'Dream Quotient' of MBAs

In this post, I am writing about my experience while trying to prove my mettle as an MBA who joined IT as a management trainee. I am sure many of management graduates whom I have interacted in last 2.5 years of my IT experience or others who will read this post would agree to the following:

First thing first, any management graduate joining IT shall know that he is competing with every single individual in this field whether holds an MBA degree or not. To elaborate, take any field: automobile, teaching, sports, cooking or pharmacy; these can be called a profession but management is not a profession, it is the driver of all the professions but not a profession in itself. So, any person who has worked on the shop floor in any of these fields can very well be a manager in that field. Same holds true for IT too.

How an MBA at entrant level in IT shall react to this? Reaction shall depend upon the work & work culture. I have found a crucial difference between MBAs & non-MBAs in IT and that is 'Dream Quotient':

For this analysis, I have considered only two kind of people: people from technical background and MBAs. I believe rest are so less in numbers they can be ignored.

What I have seen over the last few years is, people from technical background while studying technical degrees like B.E. or B.TECH. (CS), have thought of becoming a software engineer in a reputed MNC, which if they pass out from an average institute, eventually achieve in less than 2 years. Then what? Then they just follow the ladder which their manager has gone through or has setup for them. This would be called bottoms-up approach. I would call it as a myopic, unadventurous and poor in dream quotient. My gut feel data is 80% of IT professionals from technical background would fall in this category having poor dream quotient.

On the other side, what MBAs learn in B-school is always from a point of view of an organization or CEO. When we are studying we often come across words like "Will you ever as a leader would ......?" I would call it as top-down approach. Unfortunately, we never see any problem as an individual trying to keep ball away from his court (indeed it is a top quality in IT, but we would take that later). Even if an MBA starts from the lowest level in an organization, his eyes would always be at what top management is doing. Dream quotient of an MBA is very high.

Along with the dream quotient, there is a pile of things which I could be pointed out as different in these two sides such as communication, presentation, orientation etc. (later more on this)

In field of IT, you will find more no. of people who belong to the first side. If they reside at a leader's position, do hinder the growth of second side. This can happen if you are in a services company & are living in trap of billing from client.

I thought, this difference can be helpful for the new entrants and people sitting in placements choosing script writers of their future. So, shared it.

I at personal level, am confident enough to find a way out.

Dussera in my childhood...

All festivals in childhood are very joyful as compared to adulthood when they are just counted as leaves. Each of them have a different taste then. We all would agree, as kids we used to wait for these festivals for weeks. On this Dussera, I am writing about how I have celebrated Dussera in my childhood, killing 3 Ravans each year...yes, 3 Ravans. The joy of Dussera to me used to start at 7 am in the morning with different racing competitions on the square.

The anchor annoucing start of the games and crowd cheering loud for winners, really used to create an amazing environment. An hour later, to buy fresh floweres, make malas and put them on our home's entrance was once a year activity for me. Only on this holy day, I would worship my books/schoolbag. In history, this tradition originally came from farmers who would worship their instruments on Dussera. To me it came from my father and as a student I followed it on my instruments, of course those were books then :)

The best part would come in the afternoon, when I would make a Ravan of my own. I did this for years buying stuff from local stationary shop and putting crackers inside, with all my friends then watching it this will be a proof of my creative self for the whole life. I would keep it ready before I leave with my sis n dad for Dussera maidan for my 1st Ravan Dahan of the day. After the 1st Ravan Dahan on our way back we would bring home Sona-patti. And on return, we would kill Ravan made of rice on a table where all males of the family would kill it together with a knife and find a golden ring inside it..that would be the 2nd one. And then for 3rd, I would force my family and friends to join me and see my Ravan burning. It was kind of great with every one just watching and I putting it on fire. This whole day used to be very amusing, but now that's history.

Not sure if everyone knows Dussera is not a single but two days celebration, second day is called Basi-Dussera. On Basi-Dussera, younger generation takes blessings of their elders by giving them Sona-patti and bowing across them. In our days, this was a leave and we all friends would gather and visit each house of colony to give them Sona-patti and get blessing in form of sweets/eatables, at least those were the preffered ones :) This would help people know each other and create a friendly environment. In last 4-5 years, I have lived in places where I hadn't known my immediate neighbours.

Sad but those celebrations are a history now. It has been 8 years since I enjoyed Dussera and saw people celebrating, burning effigies of Ravan.