Defining Job Satisfaction

Many of my friends/colleagues have discussed with me in past about a new offer that they are getting and if they should take that or not. I used to share my views to best of my knowledge

Lately, I actually designed a satisfaction scale to make this choice analytically. Let me share my thoughts here
I think a job can be defined a 5 dimensions


1. Your Role
2. Your salary/money/ CTC :)
3. The organisation
4. Location of your work ( in your home city/ dream city)
5. Personal comfort/Work life balance/personal time

Somehow, I feel that any offer can be analysed in these 5 dimensions. Now to make things simple, we can give equal weights to these dimensions ( you can put different weights for different dimensions also) and let us define satisfaction scale from 1 to 3.

1 is for not OK
2 is for Good
3 is for very good

Again, you can have 5 point scale from Very bad to Very good.

Now, on those 5 dimensions, give a score and then total that score

let us assume you get 9 out of 15 score. So your satisfaction score is 60%.
So, evaluate your next offer on these and find out score. If there is at least 10% increase, go ahead and switch your job 

How it helps:


Sometimes, we tend to switch a job only for money but that gives you lesser role growth or personal time. For first few days, you enjoy your money but then the overall satisfaction comes into play which is lower than previous job. Then you repent a lot !!


Example:

Let us assume you are in a job which is 2 in all parameters thus your total is 10. Now, you can get a job with amazing role and money taking those things to 3 each.

We tend to jump for these offers and you also took that. But somehow that took all your personal time and that actually falls so bad that it is zero.

Now, you would see your total score again to be 10.

So overall, you are as good or as bad as before. The difference is, you might enjoy your work a lot but you might get very disturbed from personal perspective.


So, use this scale to judge your overall score before jumping into anything..


Cheers

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Study Plan for CAT Quantitative section

Study Plan for CAT Quant

If you’re seriously aspiring for CAT examination, you must have had a glance at scores of articles & blogs that must be highlighting you on several tried & tested formula for attaining success in this competitive examination. However if you carry gray matter on your shoulders, you’d be knowing that such claims made are most often fake. There is no such formula to crack the CAT or any specific section and along with your hardwork, sometimes luck also plays a very big part.



Study Plan for CAT Quant

Most of the test takers find CAT Quant as the most difficult section to handle since this test not only tests your graduate math competence, but also other skills such as logic, analytical ability and arithmetic expertise. In our school education, we learn basic concepts such as Algebra, Geometry, and Arithmetic etc. but know very little about how to implement these concepts in competitive examinations such as CAT.

What is a Study Plan?

A study plan is like a curriculum chart, which you prepare and list down the time and energy that you’d be investing while preparing for an important exam. This chart is segregated into different sections, each carrying a manageable task to be handled.

If you wish to create an effective study plan, take a tour of the steps enumerated below and rest assured to attain success in any competitive exam including CAT:

1. Never Prioritize topics

It’s a well known fact that CAT exam has an exhaustive area to be covered. As per previous years paper, you might find few topics carrying more questions that others. But this doesn’t mean that the pattern would continue next year. I would share a very interesting anecdote. During my engineering, I had a elective subject in electrical engineering. In the final exam, I just left one chapter, induction motors as it was expected to have maximum 1 out of 7 questions and we are supposed to attempt 5. In that year, the teacher thought that every mechanical engineer should know about induction motors so there were 4 questions out of 7 from that chapter. I failed in that subject and failed for first time in my life.

So, you should prepare all topics with equal focus and dedication.


2. What is prepared & what needs to be learned?

A study plan can help you sail through if you’re clear about the topics, which need your immediate attention. It’s hard to believe if a student claims that he’s absolutely ignorant of the Quant section. You must be knowing some portions, if not all, of the test material. It’s just that you need to run your eyes through the test material once again, and acquire the expertise in those topics. We advise you to take a Diagnostic test, which would help you analyze where you stand in the competitive race for CAT exam. It would also help you realize how much effort you need to put in to stand in the forefront of the queue for a coveted exam like CAT.

3. Time Management

Time Management plays a crucial role in the preparation of a competitive exam like CAT. It can either translate your dream of clearing CAT exam or break your dream of getting an admission in the top business school of the country. However, only a few of the aspiring candidates know how to leverage the power of time management effectively.

Since you’re the architect of your study plan, you must know which areas need your more attention, and thereafter devise an efficient strategy to attain the goals that you’ve set for achieving success in this exam. You can seek help of calendar to set your own targets and deadlines to accomplish these targets accordingly.


4. Set accomplishable goals

Your study plan should be such that it enables you set specific dates for all the topics that you feel are important & need to be covered on a propriety basis. Set small and accomplishable goals. While you chalk out your study schedule, you need to focus on your core strengths & weaknesses, and then work accordingly.

5. Stick to your plan

You might be a good time manager. However, we recommend you to write down your plan on a sheet of paper, and put on the wall of your room or bulletin board, where you can view it regularly get reminded of the goals you need to accomplish from time to time. This exercise would also keep you informed about the pace of progress that you’re making on a daily basis. However, there might be some junctures in your entire study schedule where you feel tumbled down but don’t get disheartened & restart with vigor more than ever. You can reschedule your entire time table as per your convenience & study needs.

By now, you must have got a fair idea about how to get started with CAT Quant preparation in the most effective way. We wish you all the Best!

Tips to Crack the CAT

Come November and students are frenzied lot! After days or even months of constant burning of the light lamp, it is time to fight the ferocious CAT. Anxiety pangs are a frequent phenomenon. But is CAT really as tough as it is perceived to be? Many a times the not – so - intelligent lot of students are able to crack CAT while the consistent high scorers come out of the examination hall broken – hearted. The truth lies in the unseen. Unlike other entrance test, like JEE for engineering or medical entrance test, CAT does not test your mettle in math formulae or your prowess in Queen’s English. Instead, Common Admission Test or CAT is essentially a race against time – a race which you can win.

Given below are a few tips which can turn you into Formula 1 racer for CAT! Read them carefully and imbibe them in you right now so that you are equipped well when the D-day arrives!!

Analytical skill: Being an application – driven test, CAT would test your analytical skills. It is mandatory to develop strong problem – solving skill rather than memorising the age – old math formulae and grasping the theories. So, after going through Study Lessons and solved examples, start solving the Practice Tests. Follow the 48-hours Principle which means do not look for solutions till 48 hrs. You are free to seek outside help during this time. If you are still confused then only see the answer. The most common mistake students can make is to look at the solved answer as soon as they realise that they are unable to work out a question. This hampers the building up of their analytical power. It is necessary the building up of their analytical power. It is necessary that you strain your brain to solve a question. As a result you would be able to understand the concept in – depth as well as develop sound problem solving skills.

Think long – term: Our brain functions like a computer’s memory. Whatever we learn either gets stored in the short – term or long term memory. One critical mistake which most students make is that whatever they learn gets stored in their short – term memory. This is why students forget about the concepts and principals which they have learned before the exam. To tackle this problem, follow the ‘Times 3 principal’. According to this principal, practice every concept/question three times. First is an attempt, then a solution and finally the last one makes for revision. Revision is an integral part of any preparation. You must not take this lightly.

Start speeding up: As mentioned earlier, speed is a major factor while appearing for CAT. You will not be able to suddenly start solving questions quickly at the time of the examination. Once you are through with the entire course, start giving mock entrance tests. The higher the number of tests. The better it is. However, do not err by thinking that this solely would increase your speed. Rather, you need to analyse every mock examination that you take to ensure that you don’t end up making the same mistakes again. Keep a note of time that you take to solve the paper and the marks that you attain in every mock test. A better option would be to track your rank at a national level. Remember one thing, Never fell in love with a question!! So if you can’t solve a question, leave it ASAP. Also, you all have heard that you should never throw good money after bad. This thing is applicable here also. Even if you have spent 2-3 minutes over a question, do not hesitate to leave it, the question might take another 6-7 minutes or more. So do not worry about wasted 3 minutes, save the next 7 minutes which you are going to waste on this question.

Work smart: Good decision – making skills go a long way in helping you crack CAT. It would be a better idea to deal with simple and less time – consuming questions. Once you have attempted the easier ones, your nervousness would take a back seat and you would be geared up to handle the difficult questions. This in turn would also increase the probability of getting the right answers for such problems. So always start with a section in which you are most comfortable. Get 7-8 right questions in your kitty and you are on the right path to tackle the difficult questions/sections. So is the paper contain questions with different maximum marks, it is better to attempt questions with lower marks first as they logically should be easier. Remember, Nothing matters more than your confidence during those 2-3 hrs
Practice Online: With the CAT exam going online, the test pattern might change considerably. Hopefully, it would follow the structure of GMAT and GRE entrance examinations. It is thus critical to familiarize yourself with the computer and internet as the test is conducted online. So take a lot of mock tests online so that you are comfortable in using online testing softwares.

Happy Cracking CAT !!
Taken from book Asian’s Crack the CAT
By Vivek Gupta
Batch of 2004-IIM Bangalore

Buy the book on flip cart at link below


http://www.flipkart.com/crack-cat-4th-ed-2010-book-8184121164

Online Preparation: Key to Success in CAT

Online Preparation: Key to Success in CAT

Online preparation is vital in the preparation for CAT. If not the entire course, taking lot of practice tests online is a must if you aspire to crack the CAT. There are various reasons for this

 Put you under real test conditions—A stress-free mind looks at the CAT examination paper from different eyes. However when a student runs his eyes through the question paper sitting inside the examination hall, his perspective is altogether different since his performance on that day is an index of his future. To him, the question paper of CAT seems nothing less than a nightmare since his scores in that entrance examination would decide his admission in a business school. Taking online tests would put him under real test conditions, and repeated practice would make him used to the entire test process. This shapes the student into a confident candidate sitting for the exam. No anxiety, no fatigue!

 Give you required practice of solving bulk questions in one go—Unless you’re put under real exam conditions, it’s human behavior to take frequent breaks & attempt solving a question paper in multiple installments. Online mock tests help you gain enough practice to solve the entire paper in a single attempt, which eventually prepares you to the competence of solving questions in bulk & crack the exam.

 Use elimination method to solve objective questions—CAT examination is objective like most other competitive examinations. Since you score according to the number of right answers you make, it’s not like a regular school or college exam. So, you need to be smart in your problem-solving approach, which would eventually help you gain a competitive edge over the rest. Elimination method can help you score better as you can eliminate 4 (least likely to be right) options out of 5. Hence, this methodical approach increases your chances of scoring better manifold. Then, it’s not necessary for you to attempt 100% questions. You can leave some difficult questions & not devote more than required time to any one question particularly.

 Get maximized percentile—CAT exam is driven by percentile score. The relative grading plays a crucial role in deciding your fate as far as getting admission into a good business school is concerned. You essentially need to have an edge over 99% of the test takers. That can only be possible when you benchmark yourself continuosly with other candidates. The larger the pool of people, better is your estimates of performance. So taking test which is taken by other thousands of students help you to fine tune your preparation as well as test taking strategy, So, practice as many tests as possible online.

After having read this write-up, you must have realized the great significance of online preparation for CAT entrance examination. So, follow this saying stringently—“Practice as if you’re the worst, perform as if you’re the best.”

Union and Delhi Budget-2010...Moving in a Direction

I am happy with the movement happening in financial planning in India. Finally, government have started sparing the salaried person and started sharing the burden of national expenses on high income but zero tax paying self employed people.

Lowering of Income Tax slabs and increasing excise duty means that rather than taking on individuals which have the weakness of leaving money, they have started taking on good and services. So be it LCD TV's, Cars, Electricity or Cooking gas, self employed people have to pay as much as a salaried person.

Let me explain this in detail:

If govt expenses are Rs 100, they were taking all those from Salaried people before in form of income tax. Now, they lower the tax rate, and thus gets only RS 80 from these people. The rest 20 bucks from increased indirect taxes like excise, service tax etc.

But this Rs 20 is shared by everyone and actually mostly by self employed people who never pays income tax

Similarly in Delhi Budget, the bias seems to be going with more goods coming under tax net which eventually lead to more people leading to pay for government expenses.

Though people are complaining about increased prices of fuel and other commodities, it spreads economic burden on all rather than only few salaried individuals. People also compares our rates with USA rates and how USA manages with such lower taxes and fuel prices, the reason is because there everybody pays income tax. This difference should be clearly understood. When VAT was introduced some years back,it was speculated that the black economy would end but it has failed to do completely. In this scenario, I think increasing indirect taxes is the only way to bring more people under tax bracket.

Finally, good sense seems to be prevailing among policy makers.

Models of B-Schools in India

With over 50 years of history of management education in India, we are surrounded with several issues and concerns which directly or indirectly affect the future growth and quality of mana­gement education. By default or otherwise, however, We need to look into all these matters this stream of education has contributed a lot in improving the overall economic and employment growth of our country, but the issues and concerns remain valid even today.

In order to upgrade their career prospects, every year lakhs of students in India seek admissions to B-Schools. The questions, however, remain-how to select the best amongst thousands of B-Schools and whether degree/diploma in MEA is worth it? What factors should be used to assess and evaluate the quality and value of the institute? The same is the case with recruiters and other stakeholders-where and how to go about to find out the best? The issue is how to measure those who are better than others or how they are similar to each other or different, though all end up with offering the same PGDBM or MEA degree.

This has further been complicated with the mushrooming growth of B-Schools affiliated to different regulatory bodies like AICTE, UGC, Deemed University etc.

The same is the case with the state aided or university departments, as they cannot decisively be termed as better than the rest, except for a few. While the tuition fees may be comparatively low in the university system, they do not have the freedom and autonomy to revise or improve the course curriculum or the admission system. There are other factors and issues. It is a myth and some institutes claim to be the centres of excellence, as they simply have huge infrastructure and charge exorbitantly high fees. In many cases, students are further confused with the difference between MEA and PGDBM degrees.

In the following paragraphs, an overall picture of the existing status of management education in India is given.

Models of B-Schools: Different models of B-Schools existing in the current scenario are:

1. Department of a University: Of late, most of the universities have established a separate department of

management for MBA programme.

2. Deemed Universities: Over hundred deemed universities have been established and recognised by the. University Grants Commission (UGC) to . teach and offer MBA degrees. Transparency of academic activities and good governance are questionable. However, there are always exceptions, and some of the deemed universities have performed very well. For example, IITs in India have independent department for MBA programme. The quality of teaching and the students of IITs are much better and are comparable to those of the top B-Schools of India.

3. Institutes affiliated to Universities:

Many private B-Schools are affiliated to some universities for their MEA programme and degrees. But in most of the cases, it turns out to be universities providing only distance learning degrees which may not benefit the students at all.

4. Autonomous Institutes:

Most of them are approved by AICTE and award PGDBM degrees. Quality of education provided by these institutes varies depending on the quality of governance of the institutes. IIMs were created as autonomous bodies in active collaboration with Government of India and State governments and provide PGDBM courses. IIMs are considered to be the premier institutions in India.

5. Distance Learning Programmes:

Open Universities like IGNOU, Kurukshetra University, Annamalai University and many other universities provide distance learning MEA degrees. Normally, a distance learning course is not considered to be of much use.

With different kinds of models available for management education, students often get confused about which one they should opt for. Moreover, the information generally available about the institute is not always true. In order to attract students, many a time, some institutes give their success stories in their advertisements, particularly highlighting the infrastructure, faculty, placements, networking with foreign universities, foreign tour etc. Added with advertisements, the institutes also publish brochures, giving information which, at times, is not reliable.

In a divergent country like India, where due to existence of regional disparities in distribution of the management institutes, lots of students from small towns and cities come out every year who largely depend upon the information provided in the advertisements and brochure of a institute, filled with hopes and aspirations to pursue management education, but in the end, they feel disappointed as they do not find what they read about prior to admission.

Admission system: The multiple system of entrance test for admission is yet another area of concern and issue for immediate attention. The admission/ entrance tes t in the management institutes depends upon the requirement of a particular institute. The test varies according to the institutes and their affiliation or associations with the regulatory body. Many institutes have developed their own entrance test. It is difficult to give the list of all entrance tests, but we believe that there may be more than 30 such tests. To name a few are: CAT (Common Admission Test), MAT. (Management Aptitude Test), XAT (Xavier Aptitude Test), FMS Test (test for admission into Faculty of Management Studies), GMAT (Graduate Management Admission Te~t), CET (Common Entrance Test), IRMA-­AlEE (Institute of Rural Management Anand: All India Entrance.Exam), MH­CET (Maharashtra Common Entrance Test), G-CET (Gujarat Common Entrance Test), admission tests carried out by the State Technical Education Boards, University regulated tests ete.

CAT is used by all the IIMs and most of the top management institutes. CAT is considered as one of the best competitive exams to judge the potential of the candidates.

There is, however, lack of standardisation i.e. one common system of admission in a management institute in India. It is really a matter of concern that for the same level of degree, different standards of entrance tests have been introduced by different institutes. These tests are of different standards and as a result, the quality of intake of students also differs. This kind of practice is perhaps prevalent nowhere in the world and we are unique in following it. This will never allow us to standardise our quality of management education in our country.

Fee Structure: This is yet another area to be looked at. The fee structure of management education in India varies and ranges from Rs. 11 thousand per annum in a few schools to Rs. 9 lakh per annum. While some university departments or affiliated institutes have low fee structure due to being Government funded, others have low to very high fees structure which, at times, does not seem to be justifiable. The variation has generally been seen in autonomous institutes. We have not come to any kind of understanding as to what should be the appropriate cost/fee structure for a good MBA education. So far, no rational basis has been established and Institutes are arbitrarily charging fees at their own discretion.

Faculty Recruitment, Development and Retention: One of the issues being faced is in the area of faculty related issues namely faculty recruitment, retention and development. In a very short span of time, we have witnessed a massive growth in the number of B-Schools, however, the number of faculty has not grown at the same pace. This has led to a gap between demand and supply of qualified, competent and experienced faculty. Good quality of faculty is a major pre-requisite for all the good business schools, however, because of this gap in demand and supply of faculty, good quality of faculty is found to be missing. Faculty to student ratio, in different institutes, varies from 1:6 to 1:25/30, which has an impact on quality of imparting education. The institutes have, therefore, resorted to poaching of faculty from the peer groups and this has in turn led to the retention problem.

In addition, the governance of the institution has contributed to the present climate. In order to meet requirement of a large number of faculty, the B-Schools have compromised on the quality of faculty recruited, by not giving any consideration to the fact whether they are qualified for imparting management education or not. MBA is a highly professional education which requires faculty with high competence not only in terms of having a Ph.D. degree but also in terms of having the required experience in academics & industry / corporate sector. Unfortunately, this is not available in most of the institutes as almost 50% of the faculty recruited, do not have the required experience and in many cases, even fresh MBAs have been recruited to fulfill the requirements.

Faculty, as academicians by nature, need to and want to work in an environment where basic facilities are available for research, attending conference, seminars, writing papers, MDPs and many other activities in addition to teaching which is not found in most of the institutes.

The need of the hour is to strengthen the faculty development strategy & programme and train the faculty irrespective of the background they may be from. The strengthening of FDP is an absolute must-have in the given situation, both for meeting the requirements and improving the quality of management education in India.

Pedagogy & Research: Quality education is a consequence of effective pedagogy amongst other factors. Lack of skill and knowledge in designing courses in the management education area, is much more important than the content or teaching techniques. We do realise that the lack of teaching techniques, in a large number of management institutes is evident, which has a direct impact on the quality of education.

Generally, Indian B-Schools rely mainly on Harvard Case Studies based on American or European situations which are different from Indian cultural values and business environment. But management theories of 'Western B-Schools are not relevant to India and so Indian B-Schools should stick to their own management philosophy. To enhance students' critical and analytical thinking in Indian business context, the students should be allowed to discuss case studies related to Indian business environment. But lack of availability of such case studies is a major problem. Though some premier institutions claim to have a pool of case studies and many other institutes have taken steps towards writing their own case studies, these practices have not become popular yet.

One of the main strengths of the best B-Schools is their strong research base and its impact on society. Scientific status of a discipline depends on the quality of research it produces. Research not only enriches the quality of teaching, but contributes to the advancement of the discipline also. Although management education has been on academic scene for nearly half a century in the country, there is regretfully, not much to write home about the quality and the volume of research undertaken by management schools and scholars in India.

We strongly believe that the future of management education in India is closely interwoven with the quality of research it produces. Research which reflects scholarship; research which advances the discipline; research which promotes management knowhow; research which encapsulates and aligns management with Indian ethos, values and culture; research which deals with management beyond business and research which anticipates future priorities and concerns, has not come yet. While there should be opportunity for management scholar to pursue research in his area of interest, schools could also identify their own research thrust. At macro level, there should be nationally and regionally coordinated programmes in important, identified and publicized areas of management, relevant to Indian economy and society.

MDP: Management Development Programmes carried out by the B-Schools, not only give them the edge of industry interface, but also help them financially, by generating revenue for the institute. In India, one of the main strong points of the JIMs and other top institutes like MDI (Management Development Institute, Gurgaon), is the MDPs carried out by them, which helps them maintain a strong relationship with the industry through interaction like MDP . JIMs have a very strong relationship with the industry as well as with the Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) of India, which acted as a saviour during their campus placements during the economic recession of 2009.

Barring a few institutes, MDP has to go a long way in making its presence felt in most of the B-Schools.

Standardisation through Accreditation and Survey Methodology: One of the indicators for India's success will only be known when the institutes are accredited by the global associations of accreditations. By getting rated and ranked in the national environment is not likely to raise the quality and standard of management education, unless they compete, qualify and are accredited by the international accreditation bodies. So far, Indian Institutes have not been able to place themselves in top 100 global ranking. It proves that Indian management education still has a long way to go as far as global recognition is concerned.

Similarly in case of international accreditation, apart from JIM, Ahmedabad and Management Development Institute (MDI), Gurgaon, no other Indian institute has been accredited by international organisation as far as our knowledge goes. JIM, Ahmedabad has the accreditation of the European Quality Improvement System (E.Q.U.I.S.). MDI is the first Indian Business School which is internationally accredited by the Association of MBAs (AMBA), London and MDI has also been granted South Asia Quality Assurance System (SAQS) accreditation and National Board of Accreditation(NBA)

To have a global platform and attract students from outside the country, it is necessary for the Indian management institutes to try for these global accreditations.

Conclusion: It is obvious that we lack proper planning in establishing management institutes in India vis-a.-vis the manpower requirement. In the absence of implementation of provisions established by the regulatory bodies, the chances of improvement are very bleak. Apart from applying the present provisions meticulously, there is a need for -improving the provisions in qualitative terms and not just in

quantitative terms.

History of management education shows that there is a big gap in quality between the institutes established during 1950/60s to 1990s and institutes established in the later period. It is observed that as the number of institutes in India started increasing, the quality of management education started deteriorating. It is very obvious that the institutes established in the first two generations i.e. from 1960s till 1990s were few in numbers, but they have been maintaining their quality of education till now, or rather, have improved it. They have the best faculty and are hub of research. They take pride in their alumni.

But after 90s, the management education in India got surrounded by a mix of B-Schools. Some are, no doubt, doing well, but many others lack quality.

In absence of proper implementation of the provisions by the regulatory bodies, due consideration has not been given in separating the best from the rest. As a result, the students graduated from different institutes have different levels of competence. Students graduated from some of the management institutes cannot be even termed as management graduates in the real sense of the term as the quality of such institutes is at much lower level.

This problem needs to be resolved. Proper standardisation of management education and presence of single regulatory body are the need of the hour. Improvement is a continuous process. Majority of the business schools should keep on improving with time and try to move to the next level of excellence. Expansion without preparation and quality maintenance is not proper. Lots of new B-Schools have brought in improvements in infrastructure and boast of their state-of-the-art facilities, but governance, leadership, faculty quality also equally matter and are valuable factors. Though standardisatipn is an important factor, diversity and innovation in curriculum are also required.

We need to look into all these matters and aim at building a management education system of excellence in the country.