One of the perks of a 1 year MBA program is the quick return to the job market.  Of course, this comes with some negative side effects as well.  For anyone looking to make a career change, this poses particular challenges due to a lack of time for internships.  My job search process was far from perfect and I thought it might help some of you who are starting to think about what you want to do post-MBA.

I am American and was planning a return to the US after school.  I worked for a Public Accounting firm prior to school, but was hoping to make a shift into Strategy or Marketing for a large corporation in consumer products or retail.  To my fellow MBA’s, this would be considered a “double-jump” (role, industry…. triple jump would add a new location to the mix).   Here is a brief summary of my timeline throughout the year:

• Sept-Dec: Spruce up resume, mock interviews with sector consultants, develop strategies of marketing myself with the career services group.
• Jan-Feb: I sent out 50+ applications and custom cv’s/cover letters to companies posting MBA internships and full time positions.
• Feb-July: I started getting in touch with companies I really liked using either Oxford Alumni, LinkedIn connections, and contacts of my fellow classmates.

Based on my past failures, here are a few recommendations on how maximize your time spent on the job hunt:

• Prepare: Get your plan together before you even start school.  Our first recruiting event (J&J) was during induction week!  Banks and Consulting firms roll in shortly after… do anything you can to get that CV ready and start doing mock interviews to make sure you have your pitch nailed down.
• Only Talk to PEOPLE: I sent out over 50 applications to online job postings (company websites, careerbuilder, etc).  I got 3 automated reject emails and absolutely no response from the others.  Don’t waste your time on these, they don’t work.  Do use these resources to find cool jobs at companies you like, but then find any way possible to find someone within the organization to submit your application in for you.  I had closer to a 50% response rate when I went this route and landed quite a few interviews this way.
• Be Relentless: A had to contact one company every week for 3 months before I finally got an interview set up.  Being persistent (in a tactful and non-annoying way) shows you are really interested.  This company told me they were impressed how hard I worked to get to the interview.
• Keep Your Head Up: This is going to be a very depressing and emotionally depleting time of your life.  You will hear “no thanks” more times than you can count.  Keep your head up and press on, taking time to be depressed is just wasting time when you could be landing a job offer.
• Prepare, Prepare, Prepare: I know I said it before, but this is how you land the job.  Getting an interview is hard, you’ve got to capitalize once you finally get an interview.  There are lots of resources available at school.  I talked to Professors, Alumni, Career Services experts.  I read articles, case studies, books, and annual reports.  I knew EVERYTHING about the companies I interviewed with and this made a huge difference in getting an offer.

You’re dream job is out there.  You took the risk/time/debt to come to Oxford.  Use the vast array of tools, networks, opportunities, and reputation Oxford has to offer and you will find what you are looking for!

Another early day, we checked out of our hotels and headed back to Dubai, destination: Dubai Ports World and their operations in Jebel Ali Ports. The presentations we had from the CEO and the Operations  Manager were very informative where we learned about the companies strategy and their acquisition spree and expansion that put them as on the list of the biggest port operators in the world. The tour we had of the port was equally impressive.

For evening we had another two meetings scheduled. The first was with Intel where we were briefed about their initiatives in the Middle East in supporting education and knowledge transfer. The second meeting was with Chief Strategy Officer of Du Telecom, the first telecom operator to go against the incumbent telecom operator after the deregulation of the sector. Needless to say, the Porter’s Five Forces framework we learned in strategy took a whole different meaning.

Later at night the Gulf Chapter of the Oxford Business Alumni graciously hosted us for a reception in the Radison Sas Hotel in the media city. With breath taking views and great company, we couldn’t ask for more. It was great opportunity o touch base with the SBS alumni in the region and learn more from them about living and doing business in the region.

Final Day (Friday April 9^th)

Weekend Finally! Waking up late for a chance, no suits, the feeling was great. Going to the beach in the was a  great change from the weather back in Oxford. And our last event in the trek was an adrenaline pumped desert safari were we did dune bashing with a 4×4 Toyota land cruiser before heading to a camp in the desert for a barbecue dinner. It was a great finale to the trek.

Overall it was a very productive and fun trip. HSBC called a bunch of us back for interviews, and there were many ideas floated around for business ventures, internships, summer consulting projects and case studies write ups. Opportunities of a lifetime that you get when you are doing the Oxford MBA.

Day 1 (Sunday, April 4 th):
An early start as we headed to Abu Dhabi for our first meeting with the Abu Dhabi Health Council. The Abu Dhabi Health Council is responsible for providing full healthcare services to 1.9 million living in Abu Dhabi. Their CEO talked to us about the recent change that the council had gone through and their accomplishments as well as the challenges they face. It was a very enlightening talk about management in the Public Sector. After the meeting we headed back to Dubai to meet with Shell where we were met with SBS alumni Mehdi Chennoufi, General manager LNG Trading Middle East. The meeting started with a real case study of an oil refinery operation in an anonymous country. After that our host and his colleagues entertained us with some very exciting stories about their careers in Shell to give a us a taste of what it means to work for Shell. After the Shell meeting, we had a well deserved rest in the hotel before heading for night out in the city to explore some of its landmarks like Burj Khalifah, the tallest tower in the world standing at 808m and Dubai mall, the biggest mall in the world.

Day 2 (Monday April 5^th)

Our first meeting for the day was with HSBC Bank Middle East.  There we had a very insightful talk about HSBC’s operation in the middle east and their market and the way they implement their mission statement “your world’s local bank”. After HSBC we headed to the offices of the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Foundation. The Foundation was formed by an endowment from the ruler of Dubai HH Shiekh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum with the purpose of providing Arabs with opportunities to guide the region towards a knowledge economy through promoting entrepreneurship, research and innovation by enhancing access to quality education and professional development. During the meeting, we were briefed about the foundation’s strategy and programmes under Human Capital Development.

With end of our meetings agenda for the day, it was time again to relax and explore the city where we visited the Palm Jumairah Island (a man made island in the shape of a palm off the coast of Dubai) and the famous Burj Al Arab Hotel.

Day 3 (Tuesday, April 6^th)

The day started with a visit to Unilever where we had a presentation about the company and the FMCG business in the Middle East. After the presentation we had a very exiting tour of their operations in Jabel Ali Industrial Area where we visited their factory for packaging their Lipton brand. It was interesting seeing first hand stuff we learned form the operations management course we took in Hillary term. After Unilver we had a meeting with the renowned management consulting firm. The Boston Consulting Group. The meeting was focused about learning about BCG and career opportunities in consulting as well as their view on the Middle East region given the work that they do in this part of the world.

After these two meetings we checked out from our hotel in Dubai and headed to Abu Dhabi to spend a couple of days.

Day 4 (Wednesday, April 7^th)

Wednesday was dedicated to learn more about Abu Dhabi. And what better place to do that than the Abu Dhabi Chamber of Commerce and Industry.  In their headquarters we had a very insightful talk about the economy of Abu Dhabi and the Abu Dhabi Economic vision 2030. After the talk we had a tour of the impressive one-stop shop where all the government agencies and ministries are in one place and business people can do all their transaction quickly and with ease.  Abu Dhabi government 1 – Red tape bureaucracy 0.

After that we moved to the nearby tower that holds the headquarters of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA), the largest sovereign wealth fund in the world. We were led to a meeting room on the top floor where we were briefed on the investment strategy of ADIA. The views of Abu Dhabi from the meeting room were phenomenal.

After the our visit to ADIA, we headed out to Masdar City, the first zero-carbon, zero waste city ever to be built and haven for innovation in sustainability and renewable ebergy. There we had a presentation on the project and the milestones it had achieved so far.

With the meetings over for the day, we were all looking forward for the night, where the London Symphony Orchestra was playing in the Emirates palace with Sir Colin Davies at the helm performing Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique. We weren’t disappointed.

I cannot say this enough…that the strength of our club depends on the quality of its membership, and in each and every instance, our guest speakers have come from referrals from fellow MBAs. During Michaelmas term we hosted Usman Hayat, director of the CFA Institute’s division on Islamic Finance. For Hilary term, we brought in Zeeshan Tayeb of Element Six (De Beers), who generously helped us organize a “Strategic Consulting Project” (SCP) for Trinity term.

For Trinity term, Emily (from my Michaelmas studygroup) arranged to have Dr. Ramin Khadem, Chairman of Odyssey Moon Limited, give a speech entitled, “Reflections on the Root Causes of the Current Economic Crisis.” Pretty typical fodder for an MBA audience following the “Great Recession of 2008-09,” but what made this speech unique was that Dr. Khadem took an ethical approach to solving the root causes of economic excess.

As a member of the European Baha’i Business Forum, Dr. Khadem was uniquely qualified to speak on the role that moral and ethical values can play in business to enhance overall prosperity. Another twist on this presentation, is that Dr. Khadem has been involved in the commercialization of outer space for the past quarter-century, previously as the CFO of Inmarsat, a global satellite network company that was sold to private equity firms Apax Partners and Permira in 2005. Who better to combine business experience with the “big-picture” perspective?

Following on his success, Dr. Khadem now serves as Chairman of Odyssey Moon Limited, where he aims to develop a “sustainable commercial transportation system to deliver payload services to the Moon in support of science.” We’ve certainly come a long way since Frank Sinatra’s 1964 rendition of “Fly Me to the Moon,” recorded just 5-years before the Apollo 11 moon-landing mission. In the wake of Goldman Sach’s Congressional testimony regarding charges of fraud last week, perhaps Dr. Khadem has the right idea, that when we search for ethical guidance we should look skywards where a more enlightened global perspective can be found.

6:30 AM Wake-up (Snooze) Wake-up

7:00 AM Breakfast – Cereal and milk (while remembering how nice it would have been to have idlis and dosa)

8:15 AM Bike to school, dump your stuff in the locker, check which of lecture rooms you ought to be in and go to class.

8:45 AM First class of the day – These are long 3.5 hour classes; struggle to be awake

9:15 AM Resist opening lap tops; Slowly, people start checking emails and make diligent notes side-by-side

10ish Coffee break – Grab a coffee or tea and also the free Financial Times and Wall Street Journal at the Common Room. Brood over when the economy will be on track or catch up with group mates on the assignments due.

11ish to 12:15 PM Back to class; Case Study time – Most classes begin with theoretical concepts and end with a discussion on the case study that was on the reading list.

12:15 to 1:30 PM Lunch or luncheon group meetings; If you aren’t lucky to have a relaxed lunch, grab a sandwich and come back to sit in one of the career presentations or an OBN meeting

1:30 to 4:45 PM Second class for the day; A similar schedule like the morning class, with a coffee break ofcourse.

4:45 PM Technically done for the day with all classes complete during Michaelmas and Hilary terms.

5:00 to 8:15 PM During Trinity term, a third class may be on schedule depending on the electives chosen.

5:00 PM to late You could end up doing one or all of these – Group meetings for discussing assignments; Writing and uploading assignments; study at the library; attending weekly debates at the Oxford Union; attend guest speaker events at school or elsewhere in the university; do pre-readings for next day’s class; attend a BOP; listen to a concert at the Sheldonian; workout at the college or university gym; attend meditation classes and an umpteen other things.

10:00 PM Back to comforts of the room; cook food; watch NDTV news over dinner (atleast in my case); do pre-readings for next day; plan calendar for next day; write journal entries and more…

12:00 midnight Time to crash…

Apart from all this, you can make time to row on river Isis, go punting on river Cherwell, take a walk in Port meadows, read in the Bodleian library, attend a prayer at the Church, visit one of the many museums, attend a book reading, be an activist, play cricket for the SBS team, walk down Corn market street to have the famous West Cornwall Pasty, drink beer at Eagle and Child, eat Michel’s crêpes at Bonn square, hear a Nobel laureate speak at the Sheldonian and many many more things. It is all a matter of priority and time management. If you are at Oxford, you will do them all and have one of the most enriching years of your life.

I was part of the Cisco team, and I was thoroughly impressed with the depth of analysis they apply to each potential partner. They consider the technology, obviously, but even more so the people. If the cultural fit isn’t there, they don’t make the move; ” They’re the best at acquisitions for a reason”

For the afternoon, the trekkers were treated to an impressive array of events at Santa Clara University’s Leavey School of Business. Our hosts, Dean Barry Posner and Professor Al Bruno, arranged a panel of local entrepreneurs, a discussion about their social incubator, a lecture on the current economic crisis and outlook, and even let us sit in on one of their classes. They topped this all off with a reception where we got to meet professors and current students.

If you’re going to be in Silicon Valley, make sure you get to know Al Bruno and Dean Posner. Not only do they know today’s leaders, but they’re ensuring that they’ll know tomorrow’s as well.

Thursday, April 9th
Silicon Valley is an area proud of its history (and justifiably so), and this day started out with the trekkers gaining a little historical perspective. Joe DiNucci arranged a morning tour of the Computer History Museum in Mountain View. There we saw everything from punched card processors to supercomputers, including one machine with a built-in ashtray. They certainly don’t make them like that anymore.

After two hours of computing history, we were jolted with a vision of the future. Qik founder Ramu Sunkara showed us how his software can turn a cell phone camera into a real-time webcam. The technology is still under development, but the current results are impressive.

In classic Silicon Valley style, Ramu started Qik in his garage. His advice was simple – team up with the smartest person you know, and don’t let failure get you down. Even when all hope seems lost, success can be just around the corner.

For our afternoon session, the trekkers were treated to three hours with LinkedIn founder and CEO (and Oxford alumnus) Reid Hoffman. Reid spent a few minutes talking about his background and about LinkedIn, and then he shifted to giving us direction on finding jobs and funding ventures in this economy. To give justice to the quality and quantity of information Reid (aka “The Godfather”) shared with us this afternoon would take 1000+ words, so I’ll just summarize as best I can. With money tight and jobs scarce, social networks are even more critical to finding funds and employment. Build those networks… and then use them!

Insight from Reid Hoffman:

Get LinkedIn or be left out.

Trinity term is our last academic term, and all the classes are electives. Mine are: Cooperative Strategy; Managing the Project Portfolio; Leading Strategic Change; Social Enterprise Design; Social Finance; and Trade & Globalisation. After getting a strong business foundation (and, in my case, expanding my horizons quite a bit) with eight core courses, it’s nice to take classes in subjects closer to your hoped-for career.

Which, of course, leads me to a sticky subject. Our class entered Saïd Business School just weeks after the crash of Lehman Brothers—late enough that everyone could see that a full-blown economic crisis was occurring, but too early for anyone to really understand what was happening. The Careers Service staff did not mince words in an orientation presentation to us in the fall: “We usually tell students to be prepared for Plan B. But this year, we’re telling them to be prepared for Plan B, C, D, E…all the way down the alphabet.”

My personal aim is to enter into a career in international development, (though in what particular sector, I don’t know). It’s a bit tough in this field because development agencies, governments and other NGOs don’t often think to recruit at business schools, even though there are a number of us interested in public service-type work. Many financial institutions and other large corporations continuously hold recruitment sessions and interviews at Saïd Business School, and I know a few people who already have job offers as a result. However, for firms (such as international development agencies) that don’t recruit so far in advance, or don’t come to the School at all, you have to be a little more creative.

In September, I’ll return to Washington D.C., my beautiful hometown and the seat of the U.S. government—and currently the only organization around shelling out billions of dollars in investments. Maybe I’ll ask Obama for a job…

I’m really looking forward to being able to go to a few more of the broader University speakers/events than I’ve made this term.  Some of us had lunch with the Dean of the school this week, and it was quite embarrassing to say that I’d been too busy to see Romano Prodi speak, or to go to a talk from a group of central bankers.  Also next term there will be cricket to watch, punting to attempt, barbeques and amazing college balls to go to and rowing to do when it’s not freezing cold (and certainly not snowing).

There may even be good news on the job front, but not holding my breath waiting for that one.  Clearly this year is a tough time for job seekers, and especially for those who wanted to get an MBA to move into, or back to, financial services.  Whilst it seems like a lot of the traditionally larger MBA recruiters have been quiet this year, there are still jobs out there, at least judging by the FT jobs pullout each Thursday.

Last night we finished our Trading Game for the term.  We had about 50 players, from staff and students.  Clearly people invest differently in a competition, but to give you an idea of how hard it is to make even virtual money right now, only 5 players made money over the 6 weeks and the results ranged from +37% to -55%! 

To round out a story on our Trinity term electives from my previous blog:  I got all 6.  It’s not that easy to decide how much to bid, so for anyone who is reading this next year, I bid:  Private Equity (35, full), Corporate Valuation (26, full), M&A + Restructuring (28, full), Real Estate (15), Managing High Growth Companies (14), Taxation & Business Strategy (2).

Interestingly, there are no exams for my chosen electives, which makes the in-term assignments even more important to the overall mark.  Because of this, and despite the group arrangements not yet being announced, people are keen and have been sorting out attractive groups well in advance.  When your marks (and sanity and enjoyment) depend on who you work with this is fairly rational, but it does mean you don’t get to work with new people very often and might end up in groups with the same people across several courses.

I saw a comment on the blog last time about the admission process.  There is quite a lot of info in the brochure plus you can ask questions on the facebook group, or ask one of the bloggers here, or call up the admissions team.  No doubt they’re flat out right now, but they were really helpful when I was applying.

Also, since I’m on the subject of admissions now, if I was going through the process again, I would aim for the earliest round I could, be really clear about why I wanted to spend time and money on an MBA, and I wouldn’t get concerned with data or comments you see on blogs/forums on how hard it is to get in, or whether there are percentage differences in success rates, or whether interviewees have a certain %age likelihood of being admitted etc.  Being a data-hungry kind of person, I admit I didn’t follow this bit of advice, but frankly knowing it doesn’t help.  All good programs are selective and the rational strategy is to prepare the best application you can, so it is just something you have to live with.

Though I am gonna start with the very latest…because not only is it fresh in my mind, but as the title says it was truly mesmerizing. As you would know (ya rite!), I am in mumbai,India for summer. For my third weekend here (july 17-20th), I went for a weekend getaway to Ranikhet — a mesmerizing scenic beauty set in the charming background of the western peaks of the snow clad Himalayas — in the Almora district in the Indian state of Uttarakhand (previously uttaranchal)!
Check out the wiki for info on the place: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ranikhet
It was one of the best weekend getaways ever (topped the mendocino trip in california or dorset in uk i recently updated u guys on!). There were 3 others : Dhruv (rockstar – thanks for making this trip happen, Nat, AP) — mah buddies from ox!

How we got there: mumbai – delhi flite, overnight train from delhi to Kathgodam (nearest railhead – 80 km from ranikhet) and then a private taxi through the beautiful hills to Majhkhali — peaceful spot 13 km from ranikhet with views of majestic Sonya peaks in the Himalayan ranges. This is where our cottage was — one of the most tastefully done getaway cottages ever! More on the cottage later in the blog.

First up on our way to Majhkhali in the taxi, we made a stop over at ‘himalayan fishermen lodge’ – a spectacular and luxurious lodge overlooking a beautiful lake — in bhimtaal (22 Kms. from Nainital and on the route from Kathgodam to Majhkhali). You have to see it to believe it! And whenever you do visit (coz by the time i m done with this blog, u will be lookin up deals to this place) – you MUST put up at this lodge. See the pictures below if you dont believe it — and the real deal is 10 times better! An eco-friendly lodge with rich facilities, delightful staff and panaramic views — the lodge is serenity personified and the experience I can vouch be truly world class!

Then we got to our ultimate destination — the cottage in Majhkhali. A huge huge shout out to Mr. Bakshi (Dhruv’s uncle) for letting us camp at his cottage. It is undoubtedly one of the most tastefully done interior’s I have seen for a holiday home. (He is also the owner of the lodge mentioned above – so you can imagine how much greatercare would taken for a guest lodge!). Rustic pastel colours and immaculately chosen decorative adornments with a equally inviting homely traditional indian furniture immediately lulled us into vacation mode the moment we entered the cottage. We were pampered to bits by Narainji, an old timer and caretaker of the cottage. What did we do for 3 days: Start the days to 2-3 cups of tea and hot parathas in the covered patio (right most section of house looking out to the himalayas– see pics)

with the clouds literally amidst us, a pseudo yoga session by the girlshot scrumptious indian meal for lunch, afternoon snooze, walk out in the mountains or down the the village, back with evening tea and ‘nasta’pretty much immediately followed by the start of rum and wine session at around 7 pm. That would go on till 9 or 10 with eric clapton/buddha bar/nusral fateh ali khan (yup the cottage was complete with the most eclective classic music collection) playing in the background. This session was in the center living room which had french panes looking out to the himalayas (’the view’) – and they were the best part of the trips for me! Yup the rum was a factor but so was some delightful conversations with the kids (read dhruv, nat n ap), music and what i shall always refer to as ‘the view’! Dinner was in the left most section of the house, again looking out the the himalays the difference being this room not only had french panes but a glass ceiling. So hot dinner (think chicken curry, ‘madhve ki roti’- a local bread, dal, paneer etc) with rain drops on a glass ceiling! Needless to say the nights post dinner went long — usually back in the open patio or the living room.

IF the above sounds too good to be true — it WAS TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE! I had never visited the northern part of india as much..and now I am sold on it! I am most definetely doing a trip tp Jammu (his native place) and Dharmsala (buddhist monastries) in this year for sure! Thanks a ton kids for making this trip happen, more so Dhruv (my main man!) and most of all his uncle. Truly appreciate your generous gesture.

Phew!! . So how and what am i doin in Mumbai in the first place. Well its getting a monkey off my back. Most of u know how much I have been talking about wanting to come back to india after the 8 years away. Well if Oxford was step one leaving the US, this internship is step 2 in giving Indian and honest open shot. I shall work here for 8 weeks and see for myself which side of my well wishers opinion am I on — i.e. I will love it or be frustrated and not want to work here). Mumbai though so far has not dissappointed me. Yeah the weather could have been better and I could have done with some space — but besides that no complaint. I am put up on Marine drive, working at VT (working with the PE arm of Times of India group) — so really cant complaint. My main purpose being networking I have already had a chance to attend a super exclusive event (corporate Dossiers Super Achievers Forum at Rooftop, Hillton) — where in I got to have dinner with the likes of CEO Deloitte Internations, CEO Deloitte India, MD Pfizer, CEO Tata Power, CEO Mahindra Life Space, MD Merill Lynch etc! At the same time also trying to meet peers who have made it back to learn from their experiences.

Shall update you soon with my learnings on that profesisonal front. I think its not rocket science and is about managing expectations. But watch this space for my views on that in a couple of weeks.

What else had happened since the last update(dubai) and before Ranikhet? Here is a dump
Trip to the USA (new-york, san francisco, austin), MootCorp business plan competion, SBS Fund finalist and the pitch at the finals, Trip to Paris, MBATS, Trinity term final exams, india forum at oxford (got to hear the likes of sunil bharti mittal, indian minister kamal nathi, ficci chair mishra, advisor to pm dr. sanjay baru, india express editor shekhar gupta. I was lucky being part of oxford entrepreneurs I got to do lunch with these dignitories too), cancelled flight to India leading to all nite end of term partyyyyyyyyy and finally arriving to India!

Yeah I know the year at oxford has just whizzed by. I complete the internship end of august, head back to oxford and am done within a month. where will I be come end of September — — Its that time in life again. I dunno! Your guess as good as mine — mumbai? Dubai? London? back to the US? or somewhere else? Time ll tell…

peace out
jitin

Day 0:  7 of us on a flight from Gatwick, London to Dubai. I nearly missed the flight as the damn cab refused to come in the am (530 to be precise) and I just about caught the bus to Gatwick by jumping the Q. I had to – the next bus was a couple of hours later which means I miss the flight. There is an unforgettable story to share even on this flight trip (yup…tat is how interesting this trip was). So we are on the 45 minute flight from doha to dubai. 4 of us are sitting on adjacent seats in the mid row of the flight. Suddenly one of the people on the left side of the seats along our row calls the air hostess and complains that one of us is harassing him. We were all busy watching some stupid gig on the tv then and we look at him as if ‘what the ..’. The air hostess asks him as to how is it that he is being bothered to which he replies : “ He (pointing to one of us) is removing bones from his neck!!!”. I swear we thought we heard him incorrectly and the air hostess obviously chose to ignore the complaint. Wait it only gets interesting. We get down at the airport and are moving towards customs and much to our surprise, the person has lodged a complaint with the airport cops and hence that one of us is thus held back for q & a. Cut to and hour and half later we are upstairs in the Dubai police joint at the airport, and speaking some hindi I find out the the complaint made is still the same: “that one of us removed his kidney and bones from his neck using some black magic!”. The cops though obviously in disbelief have to entertain the complaint and they confiscate the passport of one of us and ask the person making the complaint to go get an xray to prove otherwise and ask us to ocme and collect our passport the other day!! I kid u not! Its difficult to believe because even as we were going through this, I was messaging back and forth with a couple of local friends in dubai and they obviously thot I was making this up sitting in some bar. Though it was very very late, we all needed a drink when we got to the hotel at like 2 am. We hit the bar right before the last call, caught a pint and went up to crash at 3. Obvious as my luck would be my dear friend with whom i was sharing the hotel accommodation was flying in later that night and he lost his bags. So in all honestly I really slept at 5 am with a morning alarm set for 7.00 am. Dubai hadn’t really kicked off well at all!

Day 1: Up to the automated morning alarm service, the day started in the fast lane. Quick breakfast and we were on our way to the Shell office. They were located at the Convention Tower. This was my first serious view of Dubai as we were on our way there in the bus. My first impression was Los Angeles on steroids (to borrow a commonly used way to describe Dubai in Dubai by expats). Wide roads, traffic and legoland like contructions. Overall for Sheik zayad road and most of new dubai think Los Angeles weds Las Vegas. At Shell we had a great morning. We had the head of the Middle east regions and 

Day 2 (the day that changed my life..for now): Day 2 was to be in Abu Dhabi all day. After a looooong bus ride (1.5 hours) we got to the ADIA Tower – our first meet for the day. This is the morning meet which would really start to turn me around somewhat in awe of the magnitude of stuff going on in the middle east region. Though a highly covert sovereign fund, the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority might well be the worlds biggest investor fund (though they do not officially publish their numbers) and the second biggest international institutional investor in the world. They recently struck a deal on November 26, 2007, with Citigroup, the largest US bank, by agreeing to invest 7.5 Billion dollars in Citigroup. This deal gives ADIA 4.9% of the New York-based bank, making it the largest shareholder, with Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Al Saud of Kingdom Holding of Saudi Arabia the second-largest shareholder, with 4.3%. But what was ‘surreal’ was the obvious richness seeped into the 33rd floor of that building. A fantastic reception, without doubt the most breath taking view I have ever seen overlooking the corniche and a snappy presentation. We obviously could not get much details as previously mentioned it is an organization that as a policy does not divulge much details. Personally I felt it would be a great organization to work for. If morning session left me dazed, I had to recover fast as the afternoon lunch was hosted for us by the Undersecretary of the Department of Civil Services, Ali Rashed Al Ketbi – a very friendly young personality with a sharp acumen, The lunch was a lavish 4 course middle eastern meal at the Emirates Palace a 7 star wonder and the biggest land mass hotel in the world. I also had the good fortune of having a wonderful lunch time conversation with a British academician who had for the past 18 years been in the middle east region helping out with strategy with regards nation building activities. The meeting was insightful as it was obvious that one cannot ignore the middle east region of the world. Infact this might well be the region that pulls the world through the ongoing recession (i personally believe the states is in recession currently as i write). The biggest problem that the MENA (main players Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi, Qatar, Dubai, Sharjah, Oman, Bahrain) might have is too much liquidity which is causing inflation. Except for Dubai the other regions have enough oil reserves to last another 5 decades. Most importantly they are really focused on investing in infrastructure (universities, art, research, telecomm) a lot more carefully not the repeat the 90ies mistake and they can do it without fully opening the floodgates to the world like Dubai. Dubai today has 95% expats and just 5% local emiraties. But then again, Dubai has no choice – they are adopting a Singapore weds Las Vegas model and have successfully made it into a top trading and tourist spot. As you shall read in the following days, some of their tourist destinations are simply jaw dropping and make anything i have seen in any top spot in the states ny, la, vegas, miami or london, beijing, mumbai pale in comparison. The bus ride back was dreamy! Lots of sleepy snaps should be testimony to that. The evening was a wonderfully chilled out event serving the perfect antidote. Chandni, Farhaan and myself went down to the Jumeira beach. Falafel wraps by the seaside, be giving them a brain dump of my day so far, followed up by a nice meal at Saladacious (yup the duck pasta rocked most !) and then onto Baristi. Another big ass resturant cum bar cum sheesha place on the sea. A few drinks, walk down the beach cum bar (yup it was that long) and then on our way back we got a ride on of the electric vehicles and the guy himself a newly transported expat actually took us down to the pier – a drive usually forbidden for the ‘commoners’  Phew…all in all. This is a crazy part of the world with things changing every day and every night, lot of action, people and youth from world over and way too much cash. That can be a heady mix!

Day 3 (anything’s possible!): Ok i m running out of time. Been 20 days since i started writing bout this trip. So I ll rush thru it now..:-). But day 3 we went to Nakheel…These guys literally are magician real estate people. They can do anything. Sheikh Mo woke up one day and wanted to increase the coastline of dubai from 60 odd km to much more as real estate on beach is valuable. The crack team of HBS alum come up i guess with the ingenuous idea of reclaiming land in the sea and voila more beach. Nakheel is the company that made it possible!! They really took great care of us. The piece de coupe of the trip was a boat ride to the middle of the sea and then suddenly in there u see trucks spitting sand and islands and huge villas…in the middle of freakin nowhere in the sea!!!!! The next presentation was HSBC. Not much here for me..:-). The nite went to madinat with farhaan and channi, also channi’s place for the first time. Madinath is the absolutely magical mini city almost full of fancy restaurants and bars. Great drinks at bar raza and must see hukka bar called sheikh pier…back at nite close to 2-3 am with jobs and Vicki!

Day 4 (fun continues): Next morning we went to the office of Dubai holding in the emirates tower. Would love to fill in on the details but maybe later. Was unbelievably lucky to actually see Sheikh Mo in person walking out of a restaurant in the towers. Afternoon at another consultancy firm ! Evening went to the networking event hosted by us for the alum and other guest at the wonderful palace hotel in old town (which actually is anewly build town which resembles old town..go figure). Great setting and met a few interesting ppl. Great chat with an alum who now works with ICC, the cricket body based in dubai. Followed that up with a trip to ‘bar dubai’ with chandni, aashima and luvraj to get some desi grab..chat to pav bhaji to kulfi…awefun!!!!!!!!!!

Day 5 (Thursday): mah fav day! Okie. Went to the 3 big ones – mckinsey, bcg and booze allen. Great talk at all 3. Had the most international lunch hosted by BCG at place called Galliard. N i mean international… argentenian fish, Chinese tempura, lebaneese mezaas, Persian khus khus, Indian dal, Italian pasta, greek salad, lamb cooked in a style could not recognize! Back in the hotel…quick drink with farhaan and Vicky at the hotel bar called longs bar (which is named so as it was the longest bar in dubai at some time).. Then went to what was my favourite place in dubai…old dubai. Crossed the channel via a ferry where i hit up an interesting conversation with a local who had been in dubai for 40 odd years. Was sad though as he lamented on how all the progress and internationalism in the last 10 odd years has hurt the trader – at one time the main vocation in dubai the most!! Then had dinner, sheesha and drinks and just lazed at kan-zaman – beautiful old open air and terrace restaurant right on the river. Just talking with family, enjoying good weather and food…loved it loved it loved it!! Slept over at chand’s that nite!

Day 6 Me and chand left for the hotel as we were to go for the world famous Dubai desert safari. Was great fun going in huge  land rovers doing dune bashing!! Then a couple of hours in a setup in the desert in the middle of nowhere with some belly dancing, middle eastern kebabs, camel rides et….and back on our way ot the hotel!

Got to packing and grab a couple of hours sleep before is say good bye to dubai!!! That was my trip..sorry for rushing thru day 3- 7..but better have it there than never . N no..dont believe a word of what i said about dubai. Do yourself a favor. Go visit Dubai! And you will be blown away… Since then have been on amazing trips to the US (NY, Austin, Bay area) and Paris (I LOVE THIS CITY)…Shall put up updates soon…wait for them… Peace out!

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