tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-87295601606239432252024-03-13T15:52:50.695-07:00My days of MS in MIS in US...Manishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06464987791571472508noreply@blogger.comBlogger30125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8729560160623943225.post-88348642040718573192011-03-29T22:51:00.000-07:002011-03-29T23:17:00.786-07:00FAQs of MISDear MS Aspirants,<br /><br />Its really been long that I have answered any of the questions posted as comments on this portal! I really do apologize! While some of you might have already made a decision and moved on, I am more than sure that following write-up would be much useful for many others! Without wasting much time, lets move on -<br /><br />1. MIS vs CS<br />Well yes, CS is usually hard code programming but also focussed on algorithms, trees and data structures. MIS on the other hand gives you a good comprehensive understanding of technicalities without having to dive much into the details. The basic goal of any MIS program is usually to equip you with the knowledge & skillset necessary to manage Information Systems in any given company. <br /><br />2. Curriculum<br />Each university has its own defined period curriculum with some offering optional business courses. However, curriculum is dynamic and each university tries to re-visit its course structure every 2-3 yrs to attract the best and the brightest. I thus highly recommend you all to check and connect with students and other aspirants on edulix.com for recent developments in any particular university that you are interested.<br /><br />3. Fees<br />In most of the universities, MIS is usually twice as costly as CS. The typical fee for MIS is $15k/sem but can greatly vary from university to university.<br /><br />4. Assistantship <br />Again, understand that each university is different and there is no single answer to this question. While I was part of UofA, I witnessed that most of the students would have assistantship by second semester. <br />Assistantship (GA/TA) usually comes as either 10 hrs or 20 hrs. 10 hrs assistanship usually helps waive around 40-60% fees while 20 hrs assistantship can waive around 60-85% fees depending upon individual universities. The assistantships are usually accompanied by hourly stipend of typical $15/hr.<br />As an international student, you are allowed to work only 20 hrs for first 9 months of your curriculum.<br /><br />5. CPT/OPT/Internship/Full Time Job<br />CPT is Curriculum Practical Training. Basically a legal permission that as a part of your curriculum, you are allowed to work 40 hrs a week. CPT is typically valid for 3 months but can be extended to as much as 9 months (I believe). Most students apply for CPT during summer time to work as intern in official companies. Most of the universities demand that one pays 3 credit worth fees for CPT. <br />Optional Practical Training (OPT) on the other hand is applied for when you have graduated. It usually is valid for 1 yr during which you should request your employer to while for H-1B visa. Many universities are trying to bring their MIS program under an umrella that allows for 17 months of OPT extension (12 + 17). Note that you do NOT pay Social Security Tax & Medicare Tax while on any of OPT or CPT.<br />The typical job profile after graduating with MIS is that of Analyst (business/system/technical) or consultant. The job scope of each title varies greatly from company to company.<br /><br />I understand that I have only briefly touched the topics that you may be seeking an in-depth information about. Please feel free to leave sensible questions as comments and I will try to include those in this FAQ section.<br /><br />Once again, good luck in your thirst for more knowledge.<br /><br /><br /><strong>Disclaimer</strong>: All the information presented above is based on limited knowledge that I possess. The information above should in NO way affect the decisions you have made and I would or should NOT be responsible for any loss of any form!Manishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06464987791571472508noreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8729560160623943225.post-88953638117289631002009-03-09T19:38:00.000-07:002009-03-09T19:50:34.891-07:00yet another beautiful day!Ever had a morning that was set or thought of to start in a different but ended up being much nicer? Well, for me it couldn't have been any wonderful than today. The hang out till 4 am on Saturday night playing games with group of 15 friends and then yet another hang out with friends on Sunday night probably made me tired enough to get on my routine of reading a novel during the travel towards my work. I even tried to read, but since it was beginning of the new novel, I couldn't hold on to reading. The only next option available to me was just to look around for rest of my 35 minutes of my train travel. But I bet that it couldn't have been any better.<br /><br />My morning started by noticing the wet roads. It probably seemed to have stopped raining since last couple of hours because while the edges of the leaves of the trees could still hold on to the drops of the rain,the roads weren't that watery! But hey, the smell was pleasant enough to penetrate my nostrils and give me that feel of getting on to the road trip rather than being bound by the four walls of office. The soothing videos through youtube kept me intact with dreamy world. I could feel that mischievous nature in little babies around trying to make fool of moms. That reminded me of my childhood when I would show no respect to Mr. Gandhiji and tear his body off whenever my dad offered me a ransom to make me quiet while being angry. The smile on the other side from charming little princess kind of swept away the feel of my existence. Its indeed wonderful at times to just float around in your own world without caring about what the others think of you...My heart couldn't stop feeling that happiness...wow! why can't I be like that always!!!Manishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06464987791571472508noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8729560160623943225.post-66531855941843050682009-01-26T20:30:00.000-08:002009-01-26T20:33:55.511-08:00That first day of full time job...!At once I thought the time has come that I should stop writing on this blog since the very purpose was to narrate my experiences during my masters. And the laziness and boredom convinced me to an certain extent but then, I had my energizing pack back when I good to meet my bhabhi, elder brother and close friends. <br />Now since that energy is injected in me, I got to mention the first day of my full time job. I always love it if my day begins by waking up early in morning. While some like twilight, I like to witness dawn (no jokes!). Today, it exactly happened that way. The alarm buzzed at 5:00am…the time around which I get the most beautiful dreams of night! I of course put that on snooze but that was just for 5 minutes! Now, if you have to travel 15 miles by public transport via a route never traveled before, you got to give up sleep…so no second snooze…Now, there is one thing that always surprises me…I always suggest people for advance planning but never do that for my own!!! As you might have guesses (hoping you are my friend :) ), I had to iron my pant, shirt and prepare my bag with all the necessary documents. And hey, I forgot the shower part! I love to take shower for minimum of 15-20 minutes…that’s when I forget about almost everything (besides my own body ;) ). Anyways, so I left at around 6:25 with all the new clothes which I just shopped yesterday (see…no planning) hoping that I will catch a train scheduled to arrive at station at 6:41 and station is 20 minutes walk from my place :) . Wait wait my friend..I didn’t mention about the free bus service here in Phoenix…man that made me reach within three minutes…that unfortunately gave me enough time to be loyal and buy a rail ticket (I miss my days in India of boarding a train without a ticket!)…hey…I think I forgot to mention about the wind of this morning and the temperature…it was such a pleasant and cool weather that I was actually convinced of walking for 20 mins till station but saw the bus following me and couldn’t deny my crying legs for relief . <br />The day at office started of with a very very beautiful lady (company’s HR, you can actually call her angel!)…some times you really wish that even your day dreams come true :) …don’t you ;) …anyways, so we finished everything in half an hour…and by everything, I just mean the documentation…and then I got to meet a person who inspired me the most during my internship…yes…one of my role models…and again it was a day of accumulating his acumen…his wise words…man…I just feel like listening to his advices all day long…afternoon turned out to be a little boring when I started thinking of things/ppl that I shouldn’t…so time to call loved ones…I love doing kidas while at work…and first day need not be different ;) …well…that went on for about an hour till the time when I got that email from that inspiring man walking the whole different about the tough economic phase that lies ahead of the company and what role is Manish going to play in helping the company to face that crunchy situation. Man, his words brought me to my feet and I got on track with email after email trying to catch hold of people for interviews. I finally ended the day at around 5:00pm knowing that it will take me 1 hr 30 mins to get home. I must admit that Phoenix’s light rail is awesome…I had so much fun sitting and returning in that day…I could witness the beauty of the city and surrounding areas (which I couldn’t in the morning because of the early morning’s darkness)…everything looks so beautiful when one is at very comfortable position…I could just think of myself and where am I headed in my career…<br />All in all….the day gave me enough reasons to keep smiling…may be I am just born to smile and make others smile…one of those beautiful days of my life…I love it being like this…more later…Manishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06464987791571472508noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8729560160623943225.post-48725077205095443032008-10-05T20:32:00.000-07:002008-10-05T23:41:41.069-07:00Analyze the most complex thing on earth - RelationshipDuniya mein hum saare, yaadon ke hai maare...is what the title song of 'Yaadein' chimes! Isn't it true. We come on earth only to be remembered for our good deeds. And the only way to make people remember you is to make relation with them! Relation of connecting with their emotions rather than being limited by the name of the relation. How many of us try that? How many of us even try to connect with people with whom we have named relation? Lots of people say that they go beyond what is obivious to achieve results. But I have seen very few people going beyond obivious i.e. losing their egos to make someone else in the relation happy! We keep looking for problems around the world to get the recognition by providing innovative solutions, what is the solution to broken relations?Manishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06464987791571472508noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8729560160623943225.post-22375800609315964452008-09-20T01:23:00.000-07:002008-09-20T01:33:08.392-07:00Search of a Truth...!It probably was obivious to come! Writing after such a long time has really given me a consolidated thought process which I would like to put forth. I stand totally dis-oriented from every object, every human being and possibly everything you can think of except myself!<br /><br />I don't know who I am. For one person I may be good and simulatenously for someone else, I am bad. I don't want to be recognized by any name but by my karma. But how do I justify my karma? I have senses which tell me to do not too good with someone because he/she isn't good but I also have heart which says do good to everyone without judging them! What if all the objects/people moving in front of my eyes suddenly come to dead still position. How am I supposed to react to be considered a human being? Whom do I trust or believe for there is literally no one around and thus the entire world belongs to me but with nothing in it! Whom am I supposed to love and whom am I supposed to set myself away from? I don't know! I see no one speaking the truth! All I see is people lying in one way or the other! Whom do I approach to find the ultimate truth! Truth about you, me and almost everything possible in this entire universe. Am I lost or this is the path that individual takes at some point in one's life? Do you have any clue or idea to guide me up! Please do so if you do...Manishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06464987791571472508noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8729560160623943225.post-28539135438183211192008-09-08T15:34:00.000-07:002008-09-08T15:39:42.016-07:00On ppl being reluctantIt would be only be amazing to accept the fact that people even at masters level are reluctant to discuss believes which just have been inheritted without even questioning. I wouldn't say that masters taught me to argue but it definitely taught me to know and learn things before creating a belief which is not been tested. My recently attempt to find the existance or rather discuss the existance of god really got me in trouble. In case you are open, I would really like to discuss good & bad on earth and then the very definition of god that we have in our minds which is only supposed to yield good. Isn't it! I infact couldn't reach a conclusion on whether I should trust the very existance of something unseen or stay athiest and being devoid of social groups. I am open to discuss in case you have time :)Manishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06464987791571472508noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8729560160623943225.post-77423572941403694202008-07-20T00:06:00.001-07:002008-07-20T21:44:42.064-07:00Emotions on Rocks...<span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Understanding human beings...<br /><br /></span><span>This blog originated from my thoughts over the category of people that we ever try to be in touch with. I was recently conversing with one of my very close friend who shared an interesting finding: Some of we US masters student don't really enjoy getting back to India because of the fear of having nothing to do at all which spins money. While in US, you get lot many opportunities to make some real money, those opportunities may still be hidden in some unknown (or not well known) streets of India. The whole point of discussion is you tend to see everything in monetary terms </span><span> only. Also some of us grow so independent of relationships that we only remain in touch with people who can lead us what we want to be to attain that power. A best example to quote here is that of friends. Once you are here for around an year, you would realize that most of your time is spend with people who you think have the potential to get you closer to your objectives like going to different places, getting a good job, etc. There are some half hearted relations that you try to follow up with but don't really live it. But being in a relation where you can't live and be yourself, is to my believe of no use. Isn't it hard to sometimes completely understand human behavior?<br /></span>Manishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06464987791571472508noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8729560160623943225.post-14542992423298692242008-07-19T20:59:00.000-07:002008-07-19T21:46:26.689-07:00Becoming an year old baby...!Well for most it may not mean much and even I had almost forgotten until an evening where I got enough time to be retrospective and walk through my past for a while. It indeed is an amazing feeling to have completed an year in United States specially for the approach that has radically changed (at least I feel so) towards life.<br /><br />There are lots of things that happened in my life and I am sure to miss few of those. But again, the amazing part of blogs (or any application for that matter) is the ability to revisit things and modify those the way you want. Anyways, lets get to the business.<br /><br />So what is it that is worth a mention? Well, the thing that makes me feel honored is the realization that everyone plays a role in maintaining the smooth ecology. I learned the importance of learning and sharing in individual's life. I learned that every individual has one thing or the other to teach me and thus worthy of a respect as a teacher. I learned to see bigger picture of businesses while still tickling down to narrower details to ensure successful operations.<br />Besides this pool of positive things, I also learned few things which I feel are negative. I learned to stay alone, away from family, and still be happy! While at one instance I loved to be completely independent, at the other, I realized the importance of showing dependence on others even though you aren't. Well, believe me, that is what many people like to believe. I learned that many people (specially Indians) doesn't make good lasting friends as they a little mean. I learned to be optimist and expect from people which at times made me pay heavy duties!<br /><br />Everything said, it is very important to learn to love, learn to share, learn to respect individuals, learn to receptive to others' ideas and opinion and make an effort to justify those individuals thinking differently from what you think, learn to be a team player, learn to walk towards success with abilities that each individual has. Any organization succeeds only if it realizes the fact that sustainability is achieved through people, processes and technology. By that I of course don't mean of having any herd of people, any broken processes or any out-dated technology. There infact are very few people who understand and attach appropriate adjective to above items to yield better & profitable business.<br /><br />Before I started writing this, I wanted this blog to be highly emotional, but I think I dived to much of the practicality! But ya, those 15+ hours per day on laptops to manage your student life kind of takes you away from relationships. At least in my case, it stood so. Everything that makes sense would then be just money. Well thats indeed the reason why many of us fly to States, isn't it? But hey, every achievement has some sacrifice behind it. It ultimately then boils down to individuals' decision on how (s)he wants to move ahead. So ya, one definitely learns to make concrete, sound decision based on facts learned through others which effectively is strong decisions with others help. To me, thats life! Life of keep the continual momentum towards enthusiastically learning from others walking along the goal oriented path without keeping room for any digression. But ask people who went on to become, CEOs, MDs and other high rank positions and some ideas of those individuals' will align well with the ideas presented in this blog...<br /><br />OK...No more writing...Thanks for being good audience...If you happen to land in US (and are Indian), you will miss India after some time...specially relations...or rather strong and trust-worthy relations...Manishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06464987791571472508noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8729560160623943225.post-24991774897951825902008-06-08T11:38:00.000-07:002008-06-08T11:55:37.316-07:00A week into ERP ConsultingI always wondered why the consultant are paid so much (Please don't assume that I am paid too much). There indeed is a reason. Firstly, they usually have a diverse technology experience making them an easy going person while understanding existing enterprise applications and architectural environment. Secondly, they have good persuasive skills and also good command over what they talk and how they talk. That makes them gel well with company people and eases the process of fetching requirements, understanding existing company processes and so on. Thats in general about consulting.<br /><br />Lets now focus on ERP implementation. While reading articles on ERP, you will always come across an astonishing percentage of the failures during ERP implementation. Well, I learned in my first week of work that most of this comes from unclear business needs and organization's un-readiness (specially people) for adopting the change. Obviously, if you are at the age of 50, you might as well grow up to be reluctant to learn new things. So what do you do with these otherwise innocent people. Infact most of the organization are finding this problem of holding on with a talent because talented individuals keep moving (causing exodus) while some hold on with the existing skillset but expect hikes in the pay check. That might well be the reason for labor unions which cause stoppage of work. I think, I diverted from the main topic, but the perception of PPT still holds true for sustainable success of any organization.<br /><br />Keep visiting this blog for more...Manishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06464987791571472508noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8729560160623943225.post-39030420109577901292008-05-28T23:00:00.000-07:002008-05-28T23:37:29.668-07:00The SOA Way...Ever wondered a repository where you query anything and expect a perfect answer. Well you might think of Google but is it really a repository? It will only be wise to leave the answer for Googlers and move ahead. My current dive into SOA has poised me with some stunning facts and few dazzling question. First was the number of SOA patents that IBM has and how over a period of time it has captured more than 60% of the SOA market leaving no place for other players. Honestly speaking, IBM has well matured with SOA and rendering key services to other industries in embracing this potentially robust architecture.<br />One of the questions we must surely ask is how the seamless integration achieved at the end between heterogeneous systems? After all, IT systems are the most notorious ones when it comes to talking with each other. Talk about APIs, OO Modelling, UML Design and what not...but all show some kind of loopholes when it comes to establishing cross organizational interaction between the business processes. How does then SOA claims to embark that it supports flexibility and reuseability. The sole power comes from XML which eased the process of data representation in a standard form across the internet industry and soon became a widely embraced standard by all leading IT organizations. The never sleeping IT world quickly grew to web services but it definitely took time for standards to emerge to have a giant and widely accepted IT architecture in place.<br />It is sheer amazement to browse IBM website for SOA and find tonnes and tonnes of documents explaining the evaluation-standardization-adaptability-governance process related to SOA. It definitely isn't a magic to have 2 applications build by two mutually independent organizations to interact seamlessly and produce consistent results. But it happens through SOA! The simple fact of creating services as stateless and then standardizing the interface that can be used to enable global communication is really the charm of SOA.<br />The supporting protocols have even seen a dramatic growth over a period of time. Each aspect in the supporting protocols is so fine tuned! You read about XML-RPC to get convinced that this protocol will withstand tomorrow's business needs and then you see SOAP emerging as yet another standard offering some advantage over the previously considered 'sufficient' protocol. The signs are clear that IT is never going to sleep.<br />Think of declaring the availability of a particular service. The WSDL, UDDI and SOAP coordinate with each other so well to have a unified service directory which not only takes care of services' name, but also the description of what is does and how can that be invoked while contacting service provider.<br />It truly is a pleasing experience reading what is dominating the industry and I would definitely recommend readers of my blog to invest good time browsing IBM's site to learn more about this fascinating architecture.Manishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06464987791571472508noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8729560160623943225.post-56907473465986873922008-05-02T22:12:00.000-07:002008-05-04T00:28:25.842-07:00Everything in world has a dimension to analyze!Now this might look like a thread triggered after taking Business Intelligence class, but believe me the roots are much much older and deeper.<br /><br />Dimensions-Something that helps us analyze several business facts in context of certain attributes. Well thats a typical definition that everyone finds in BI, Data Warehouse classes. But how can we extend this approach to human beings? Let me give it a shot...<br /><br />Lets try building a complete star schema for a human being (I will of course skip the attributes). I am proposing a completely new design for star schema because of the complexity involved with the human beings. Let the 'human behavior' be the factless fact table surrounded by several facts such as nature, failures, achievements, recognitions & of course time. While nature will be a slowly changing dimension and thus cannot be the reason for sudden drastic change in the human behavior. However, the other 3 dimensions are highly volatile and may occur in person's life in any frequency and in any order.<br /><br />Our purpose for this schema is to analyze the change in the human behavior over a period of time depending upon his/her failures, achievements and recognitions he/she gets in the society. I am sure that you are inching closer in shaping your thoughts to what my analysis and conclusion would be. But I think this a predictive behavior of human as a species. Everyone is affected by these dimensions and this brings change in their behavior. But I am looking towards formulating a schema for a mankind that remains polite and humble despite all odds of achievements and failures. I am probably unable to shape my mind to figure out the dimensions which can lead to drastic change in the mood of humble people!<br /><br />So, in case you are satisfied with the above analysis, do help me to find out the schema and specially the dimensions I am looking for...Manishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06464987791571472508noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8729560160623943225.post-65140550619938535302008-03-21T22:06:00.000-07:002008-03-21T22:16:09.637-07:00Rhythm divine in the pool waterIt is hard to believe that non-swimmer can enjoy the pool water and going deep in. But not when you are at my blog. hehe! Well, I became one of the examples today. Not knowing how to swim, I kept striking my feet against the water to gain the momentum (after all everybody knows that to survive in water, you need to keep your hands and feet moving). Not because I wanted to learn swimming (well, I actually wanted to learn ;) ) but primarily because whenever I poured my head in, I could listen to music which I otherwise couldn't whenever I had my head over the water. Amazing was the feeling with so many firangs in Bi**ni around you and the music...ummm...Manish is back into the mood...!Manishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06464987791571472508noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8729560160623943225.post-35661798823303876522008-03-13T23:16:00.000-07:002008-03-13T23:25:53.053-07:00Pursuit of HappinessFor everything that is complete today is likely to be torn tomorrow. Trusting, believing are the natural instincts that arise when you don't want to go any further in pursuit of that extra quality that you may otherwise get. When do you give up? At the age of 50? When you probably think you are off the age to pursue that extra piece of knowledge which can make you being counted in the elite group of people whose stories every person want to read to thrive in their endeavors? Where does it all end? For me (at least thinking wise), the tale is never ending. Whenever you achieve, it becomes a point of new career endeavors. I don't know, but at this early stage, life at times suddenly makes me take a pause, feel stagnant may be to enjoy the surroundings which I otherwise may not be able to during my quest of growth. How do you justify/characterize such aspects in your life?Manishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06464987791571472508noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8729560160623943225.post-58493857830916336492008-03-08T21:48:00.000-08:002008-03-08T21:57:50.189-08:00How do I believe in recession?Creating a belief requires set of facts from authentic source! I do read journals from most news site quoting around 63000 jobs being cut in US alone but I also read global players (like Google and Amazon) reaching realms of India (IIMA to be specific) in this economic slowdown for hire! On one side, I find correlation of economy getting drilled down with enough being spent in elections, on the other side, I do notice US still deploying troops in Iraq costing billions of dollars per month.<br /><br />Share market (my area of interest :) ) shows all signs of derailment plunging valuable money of millions of investors, but I also read economy boom that will soon make BSE touch 29000 from current 16000!<br /><br />Do you believe in recession even without knowing what kind of job cuts are happening, what functional domain they are happening in, what kind of an industry and what kind of people??? What do you have to say?Manishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06464987791571472508noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8729560160623943225.post-49921201138724785482008-02-20T22:43:00.000-08:002008-02-20T22:52:25.216-08:00To what we call career fair...What if human beings don't have expectations? The world will indeed be a smoother and much more happier place to live.<br />It is often found that expectations are hard to meet because they keep growing and are never bounded by a piece of paper as many of the professional contracts are!<br />I don't know what one expects from a career fair but for me, this is a event where employers (who have open positions in their organization) come in and browse the resumes to short list candidates who may be interviewed by the recruiting team to capture the talent. But things differ a bit in definition (at least in my university) where career fairs are nothing more than a goodies expo where attractive and branded freebies are doled-out. Resumes are the piece of garbage which if collected (most of the people deny accepting resumes saying that we better apply through website! God knows why do they come then to Universities...Prolly to get a day off) are used to draw pictures in the leisure time.<br />What do you call such events?Manishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06464987791571472508noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8729560160623943225.post-55075372943543370272008-02-14T17:38:00.000-08:002008-02-14T17:50:13.434-08:00Is MS in MIS worth coming to US for? ...(contd)I probably forgot to add one point in my last articles...That was the cheat sheets :)<br />Yes, even those are allowed in Masters program here!<br /><br />Here is then the crux:<br />Most of the US universities realize the source of their income i.e. India. Thus more and more universities are trying to follow up the routine procedures that are followed in Indian Curriculum. This is to provide the comfort level to students in order to retain them. Thus in order to really learn something in your masters career, you yourself will have to exploit the technology that is available at a great ease. The curriculum for MIS is not something you don't find in India, but its the surroundings that make these institutes continue at this scale...Manishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06464987791571472508noreply@blogger.com286tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8729560160623943225.post-3082905261992009672008-02-10T12:09:00.000-08:002008-02-10T12:23:57.379-08:00Is MS in MIS worth coming to US for?I won't give you the direct answer because I first want you to read my reasoning that will support my answer.<br />Back gone are days when MS curriculum was popularly known for research and innovation! Today, I am preparing for one of the tests to be held 4 days from here on and I already have a question bank (QB) in my hand (...a typical Indian scenario). Now I really don't know whether to approach a book, read complete stuff and score less than others or concentrate on my GPA by preparing for only questions that are there in QB. If I go for reading a book, that shall definitely give me answers to all questions but will again consume time and I may not complete my run till the exam time!<br />The scenario is not restricted to just one subject. Almost all the courses lie under that category! hardly do I see professors asking to think and implement out-of-box strategies. All you need for a good GPA in MIS is mugging power. Most of the questions in exams are theory based with limited scope of applying your intelligence! I mean if you are being asked some author's theory, you just can't go on blabbering your own! You can definitely bring your own examples, but that to me is restricting or rather closing the doors of innovation and is just creating followers for theories that are well recognized into industries.<br />If you at all are considering to major in MIS and still have an option to differ, I would request you to differ. MIS will surely fetch you a job...a decent one...But is that the only reason you come here? If yes, I don't want you to visit my blog any more...<br />To end, best of luck for whatever your career pursuits are...But don't make it a major in MIS...Manishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06464987791571472508noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8729560160623943225.post-41564925549291818912007-11-28T17:34:00.000-08:002007-12-19T11:53:20.336-08:00Fall Down of My Instincts...!It obiviously is giving lots of surprise not just to everyone around but to me too. My instincts are somehow losing the sharpness they once had in India. The prominent evidences being mock interview with Google where I couldn't cook up on the spot...My mock presentation in Business Communication and finally today, my presentation for DB class where I couldn't answer even a single question...May be my family is the core establisher of myself and I am certainly missing them BADLY... :(Manishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06464987791571472508noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8729560160623943225.post-76002283138833030912007-11-20T00:05:00.000-08:002007-11-20T00:41:32.896-08:00ON CLOUD NINE....!No wait...I am not going to let u all conclude / draw the reason for this happiness...Ofcourse my B'day is part of the reason but is not the only reason...Well well well...This letter is a congratulation & thank you letter to My Sweetest Jiju, my lovely didi and to all my respected family members...Hope u r getting closer...Yep, I don't want to keep it as a secret anymore...Well my didi showered us with a blessing in the form of baby boy...12:20PM is a time entered in the books...High are the estimates on what the name would be! (even though initial letter is yet to come)...Jiju hopefully will start working on a 'VB' program to come with all the possible set of names (we trust your programming logic jiju :) )...Bro must have started visiting toy shops...Mom, I am sure u must have already prepared lot many dresses for the newly-born...Dad, u must be busy enchanting some religious mantras here too ;) specially 'Radhe Radhe'<br />Congrats all...We are growing....Yeahhhhhh!Manishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06464987791571472508noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8729560160623943225.post-91106640451872969282007-11-11T18:19:00.000-08:002007-11-11T18:43:12.772-08:00Laughter Challenge - 4<p>How much time do you think it takes to switch from the position of CFO to CIO?...some years atleast!!! Well it took no more than a minute for me...see the video and Njoy...(But also do learn from my mistakes :) )</p><p><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dzQwXf2e9gew-Y8_o3WIWxi8Qu4PhWEmjJkwTdp4IhXtvzTsRtMMohJ48dUartacEnyRaf8BvdEArbHUs-k3A' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></p><p> </p>Manishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06464987791571472508noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8729560160623943225.post-76664449098348796232007-10-31T23:34:00.000-07:002007-11-05T22:59:06.734-08:00Trick or Treat? - Happy Halloween<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_BSJw4xxzPew/Ry874B0hu7I/AAAAAAAAABU/5qNmP757sFw/s1600-h/DSC00965.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5129384334345747378" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_BSJw4xxzPew/Ry874B0hu7I/AAAAAAAAABU/5qNmP757sFw/s320/DSC00965.JPG" border="0" /></a><br /><div><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_BSJw4xxzPew/Ry87xx0hu6I/AAAAAAAAABM/Ed8vo89Gim4/s1600-h/DSC00963.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5129384226971564962" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_BSJw4xxzPew/Ry87xx0hu6I/AAAAAAAAABM/Ed8vo89Gim4/s320/DSC00963.JPG" border="0" /></a>wow...wow...wow! Americans rock in the way they celebrate events and occassions. We at University of Arizona have a system where each international student is matched with some local family and then (s)he enjoys the rest of the semester by going to different places and exploring unknown territories in their company. I got one such oppotunity today i.e. a day well remembered as Halloween in United States which usually spans over three days from Nov 1-3. I was taken to 'Rita Ranch' suburban area considered outside the Tucson city where the Halloween is still celebrated in its most traditional way. By traditional way I mean that people usually light up their place and usually decorate those with resemblance to haunted places. The very message is to remember/worship the devil and specially the known people who are no more.<br />The fun part to it was we went to each lit home and collected candies in a designated handbag (don't go to dark homes; thats an indication that those people are not celebrating or are left with no more candies). This event is celebrated all across United States and also in England. The very word Halloween is derived from 'Hallow' and 'eve' which means evening with holy. And mind you, people really put their hearts when they dole out the candies. Man, I am too impressed with the nature of American people. They really are super cool!</div>Manishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06464987791571472508noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8729560160623943225.post-57545170545117997582007-10-25T09:15:00.000-07:002007-12-11T00:01:15.807-08:00What did U.S. classroom taught me...They firstly solved the unsolved myth I had in India about why some people really don't focus on the delivery of instructor in the class and keep themselves busy with their own stuff. The crux is that you should know what your areas of interest are and focus on those. I don't see a point in being focussed in every subjects. Every course is not going to be your cup of tea. And at this point I really appreciate those folks of mine who were not attentive in the class but had their career focus well shaped up and decided...!Manishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06464987791571472508noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8729560160623943225.post-29142000750043527492007-10-17T08:52:00.000-07:002007-10-17T08:55:17.372-07:00My first Paycheck in U.S.A.<div align="center"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_BSJw4xxzPew/RxYv4wYlJmI/AAAAAAAAAAk/lYvjUhtvdXw/s1600-h/My+First+Paycheck.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5122334278287697506" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_BSJw4xxzPew/RxYv4wYlJmI/AAAAAAAAAAk/lYvjUhtvdXw/s320/My+First+Paycheck.jpg" border="0" /></a> Isn't this a wonderful feeling?</div>Manishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06464987791571472508noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8729560160623943225.post-50692510348870467362007-10-17T02:20:00.000-07:002007-10-17T02:41:44.312-07:00My first presentation in U.S.A. (on my dream company)<p><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dzYV22AZdT7T28lAG4GZjkV-Go69GKshe2Web0YJQEQ4s5vnxYyvXyq0skpKU5fXThohMtbGXkRTaQUZtAByg' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></p><p>You are free to comment! I would infact be glad to have valuable feedback :)</p>Manishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06464987791571472508noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8729560160623943225.post-73074825359375334062007-10-11T20:30:00.001-07:002007-10-11T20:30:42.219-07:00Going crazy in the early morning...!Ever wondered how people esp. men (I am not praising masculine species on earth, but we really behave weird at times), get dressed in 5 mins and show up in importane meetings??? Well, it used to puzzle me about their daily practices and lot many other things that I can't put forth here ;) ...But the point to bring out is how and why? I myself became an answer to this today! A class at 8:00AM and u, deeply into ACCTing final exam preparation, decide to login into GMAIL for some fun. All u get is a frnd telling u that an attendance is being taken and 10% of your overall grade depends on that. All u had to do is take out a good looking jeans and a T-shirt from the closet...ohh well wait..not take out...be there in closet and change (u dont have time dude) and sprint... The prof expectedly would be very happy and would applaud the same...and he did that... All in all...it was a true fun for me 2day...Manishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06464987791571472508noreply@blogger.com0