Milking the CAT

August is over…..Like me, all the CAT aspirants must be closely watching each and every dates of the month minutely….Approximately 1.5-2 lakhs students will be writing the test this time and by now almost all the serious candidates must have started doing a few things like practicing Quant problems and short cuts, mugging the Tables, reading regularly and voraciously etc…..Most of them would have planned by now what to do and how to go about in the coming 80 days. Percentile keeps vacillating during this period and so does the effort put in pursuit of CAT. At times when you don’t hit the 95+ percentile mark and that happens most of the time with many CAT aspirants, you start doubting yourself whether you really have within you to make it to IIMs.

Is it just the IIMs or the passion for MBA that drives a CAT aspirant forward? The answers vary greatly from person to person, from fresher to a work–ex guy, from a person with an IT background to non-IT background and so on and so forth……The system glorifies people with management background more than with the engineering background….Some might say that many of the top-management executives in their verticals or company are from engineering background but at the same time they must also understand that they belong to a different generation of engineers when industry was in boom and there wasn’t so much competition as it is now. The crowd in the IT industry has become a critical mass now. The current scenario is, it takes approximately 6 years to become a PM and about 9-10 years to become an SPM. And an MBA degree probably would hasten the progress and reduce the growth time by a year or two.

The needs of the software industry in India and the products of the engineering institutes are still a mismatch to a larger extent. Many of the graduates who love the core tech work change their mind completely after entering the industry as they realize there isn’t much they can learn apart from some debugging skills and the ability to grasp already written code at a faster pace. Many technically bright students are not fortunate enough to land in the US of A to pursue higher studies and get into R&D while in India there isn’t much to look out for, apart from IITs which itself demands ‘stud’ like souls. This scenario compels most of the junta to aim for MBA. There is also a huge chunk of students who find software industry not to be there cup of tea and hence want to try out their luck if management can be suitable.

The professors (Gods) of almost all A-grade institutes say that they don’t believe in mass producing MBAs. They also proclaim that they try to eliminate all such candidates who have been attracted by the glamour of the green matter. Whatever be their proclamations and objectives, if MBA is to be showcased as a gateway to earn 5 figure or 6 figure salary it truly loses its sheen and basic objective. But the irony is howsoever well an MBA aspirant (specially a fresher) project himself of having a true interest or passion for the course during the interviews, he is driven by the lure of thick pay packages to a great extent.

If there are enough product based companies for the genuine technology lovers, enough institutes that encourage research based activities and preference given to work-ex candidates, probably this scenario can be minimized. Management, to a certain extent is also an inherent trait. And it’s not necessary that a person who can solve more questions and graphs, read voraciously be a great manager. But by the time Gods realize this thing it would certainly be too late. Milk the CAT till then.