IIMA classroom diaries

First day of the preparatory course.

Professor: What’s your background?
Student: I’m a lawyer.
Professor: What are you doing in an MBA program?
Student: [starts generic interview answer]
Professor: Oh please. You’re here because you were a bad lawyer.


Professor addressing a student during the on-boarding session, after we completed the first group task.

Professor: Did you feel comfortable working in a team?
Student: Well, we didn’t have proper coordination at first. But later we worked things out.
Professor: Can you describe exactly when the transition happened?
Student: When time was running short…


Someone had dozed off in Microeconomics class.

Professor: Hello, mister. Explain where we are now [pointing at graphs on the board].
Student: [waking up, startled] In the class.
Professor: Good!


Third HRM lecture.

Professor: What question should we address in class today?
Students: “What is HRM?”
Professor: But we already did that in the last class, and in the class before that.
Students: [silent]
Professor: The question we ask today is: “What is HRM?”

The question remains the same. The answer changes.


During the second on-boarding session.

Professor: We’re going to watch a movie on group dynamics.
Students: Yayy.
[The movie is 12 Angry Men]
Me: Yayy.


We were asked to prepare a case report for Marketing-I before attending our first lecture. The issue was raised afterwards in class.

Student: Most of us know nothing about marketing. How do you expect us to write a report?
Professor: That’s life, right? You’re supposed to figure things out.