Campus musings for MBA grads

There are innumerable fora giving you gyaan on how to get into a B-school. But what about life after? Treading new pathways are these youngsters with a web portal entirely for MBA students. Twenty-six-year olds Kartik Kumar, Divij Saharia, Pramod Mallya and Manmeet Singh Sabharwal floated www.mbaskool.com in December 2010, where you can discuss about campus life, business concepts, ideas and much more. While Kumar hails from TA Pai Management Institute, Manipal, the rest are from Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies, Mumbai.

Mbaskool has forums, articles on finance, marketing and strategy, operations and IT and human resources and annual reports of concerns like Microsoft, British Petroleum, ConocoPhilips, etc. Registration is free and articles can be found on topics such as World Bank, carbon emissions trading, gaming industry, market segmentation, traffic management, forensic science operations, public interest litigation, etc.

Most of the contributors happen to be students. “It’s unique in the sense that it’s a student-student mentoring unlike mentors from management institutes guiding students. This way you have better access to current business events in the country and a sneak peak into real campus life,” says Kumar. An interesting feature of the website is the advertisements section which in addition to being a marketing feature also prompts discussions. What more, you can even contribute to the portal articles or personal jottings or even request articles/discussions on a particular subject. The forums touch upon recent topics like iPhone 4, soaring diesel and petrol prices et al.

Let alone academics, sometimes its fun to know what’s happening at other colleges. You needn’t look beyond Mbaskool to befriend like-minded people like in the case of Naman Mathur, a second-year student of NMIMS. “Though initially my interest in Mbaskool was predominantly due to the fact that it was a venture of my alumni, when I chanced upon articles relevant to current issues, my interest quadrupled,” he says. “When I started my B-school innings, I never imagined I would be bogged down by so much work. Only when I interacted with fellow students, I came to know that the scene is similar everywhere. Sometimes we discuss about things like Cricket, latest apps, etc.”

He is also all praises for the MBA glossary section. “The words listed are ones you will find only in dictionaries and MBA textbooks,” he says in jest. Another delight is the simple language in which the articles have been penned. Mbaskool is already making waves with 2,400 registered members and another 5,300 fans on Facebook. Though the website largely caters to the needs of the present students, they also have MBA aspirants using the portal to get in touch with their seniors. Mbaskool intends to conduct B-school events with corporate tie-ups in the near future. Visit www.mbaskool.com for more details.

— shilpa.vasudevan@newindianexpress.com