[MBA] The curse of Indian IT

There is a discussion going on in a Businessweek forum (free registration required) about how Indian male IT applicants get shafted during the MBA app process. I have felt the frustration that many people on that board feel. After all that's one part of my application I can do absolutely nothing about now! I think part of this frustration has got to do with the difference in the way admissions work in India and in the US. In India you give some exams, do well in them and you are in. Be it engineering, medicine, law, administrative service or even business. However in the US, adcoms (supposedly) look at the entire package. So when some of us with impeccable exam taking credentials get rejected, we are lost. What the hell happened? How did 'that' person get in and I didn't. There is no way he/she has more knowledge than me. There is no way he/she has better analytical skills than me. There is no way he/she can work harder than me. So what the hell happened? And so we are back to the IT curse.

A friend of mine who is part of a BSchool's adcomm once confronted his director with this question. Why is it so difficult for Indian male IT applicants to get in? 'All of you look so same', was the reply. He was not referring to physical looks ofcourse. Infact he wasn't referring exclusively to our choice of profession either. He knew that in India engineering is not an option but a necessity for many. No, he was probably referring to life outside work as well. Aren't we monotonously homogeneous there too? Just imagine this. You and 5 of your friends from high school are meeting after a gap of 10 years. You are hanging out at your favorite joint sharing stories about what all you did during those 10 years. How varied do you think your experiences would be? Now imagine the same scenario with a group of Americans. You get the point.

This ofcourse doesn't mean that we seek homogeneity because of some genetic flaw within us. That's just how an Indian middle class person is brought up. Always seek safety first - that's what we are told. There is nothing safer than following the crowd. And that's what we do ever so diligently and successfully. That's what is slowly converting us into an IT and Biotech power. And that's what !@#$s us up when we try to get into elite BSchools.