With a year just whiffed past offering an experience to remember for a life time and another year and a half to go, I'm sure the zeal and passion I have for my PGSEM course will continue. So what if I like to be the first bencher, not bunking classes and being attentive? I'm having my share of fun. During my engineering college days, I used to hate attending many boring lectures that I would bunk and sit at home. But at IIMB, every session is packed with action that there is no reason to bunk. Every week is brimmed with varied activities - be it quizzes, assignments, case analyses and ofcourse, exams that test your application of the concepts and not your memory. Along with 13 core courses in the first year, I also learnt how I can squeeze time out of my daily routine, prioritize the tonnes of work that land up in my plate and optimize my workload.
The confidence that gave me in first year led me to take 4 electives in this quarter. "You have taken 4 courses and one of them is CB!! Oh my God!", my friends asked me in the first week of this quarter. With a slight puzzled look in my face, I replied, "Yes, I hope I can manage...". CB stands for Consumer Behavior, a very interesting but at the same time demanding course. In the fifth week of this quarter, I'm managing 4 electives, although the other three are not as demanding in terms of workload compared to CB. I guess I made a good choice in selecting the right balance of courses, if you could say the right balance falls within the domain of marketing. I have taken 3 electives in marketing - "Consumer Behavior, Advertising management and Product management" and the other elective in the Public Policy area - "Business, Government and Society". All four courses are unique in their own aspects. The literature and the articles that are distributed to us as part of the reading materials (apart from the usual pillow size textbooks) are an excellent compilation, giving more of a practical understanding of contemporary issues and viewpoints.
I have made the right decision in joining this course and am sure the next year will be as interesting and engaging as the first year. Many of my acquaintances think that PGSEM is not its worth without the official placements. People perceive the benefits of a product or an offering in different ways; for some, it is placements; for some others, it is networking; for a few like me, it is the overall experience that makes this programme unique. I just want to sail through and gather myriad shells of learnings and experiences.