The one thing that is really crucial while selecting a b-school for any aspiring management student is its placement record. But for the children of recession, it hardly mattered. They all joined a premier institute at a time (2007) when the economy of the world was doing really well and they hoped it would be in an even better position when they graduate or at least remain the same worst come worst, but no way could it get go down. ‘How could that happen to me’ would have been the thought on any average wannabe MBA’s mind while he/she had joined the course.
And then the so called recession did not hit the bschool located at Nungambakkam alone, nor did it hit the city of Chennai India
We were the batch that was tested the most for its patience, skill sets, competitive spirit and above all our faith. Luckily, at least at my bschool everyone was placed, if not on day zero, at least in the months after it. But there were thousands of graduates across the globe, who either dint get a job, lot of whom had quit a job to graduate, others gave promotion a slip and so on. But what made this batch born from the womb of recession special was the fact that, they joined a bschool when the markets were at its best and they graduated right when the markets tanked to an all time low, unemployment rates soared like the sun would in the noon and the number of opportunities available were as high as the number of stars you could count on a sunny day.
One instance that stands out on my mind with regard to the placements during the recessionary period was the episode of a top investment bank that was supposed to visit our campus for recruitment on September 18th and all my batch mates were excited and were preparing really hard to be able to ace the selection process of one of the best investment banks of the world. They prepared so much so that, it felt as if it was the only thing they ever wanted in life. I would have hardly seen them prepare for any other thing the year or so before that. But how could they have known, the company they were aspiring to work for went bust just a day before it was supposed to visit our campus. Yea, you read it right, September 17th was the day when the Business Line newspaper that we had started reading for quite sometime then to keep ourselves abreast of the business world read, “Lehman Bros files for bankruptcy” as its top headline on its front page. Lots of dreams were shattered, lots of them more or less lost hope, but then some of us who were still out of the trap of the fantasy world of big brand ‘dream company’ realized that what had happened to us, was may be in our best interest. If Lehman would have filed its chapter 11 on a day after it recruited some of us, it would have been a much much bigger shock, cos then it would have been a case of having a job in a company that had ceased to exist. It was far better that we ‘did not have a job’ rather than ‘have a job but not have it’. In fact this was the case with a dozen or more students from a couple of other premier institutes of the country who were recruited by Lehman before it was supposed to come to our campus, I know how difficult it would have been for those children of bankruptcy.
A lot has been discussed, argued and felt about this class of 2009, but what is it that has transpired with respect to these children of recession should be of further interest to the world, as these are the people who had seen both boom and bust at a very young age, in fact even before the start of their career. And I thought this was the best thing to have happened to us, we learnt some of the lessons we would have learnt much later in life, much earlier than a lot of others do. Though its been a painful period of 20 months since we have started working, but we’ve grown up with a lot of learning’s that would take us a long way in the future when may be such a catastrophe hits the world again, we would be prepared far better than the rest of the crowd.
Though at a psychological level we might have had a few advantages and disadvantages over the rest of the management crowd, we have definitely lost out on the monetary quantum and the sense of security standpoint. Lot of us had got job’s on contractual basis and our fates will be decided really soon, we would stand again on the same point as we did 2 years ago, if these companies don’t make us permanent employees. It would again be a period of anxiety & patience, again trying to get a good job and getting settled down with what we would like to do, but boy! its not going to be easy. Though the markets now are doing far better, destiny isn’t always with the lot that in some sense has been rejected (if I am allowed to use that word) by some other corporate.
When we graduated I used to think that the jobs we got are the jobs that were really crucial, as companies wont really recruit in such times unless they really want people to fill certain vacancies, but for certain companies it was just an easy way out to hire cheap than in years of boom may be, though not true in all the cases. The pie chart below would give you an idea about how the class of 2009 has been doing over the course of 20 months since they started working.
It’s clear that close to 70% of them are still with the same company they started out with, but the fact is, at least a quarter of them are seriously looking out for other opportunities mostly because they aren’t really fond of what they are doing, as a process of which some of them have already changed one job (20%). The remaining 13% who are not working are the ones who have either quit their jobs as they want to pursue something else, including starting some business of their own or a completely different career or may be got married and settled ( you know what that means). Now the question is, is the story similar with other batches who either passed out before or after, I would say more or less YES, but still there are things that this particular batch is going through which others might not have gone through, things that cant really be expressed, but can only be felt.
One thing I firmly believe in and have understood through this whole experience is, destiny’s child or recessions child, as long as things are good make hay, but remember things won’t remain good or bad for ever. The markets have gotten back on track and companies are recruiting astounding number of people this year, breaking all kinds of previous records. Just be patient and give your best, recession or no recession, there is a billion plus population in the country that has to be fed, transported, taken care of and a lot of other services to be provided to. Someone has to do each of these things, so just stay active and you’ll definitely find something that you really deserve. Last thought (or piece of advice you might call it) for all management’s children would be – Stop measuring your success in life based on your CTC, it hardly matters as long as you find something that you would love to do for a large fraction of your life and a management degree is not just a gateway to a seven digit pay check always, it is a great deal more than that, if all of us realize that, it wont matter even if you were from the womb of recession. Let’s stop looking at management education as a platform ticket for the employment station, it’s rather a first class ticket to some of the best learning’s and experiences in life.
P.S. – This post was inspired by views posted in an article on Times of India recently.
Today’s Favorite Line - A cynic is a man who knows the price of everything, and the value of nothing. - Oscar Wilde
Today’s Favorite Song – Pray for me brother (A.R. Rehman)
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