are we speaking the same language

I had an interesting conversation today with the HR of an Indian based Multinational Company. Below is an excerpt

HR: we will need to remove 6 months experience from your total experience.

Me: Why!?!?!

HR: because you have a Bachelor of Science degree

Me: What do you mean by that?

HR: It is not an engineering degree

Me: No, i do have an engineering degree. I have Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering.

HR: Yes, you have a Bachelor of Science degree. it is not an engineering degree. Engineering degree is a Btech (bachelor of technology)

Me: (completely baffled probably even scratching my head)

HR: So that is why we need to remove 6 months

Me: Why 6 months?

HR : Because you did a 3 year degree.

Me: No, it was a 4 year degree.

Me: (realization dawns) I think we are misunderstanding each other. In India a Bachelor of Science may be a 3 year degree. However, at Purdue University where I read engineering, the degree offered is a Bachelor of Science. But for our purposes you can consider my degree to be equivalent to that of a Bachelor of Technology.

HR: I will have to get back to you.

Subtle cultural differences. Though i still dont understand why if one did a 3 yr program they were going to remove 6 month of work experience. And why 6 months why not a year?

(edit) I later found out 6 months is removed for the lack of a real world project work, which is part of the course of a BTech degree in India. But isnt the project work only for the duration of the semester which is usually only 4 months. So shouldnt they remove only 4 months of experience rather than 6?

Grad school anyone!

You need to retake the classes you got a D in.

Why ?

Else you wont get into Graduate school

Grad school! More studying? No! I do not have any intention of going to grad school.

Okay but I hope you dont regret this decision.

Ah! the young and the naive. The above is an excerpt of a conversation a lazy 21 year old (me) had with his college academic councilor.

Now an older and much wiser me is in the process of applying to GRAD SCHOOL! To be specific an MBA program. Why? (you ask) ... There is a 500 word essay on that, which i am not going to post here.

So what have i learnt from this. Well, life changes. You can plan ahead on you life path but chances are that you are going to have to make changes to it. The 21 year old, me was absolutely certain he was not going to further continue his studies. So why is the 29 year old me applying to MBA programs? Simplest reason, i have found a passion a passion that i did not know existed as a college student. Is an MBA necessary to follow my passion? Well no, but it does require some advanced studying that only masters programs or tremendous amounts of time in a library can provide.

So i chose the MBA path and since I am going to Business school I thought I might as well try to get into the best of the lot. Where competition is stiff and selectivity into the program meanders around 10% of all applicants. If your going to dance might as well dance with the best of them, right. What are the weaknesses of my candidacy? The foolishness of the 21 year old mentality and poor grades suffered as a consequence is probably the biggest.

I guess it actually pays to listen to your elders, they may not have the same life experiences as you. But at least they are more aware of the complexities and changes that can occur in life.