The travails of a poor ol' engineer

I’ve learned a simple but largely unspoken fact about a B-school. If you want to get an MBA, don’t be an engineer. If you unfortunately are already one, learn to live with a sympathetic look on yourself, and learn to pray God often. Being an atheist doesn’t help. You know, when you have nowhere to go, better be a religious person.

An initial bit of deviation from the topic: I remember the animation clip that I developed while in the final year of Engineering College which, after looping through several jazzy Matrix-inspired clips, displayed “Engineers make the world”. The fact that the clips were amateur is a different thing. But the message we tried to convey was that Engineers build and transform the world. I should’ve known that I was destined to make that job tough for engineers – by aspiring to become a manager. :)

Coming to the core issue, while Engineering *attempted* to teach us to hit the bulls eye in a half-shot, much of Management seems to be designed to beat around the bush. Some of the case studies glorify this phenomenon. Ofcourse, we do learn things (I’m not speaking for myself!), but one thing I barely understand is why the theme of the case that could concisely be conveyed in 5 pages is conveyed hazily through 20 to 30 odd pages. Maybe the length adds credibility to the material and makes it sellable across B-schools, but the length of some of the case studies and reading material bowls me twice over. I’ve seen myself spending hours and hours (if you could pardon my exaggeration!) over the cases and reading materials and later wondering what the author is exactly trying to convey. Don’t get me wrong: I don’t think I’m all that bad in comprehending English. :) This is tolerable to an extent because it is the case with anyone who takes up management education. When everyone suffers, and sinks with you, you probably don’t realize the pain as that of sinking alone! But for engineers, the travails don’t stop here.

We have courses from most fields – Finance, Marketing, IT, Strategy, Quantitative methods, Economics etc. Most of them are *supposed* to start from basics and hence people who did their under-graduation in the respective fields get benefited, provided they had studied well. For the most part, Strategy, Marketing and HR are new and hence are level playing fields. Quantitative Techniques, where Engineers are supposed to be strong, is a level playing field too for two reasons: First, most of the material is new, except may be for IITians and second, engineers like me didn’t really learn during Engineering. Mind you: flipping, mugging and reading are phenomenon associated with jumping the wall – clearing exams that is, and are not meant to be for overloading the brain – learning for lifetime. Information Technology courses, which are supposed to be a cakewalk for Engineers – atleast for the ones from IT or Electronics streams, are unfortunately extremely elementary. Add to that the chillness levels of the professors, IT subjects become the ‘chill’est possible ones. Imagine open book exams, direct questions from the PPTs, courtesy reading materials which are never quizzed on, most grades ranging from B- to B+ etc. There is fortunately some leverage for Economics grads in the economics courses. Most benefited are the ones from Commerce or Finance backgrounds.

The Accounts and Finance exams are like the mystique language spoken in West Spain/Portugal, the name of which came in The Hindu last month which I don’t recollect. For the record, it is supposed to be the toughest second language to learn since the pronunciation and some of the elements of the language are so complex that only people who grew up as a child in the same atmosphere can twist the tongue to create the unique sounds. That the previous lines are over-statements is implicit, but I guess I conveyed the point. Some engineers do make it big, but unfortunately - or fortunately - yours truly isn’t in that category. I might be fortunate here because I’m more interested in preserving my brain for future use. Ofcourse, I tried studying Finance-I with all possible might (again, pardon my exaggeration), refusing to believe that Finance and Accounts aren’t for me. But the results just didn’t add up. The Finance II mid term was as tough as it can get. I remember studying with a very decent concentration but I found myself in the exam hall thinking about Calvin with the mysterious multiplication problem before him. Calvin atleast enlisted the support of Suzie for solving problems, but for some vague reason I don’t enlist other Calvins or Suzies for help. End of the day, I’m facing the same wall that reads: Poor ol’ engineer, finance isn’t for you.

I still refuse, but I guess it’s not long before I’ll get the answer. I curse; I drudge on, hoping that salvation is somewhere...