MBA Systems at PUMBA

Department of Management Sciences, University of Pune (PUMBA)

Admission Details:

Admission procedure for the MBA course to PUMBA is conducted by The
Directorate of Technical Education, Maharashtra (DTE). We request you
to contact the DTE for detailed information. The website mentioned
below will direct you to DTE.

www.dte.org.in/mba/

Common Entrance Examination score is considered for admission. The
written test is held in May or June and GD / Interviews are conducted
in June / July.

The Total marks are 240 and the distribution is as follows

· Written Test 200 marks

· Group Discussion 17 marks

· Personal Interview 17 marks

· Academic record 4 marks

· Work experience 2 marks

CET is a 2-½ hour paper consisting of 200 questions. Each question
carries 1 mark, with no negative marking. It tests the following areas:

· Reading Comprehension

· Quantitative Ability

· Visual Reasoning

· Data Interpretation

About MBA-SYSTEMS In Pumba

Few of the reports say that the need for specialist shall disappear
and the reign of versatility shall rise. I believe the same. Soon the
demand for specialist will start diminishing and organizations would
look out for candidates with diverse portfolio.

The point here I want to make is an employer would look for a profile with multidisciplinary approach.

That’s the future… What about now? Students ask, what should we do
right now, to make a successful career in IT, and to get through campus
placements in PUMBA. Where do we start? Which subjects should we study?
Do we study anything other than IT and if yes, then what do we study?
What do we read in Economic Times, Business Standard, etc? “I don’t
understand the technical jargons in business newspapers, what do I do?
What subjects from curriculum should we concentrate more on? Isn’t it?
Don’t you have these questions running across your mind all the time?
(feedback at: junaidid@gmail.com)

Hundreds and thousands of such questions pop-up. The plight is that
we never get the answers until it’s too late. Here is the solution.
“Collaborative Learning”. Forget about seniority and juniority and
bullshits of such kind. Let us speak only one language - of respect and
unconditional support.

I have tried to keep the language as simple as possible. All what I
have suggested below are my personal opinion from experience and
learning. Disagreements are welcome, but should be genuine and well
supported.

To start with, I recommend half of your effective time in IT related
reading and half in other areas. For other areas read forthcoming
articles by me and my colleagues. I assume that you have made up your
mind to make IT as your career. You have or haven’t, still read on. By
any means, you should have decided upon your specialization by the mid
of your second trimester. Both major and minor. We shall discuss about
this in subsequent articles. (feedback at: junaidid@gmail.com)

Do not worry about summer project as of now, if you require, we
shall bring into discussion few more of my friends. I have mentioned
below certain subjects that systems students should start studying from
the 2nd trimester, apart from his regular subjects. When I say that you
need to study these subjects from 2nd trimester, I mean it seriously.

Remember, I am making these recommendations from your placement perspective.

Software Engineering – Extremely Important
Project Management
Systems Analysis and Design
Database Concepts
C and any one of the object oriented language (Java or C++) thoroughly

We cannot generalize these subjects to cover all the interviews that
you may go through. A lot of general reading is extremely important. I
also recommend you studying certain areas in IT, from general awareness
purpose. It may give you astronomical levels of confidence. Truly!

IT Strategies
IT Infrastructure (Design and Implementation aspects)
Architectures of Standard softwares such as SAP, Oracle, etc as well as
Architectures of programming environment like J2EE.
E-Commerce
BPO and KPO (Emerging Trends)
Data Warehousing and Business Intelligence
Knowledge Management
Consultancy

I may have surely forgotten few topics; I shall post them from time
to time. By the big names above, don’t get depressed. The names are
deceitful. They are not that difficult as they spell.

Remember what I said about multidisciplinary approach? To scare you
more, there are more subjects to come. Now the question is, how do we
study so many subjects in such short span? (feedback at: junaidid@gmail.com)

And the answer is, sleep less, waste minimum of your time and start
right now. You may also get time to study during your summers, do
utilize the time.

It takes considerable time to grasp the systems concept to core, if
you are a fresher. But don’t worry, follow what I have recommended you
to do and you will get through. Experienced students in IT field, just
hone up your skills in areas you have missed.

Fresher may also look toward winter projects in IT (in small IT
companies). Experienced students just forget about winters and
concentrate on your selected subject of career. Fresher may also keep
working and helping in Cells to interact more with senior students.
This statement is not to promote Cell activities, but genuinely from
experience. I am still in touch with my seniors and super-seniors. This
is how you build up network. Here I would like to remind you about our
pact of collaborative learning. Unconditional Support. It will be
fruitless to always expect something from others, before you do
something for them.

Jaykar Library

I am sure only 2 % of the students must have joined the Jaykar
Library. I agree, there, we do not have many books related to systems,
but we do have a few extremely precious books. Every visit gives me a
new find. One of such books is by Chidanand Rajghatta – “The Horse that
flew”. So, if you haven’t joined the Jaykar, God bless you. Haan by the
way, now don’t go searching in Jaykar for “The Horse that flew”
immediately, cause it’s with me right now, and we have only one copy.

(feedback at: junaidid@gmail.com)

Placement Preparation

I know you must have pounced on this section without reading or just
scanning quickly the earlier one. But I strongly recommend you read the
earlier section.

If you are at the very early stage of MBA, you may hardly understand
what is written below. I recommend you come back and read this article
again after 1st year. Also, for an early bird, reading the article
won’t harm, so go ahead.

I will share a few of mine and my friends’ experiences. Almost all
of the placement procedure for Systems is similar. Aptitude followed by
GD or PI, or GD and PI.

The bottom line is that you have no escape from aptitude. But the
time to start preparing for aptitude is crucial. After reading this,
many may go home and start off crunching numbers and give pressure on
small brain to solve logical problems. This is not witty. The proper
time to start is during your summers. Just a few weeks after summers,
companies may start coming down.

Expect TCS to be the first company, as usual. But the date is never known soon.

TCS may have an aptitude, which many consider tough. Then have a
round or rounds of interviews. I had been asked almost everything under
the sun in the interview. From engineering projects, summer projects,
earlier job, finance-different financial ratios, game theory, JIT, SCM,
Oracle, SAP, network topologies applications, bit of general awareness,
process sheet, etc. Phew!!... don’t worry…. I had been grilled because
my profile was a bit diverse, Mechanical Engineer with Systems as Major
and Finance as minor. So the above questions were obvious.

I recommend studying basics thoroughly. Companies do not expect
anything extraordinary from you. They just expect strong basics from
you. Students from Finance, HR, Operations and Marketing as major may
consults students in respective specialisations. If I may name a few.
Purshottam, Hrishikesh-Operation, Anirbhan-Marketing, Kiran Shirsagar,
Parag Sonsale – Finance. Rekha – HR.

SG software, HCL Infosystems/Commnet, etc also have invariably the same process. Aptitude, GD and Interviews.

For GD’s keep yourself abreast with the latest. I don’t need to tell
you this, still, be prepared for GDs. You have atleast 3 in 10 chances
of getting selected, so you gotto stand out.

Premier Technologies had 6 rounds. Aptitude, Essay, Business
Analysis test, Case study, GD and Interview. Aptitude is very general
and simple. Essay is taken to test majorly your written skills.
Business Analysis test is tricky. It consists of questions from project
management, SDLC, test cases, testing, systems audit and documentation.
Just a few I remember. Now you know why I recommended you studying
subjects right from 2nd trimester. Still if you haven’t read the
earlier sections, go and read. Else --- “Father please forgive them, as
they know not what they do” “God bless you”.

Keep visiting the blog. As I shall write more. (feedback at: junaidid@gmail.com)

GD….. king of all headaches.

GD’s basically are fun. There is a bit of nervousness at start, but
once the ball is set rolling, it runs great. At start, all have fear of
failure and rejection in placement procedures, (particular in this
process) and enter the room with a mind of aggression. Don’t mistake GD
for a debate. It is just a discussion. I believe, the one with good
points on any topic stands out. But the one with poor points and a lot
of talking may be a turn off. Many points and an average talking will
do.

Not necessarily a person with good points scores good. He also has
gotto put it in words clearly and in an organized manner. Around 2 or 3
unrepeated points and…. few sentences in those points would benefit you
a lot. It also doesn’t make a fish market in that cozy room. Don’t try
to bring in all the points that you have thought of. It is not possible
if you have many points. I have seen students with many points making a
complete disaster. Again I say, few points but clearly said, work
miracles. This is how I have benefited the most. You can take that from
me.

Group performance is extremely crucial. Interruption should be null
when one is speaking. You may only barge in when one takes substantial
time on a point. Interruption should also start with descent “sentence
starters”, such as “exactly! ....we got your point my friend…. Now lets
look at it like this…”, etc. Do not speak when many are speaking. Look
for chances when only one is speaking. The best way is to discuss among
the group before GD, of not making a fish market, letting everyone
speak and speak one at a time.

One time, in a GD of 12 minutes, I got into discussion in the 10th
minute, still managed to get through. This was only because of non
interruption, followed by only two good points and clearly said. (Of
course, that doesn’t happen always.)

AND DO NOT LOOK AT THE PANELIST while discussing. I repeat …DO NOT LOOK AT THE PANELIST while in GD. (feedback at: junaidid@gmail.com)

Do we require a Certification?

A Certification does not guarantee you a campus placement. But a
Certified will always have an edge over. Let me again take you through
the process of selection. Only when you clear Aptitude, GD and other
set of rounds, will you have an opportunity to benefit from
certification. No matter how many certifications you have, if flung in
any above process before PI, no use of certification.

Looking at it from another angle, organizations do short list
students on CV’s. Also, now imagine yourself through with all the
rounds before PI. What would you have to impress the interviewer? Here
is where a certification comes in handy.

By looking at the pros and cons of certification, for a student with
no prior experience in IT, certification is recommended. Experienced
may go for it or not? Your choice.

Word of caution: certifications are time consuming. (Freshers have
no choice. They have to work even harder.) Certifications do not mean
short term courses. SCJP, Oracle DBA, are a few certifications.

Don’t get scared…… Even without a certification everyone gets a placement.

Many may even ask you to do some certification in Project
Management. In my opinion PM certification is an excellent idea. But
again the timing is important. You already have a Project Management
subject in final year. So is it good idea? Me think, PM certification
after a few months or years of experience would benefit. And anyways,
PM certifications are very costly.

(feedback at: junaidid@gmail.com)