Wednesday 10 August 2011

Landed in Canada

Hi All,

I have been thinking of writing something about my initial (2 weeks) experience at Rotman and in Canada. I got the initial push from Pete and Paige (my classmates) to write something about the same. If you want to know more about me please visit www.sharmarahul.net (it’s still under construction but it will give basic information).

Canada Landing: Ignoring everyone’s past experience I took Air India flight from India to Toronto on 27th July’11. Against all the expectations I found airline pretty cool except the face that they could have more female air hostess that male. Plenty of leg space as compared to other flights and good entertainment. Food was also ok for a vegetarian person like me. My happiness vanished as I landed Canada when I found that one of my bags got missing. Thanks to almighty that it was not the one with all essentials. It took 3 hours for officials to agree that my bag is really missing and it took another hour to report it officially. In this transition I missed my cousin at airport who checked each and every person at airport to find me. Anyways my cousin found me in the evening and then we finally found my bag. Everything was intact so as someone said “All’s well that ends well”.

ISOW: ISOW is international Student Orientation Week which was organized by 3 lovely ladies, Laura, Fevan and Edith. It was a fun filling week which started with introduction and ended with ISOW amazing race. We had a presentation competition in which we got a chance to show our presentation skills and we received good constructive feedback. There were couple of sessions about Canadian culture, what to expect from a Canadian and how words and gestures interpreted by different people from different origins. Unfortunately I did not won in any of the competitions but I get a chance to make some very good friends which I am hoping will last for long.

Networking: It is now in my blood, oh just kidding. I think I have heard this word 1000 times since ISOW started and as per upper class and faculty this is the most important thing on which we have to work. Back in India getting into a good MBA institution guarantee a good job and you will have the pleasure to say no to many recruiters. Things do not work in that way here. We have to network with people in order to secure an interview in our dream company but to get a job again you have to prove yourself. The punch line is one good network is far better than 100 normal networks.

Classmates: The class is full of knowledgeable people with different culture, background, age, status etc etc. Everybody has a great potential to be a successful manager and that’s why they are at Rotman. The learning starts from home so I am looking forward to learn as much as I can from my classmates. I have only interacted with international students till now but I will get a chance to meet and greet almost everybody in pre-courses. Many people like me have families back home and they are missing their loved ones.

Social Status: How can I forget this important topic which I am feeling every day? So what is Social status, as Dr. Lionel said in one of ISOW session “You only got to know it once you lose it”? No car, no money (except tution), no home, no wife, no kid, no house maid and you won’t believe no iphone. That’s when you say I have lost my social status. All the more reasons to work hard and get a good job. I believe that it will make us a bit more determinant and we will get what we want but the only caveat is to wait till we have MBA degree in our hands.

I think that’s a lot for my first Rotman post. Thanks for reading. 

1 comment:

  1. That was amazing Rahul
    I am looking forwrd to join Rotman this year
    The description given by you just made me more enthusiastic to join rotman

    looking forward to meet u up there :)

    ReplyDelete