well.

Some examples of global KPOs having laid their roots in India for having a cheap base are: McKinsey, Goldman Sachs, Reuters, IMS Health, Harris Interactive, Ipsos, Maritz, AC Nielsen, TN0S and the WPP group. 

Two major Indian KPOs are The Smart Cube and EVALUESERVE,

There is tremendous potential in the KPO space. Only companies that have a strong pedigree, domain expertise, clear focus on the high-end space, a proactive solution orientation and a collaborative mindset will emerge as the winners. KPO is fast growing and is estimated to grow by 26% in the next 10 years.

Do we need to pay for motivation?

This is my another attempt towards a post of such genre. Basically it contains the various lessons I have learnt from my teachers during my schooling. Obviously you don’t generally get motivated from your colleges professors. :P

Recently I was just reading newspaper and came across a small article that states “Do you have problems? We have the solution. Come to our motivational sessions. Workshop Fees: Rs. 5000”.

I thought probably I can do something like this, if not placed :P, but on a serious note I thought, do we actually need to pay 5000 bucks to get motivated? Is motivation so expensive?

Other major incident I observed some time back. A friend of mine was explained or counseled (you can say motivated) by his fellow friend (not me of course). Though I was also present at that moment and found his points quite relevant, but the person hardly listened to him and just walked away saying “khud par beethegi to pta chalega (u will understand when you yourself will face it).” Remember that you should always write the English translation of any hindi you use in a post. This is applicable for GDs as well because you never know who amongst the others do not understand hindi. The same person posted a picture of some inspirational quotes on facebook and pinged me to say “brother, read this: A great quote by a famous personality (I won’t mention the name). I am totally charged now. I can do anything.

Believe me; my friend on that evening mentioned the same points in the discussion which he just neglected.

Now, just think on these two points and ask yourself. Is getting motivated so difficult? Is it really something for which you need to explore the YouTube?

I think I will definitely like to give you some time to think on these lines. I will get back to the next part of this post very soon.  

How much marks matter in your career?

Now this is one of the most important and commonest (this word exists- check your dictionary) problem students face during their college life. I can understand their anxiety for this thing because once I used to have same kind of anxiety. Now let me come straight to the point. No more beating around the bush.

I will start this article with a small hypothetical situation (indeed, it is hypothetical for the time being).

Let us say you are an interviewer (Ohh. WOW!! I wish if there is any way of making it possible now). You interview two candidates. Both of them have similar kind of profile. Both stand on the same ground in terms of interview, communication skills and everything expect marks. Now you have to choose anyone of them. 

Whom will you choose?

I guess the answer is pretty clear to you. So in these kinds of situations marks matter and this generally occurs in technical companies. This is just one instance where marks provide you an upper hand over others.

Now let me come to second instance. Many companies have minimum percentage criteria i.e. they allow only those students to sit for placements who have marks more than cut off percentage (this depends entirely on the company’s policy). So, you can lag behind in such a scenario because if you have lesser marks than the cut off criteria then you won’t be allowed to sit for placements (Now this is the time when you will shower your senior with your blessings (and so called kind words) because he said marks don’t matter in placements).

Now the other instance where marks provide you the desired edge is in the case of PSUs. Although they have stopped recruiting directly from campuses but still they give value to marks. In campus recruitment, they used to select top rankers from each department and call them for interview and then make the final selection.

You will realize the value of marks when you apply for higher studies, be it in India or Abroad. Now every college has started giving importance to graduation marks and few colleges give lot of importance to college marks. Sometimes having good marks can make all the difference. If I talk about Indian scenario in particular, 79.9% will weigh far less than 80.1%. So, here also having good marks provide you an advantage over others.

Now let me come to internships. I would say that marks are not that much important in your internship because most of the time you go for internships through your contacts in the corporate world. In that kind of scenario companies provide you internship because you were referred by some senior employee of that company. If you are going for internship through college, then again marks matter. In this case situation is similar to placements.

I would suggest you people to work hard on your academics because you will find lot of seniors who will say marks don’t have any value in placements. Don’t listen to such advice (I could have used harsh words here but anyways…). Marks will always benefit you. I am not giving any particular number and considering above that as good marks and below that as bad marks. Good and bad depends entirely on the context in which they are talked. So just study and try to score as much as you can and believe me it is not at all difficult to score above 70% in college.

I would conclude by summing up in one line, “Having good marks will not harm you even if they don’t benefit you. Having low marks will never benefit you even if they don’t harm you”.

Now, I think that this article is bit aggressive and students reading it might get worried (those don’t have good percentage) but you need not. I will come up with the next article in which I will share few tips (which were used by me) to score better and what else you can do to compensate for your grades.

P.S.: These are my personal views and can differ from you. 

What is Bank Rate, Repo Rate and Reverse Repo Rate?

What is Bank Rate?

The bank rate is the rate at which the central bank gives credit to the commercial banks. The market rate of interest is directly proportional to the bank rate. Market rate of interest refers to the rate of interest which a commercial bank charges from customers (who take loans). During inflation, the cost of capital is increased by increasing bank rate. This reduces the amount of money in the market because it becomes expensive to take loans and people refrain from it. During deflation, cost of capital is reduced so as to encourage people to take loans and this increases the flow of credit.

What is Repo rate?

Repo rate refers to the bank rate at which central bank of the country (Reserve Bank of India in India) offers loans to the commercial banks.

What is Reverse Repo rate?

Reverse Repo rate refers to the rate of interest which central bank of country pays to the commercial banks when commercial banks keep their money with the central bank.

Both Repo rate and Reverse Repo rate are decided by central banks and revised from time to time depending on the market and economic scenario of the country.

Bank Rate, Cash reserve ratio, and Statutory Liquidity Ratio are referred to as quantitative instruments of credit control because these instruments decide the amount of cash flowing in the market.

The me I see is the me I will be

Many years back there lived a music composer who composed one of the finest music, world has ever heard. But, not so long, unfortunate fall upon him. At the age of 17, he started to loose his hearing sensation and by the time he turned 21, he almost became deaf. But, the part which made this music composer so great was that he composed some of the finest after the age of 21.  He gave the world the best notes on music. Beethoven was one of the greatest musician history has ever had.

The idea behind this story is that no matter what the circumstances are, no matter what kind of a situation you are in, no matter how many people are on the opposite side, you still have your dreams, your hope, your courage, faith in yourself. And if you have the will, the way is surely there, you just need to search for it.

There are two very common words in Hindi. People generally don’t understand the difference and use only one for both. ‘Dukh’ and ‘Sangharsh’ . These two words have difference in their meaning as thin as hair but if one understand the difference, then he will be the master of his situations. ‘Dukh’ is something which is natural, something which is not in our hands. A mother losing her child due to natural circumstances is considered as Dukh while Sangharsh is the struggle which is the inevitable part of life. The problems like poverty, unemployment which we face today are Sangharsh. It is in our hands to solve these problems. We need to learn to differentiate between the two. The moment you lose hope, no sooner your Sangharsh will be your Dukh. Never lose your hope and faith in you. Jesus Christ said,” If you have faith as little as a mustard seed, you can move the mountain from its place.” The difference between great people in the world and ordinary people is very thin.  People are never born great, they become great with their qualities and hope and faith in them. The moment you find these qualities, you are no ordinary person. You need not go to mountain or forests to find these qualities. It’s in you. All these qualities are present in you, you just need to search for them in you. 

Be a dreamer and if you already are then Never let your dreams die. Dream big, achieve big. Your dreams, if not anything else, are surely yours. How can you let your dreams die so easily? Go out, fight for them and achieve them. No matter what you do, you can’t run away from criticism. You are surely going to meet criticism at every step but don’t let this deter you. Instead learn from it and accept it in a positive sense. Show the critics that the difference between them and you is that you did it and they are still criticizing. Think, feel, write and imagine what you want to do and sooner, you will be there. “Think big, Achieve big” because “Thoughts becomes things”.

How Professors select Interns?

This is the last part of How to apply for internship to colleges and Universities Series?

I think you will like this post as its nothing conceptual or anything to learn about. Just ease yourself and read through this conversation I had with a professor when I got a chance to stay with him during a workshop. There is nothing to like or dislike with this post. Just a dialogue! Read and Enjoy

I would mention just the important lines that may sound interesting to you.

Me: Sir, I am just curious to know, how do you select interns from the number of application/emails you receive daily?

Prof: Look, We all know that you guys don’t know anything about Management, be it marketing, finance, or for that matter anything related to your subject of application.

Me: Yeah Sir, that’s true as we don’t get much exposure to these subjects at the UG level.

Prof: We understand that, and that’s why, remember that don’t flaunt about your management knowledge in your application. If you have any achievement, that’s perfectly fine, but never mention things like, I am a student with keen interest in management and have special corner for the various frameworks in management like porter’s 5 forces, 4 C’s etc.

Me: Sir, I probably don’t even know about all this.

Prof. But, yeah, students do this. Look I will tell you how we select intern. What you guys do is, copy all the e-mail ids and send it to all the Profs who exist. Even it has happened that my colleague in IIM and I (I should always follow the other person you are referring to, if the reference is in good sense. Follow the reverse for negative sense of message! Grammar Gyan: P) have actually found that you guys send emails to the Profs of the same institute at the same time of the day.

Me: (with signs of embarrassment) Yes, sir, we actually do that.

Prof: We know it, so don’t feel bad about it. All of you do this. So we generally ignore it.  What I personally see is that how personalized the mail is. Does it refer to me as a specific individual or just another “Dear Sir”. Moreover, the content of the email is very important along with CV. I chose you because I found that even you hardly had any experience in this side, but the hard work put in designing the mail was evident. Moreover the time factor is very important. You were lucky that you applied 6 months before. I was about to close my account for that summer intake when you applied.

Me: (Just thinking). Oh. This is how they select. How lucky I am that I got to know this! :P


P.S. : This is based on my experieInce with my Professor of  IIM C. Every professor may have his/her own criteria for selecting students.

Click on the link to read Part 1: How to apply for internship to colleges and Universities?

Click on the link to read Part 2: How to approach professor for internship at colleges and Universities?

What is Indirect Tax?

An Indirect Tax is a tax collected by an intermediary (such as a retail store) from the person who bears the ultimate economic burden of the tax (such as the customer). In simpler words, it can be defined as the charge that is paid by one individual at the beginning, but the burden of which will be passed over to some other individual, who eventually holds the burden.

Let us understand it by an example. Suppose you go to Pizza Hut. You had pizza. When the bill is made there are different types of taxes imposed over the total price of the food you had. One such tax is VAT (Value Added Tax). Now, Pizza Hut takes this tax from you and gives it to the government of India. So Pizza Hut is acting as intermediary between you and government to levy tax. This type of tax is known as Indirect tax.

The some important indirect taxes imposed in India are as under:

·        Customs Duty: The Customs Act was formulated in 1962 to prevent illegal imports and exports of goods.

·         Excise Tax: It is an indirect tax levied on the sale of a specific good. It is a vital source of revenue for the Government of India.

·         Service Tax: The service providers in India except those in the state of Jammu and Kashmir are required to pay a Service Tax.

·         Sales Tax: Sales Tax in India is a form of tax that is imposed by the Government on the sale or purchase of a particular commodity within the country.

·         VAT: The practice of VAT executed by State Governments is applied on each stage of Sale. VAT in India classified under the tax slabs are 0% for essential commodities, 1% on gold ingots and expensive stones, 4% on industrial inputs, capital merchandise and commodities of mass consumption, and 12.5% on other items.

·         Securities Transaction Tax (STT): STT is a tax being levied on all transactions done on the stock exchanges. 

·         Stamp duty: This is an additional charge levied on documents, like promissory notes, bills of exchange, insurance policies and debentures

·         Expenditure tax: The hotels in India collect expenditure tax from their customers and eventually deposit to the Central Government

Advantages and Disadvantages of Indirect Taxes:

·         Advantages:

1.    They are convenient,

2.    Difficult to invade and have a wide coverage

·         Disadvantages:

1.    High cost of collection,

2.    Increasing income inequalities (both rich and poor pay the same amount of tax)

3.    Affecting consumption of certain products

The scope of raising revenue through direct taxes is limited, so indirect taxes are important parts and parcels of the financial system.

How to approach professor for internships to universities and colleges?

Here is the second part of “How to apply for internship Series”. I am sure you guys would have definitely found the first part interesting. I am continuing from where I left in the last post. Click to read How to apply for internships to universities and colleges? Part- 1

Now let’s see, what an ideal intern mail should look like. Your ideas may definitely differ from mine, but the basic requirements and ingredients of the mail will match.

I would recommend that whenever you mail any professor for the intern, always refer him with his surname in the mail. Most of the students mention a “Dear Sir” / “ Respected Sir”/ “ Dear Sir/Madam” in their mails but this is certainly very informal as it clearly underlines the thought that you have sent it to various professors with the same content. (Remember- Respected Sir is considered wrong in English because Sir itself is respectable word and you are making it redundant by doing so)

Suppose the professor’s name is Prof. Rajesh Kapoor ( any resemblance is purely coincidental :P ), so always start with “Dear Prof. Kapoor” or “Respected Prof. Kapoor” You may find it a little uncomfortable to refer him with his surname but in the professional world, it is perfectly fine.

Secondly, when it comes to the main content of the mail, a general trend is to prepare a standard mail which can always be forwarded to any number of professors conveniently. Here I would like to state that this is the biggest mistake a student does in this process. Never prepare a standard content and always try to personalize the mail by mentioning his domain of work along with linking your interests to that field.

I would mention an example to make it clearer. Consider two professors with their domain of work as marketing and finance respectively. Your mail should clearly state his area of marketing or finance and should always be linked to your past work experience with marketing or finance.

I can understand that many of the students would like to know the approach if they do not have any sort of experience in any of the related field. In that case I would mention that you yourself should propose a project or a rough draft of the work you would like to do with the concerned professor. He may not consider your proposed project but would definitely appreciate the efforts.

As far the CV is concerned, obviously you cannot help much with the content of the CV promptly. They have to be procured as your life in your college advances. One very important thing I would mention is that every student should get the CV structured in a professional manner so that at least the professor does not find any informal writing in the entire application process.

I think, I should summarize it by saying that the entire idea is to make the professor feel as if the mail is personally sent to him and should reflect your passion to work under him.

I sincerely believe that if you focus on these small points, you will definitely be able to make it to a good institute of your intern.

In the next mail, I will reveal what an IIM professor has to say on his procedure of selecting interns from the hundreds of such applications he receives every week.

Click on the link to read How Professors select Interns?

The Power of Positive Thinking

In a day, human mind gets stuck by around 10,000 ideas. But unfortunately, most of them are negative. Now you must be wondering, what to do in such a situation when you are surrounded by negativity all around.  The answer to this question is very simple. Don’t let these negative ideas come to your mind. Now you must be saying what kind of an answer is this. If at all we knew how to do this, we would have done it a lot earlier. 

The thing is that; don’t let these negative ideas overpower you. Ostracize these negative ideas and accept the positive ideas. Try to gain positivity from your surrounding leaving behind negativity. Train your mind for POSSITIBLE thinking. Possitible means positive and possible. Negative thoughts are like abyss. Once you fall in to their prey, you keep on falling until you reach impasse. Wilma Rudolph, the best athlete and fastest runner of her time, was paralyzed at the age of two. The doctors claimed that she couldn’t get up from her wheel chair in her entire life. But she and her mother refused to accept this and turned the impossible in to possible. At the age of 13, she won a race in her school and by the time she was 20, she had 4 gold medals in her bag in 1952 Olympics and the title of fastest racer of the era. 

The moment you think you can’t, you really can’t. If you start a work, then finish it. There is no point in leaving it in between. If you leave it in between, you have spent your energy and time for nothing. It is similar to water. It boils only at 100 centigrade. If you leave at 99, then all the supplied energy is wasted and water remains water.

This is our first attempt in this genre. So please post your comments and views under this article so that we can work on it in a better way in future.