GIBS Business School PGDM Review By Mohammad Sajad

Most B-Schools in Bangalore like Christ University, St. Joseph, ISME, Indus Business Academy, and ABBS to name a few. The one thing common in all is that placements are quite good at these Colleges. Well, my reason for joining GIBS is that I had a very poor percentile in most of the entrances that I gave. I had to look for the Colleges that don't have any such demand, and GIBS was one of those. The contingent of students here was quite interesting because it was difficult to find local students at the campus. Most of the students who joined this College were outsiders. The College is located quite far from central Bangalore and since the travel time and cost of traveling is quite high in Bangalore; I stayed close to the College and hardly moved out of my area. The education and placements have continued to impress even though the last couple of months of our course were online due to Covid. The College arranged placements for maximum students that they can, as the College is quite influential in this regard.

Choosing the College was a tough choice, but the syllabus and the style of study here is not at all tough. Through the middle phases of the College, the academics took the highest strides because the start was slow and the end was done much before it came. So, we had fun during the first month of each semester, but things kept changing as time progressed. Adjusting to that speed has also helped in work as pace has to be changed as per work pressure and this experience was gained nowhere else than GIBS.

From a possible 84 lectures that a faculty can take, the average lecture that the faculty took was close to 75. So, the numbers are great because I forget about the students. Even the faculties here can't give any excuses for not taking the classes. The faculties of the College have been superb and supportive. Without their support cracking PGDM was next to impossible because no matter from where you do PGDM program, one will face ample difficulties and the people who helped us from the entire crisis were the faculties of the College.

We become eligible for placements soon and once the corporate starts entering the campus, we get enough opportunity to show them what we have got. One of the companies asked me to present a report in the next two days and come to their office with the report. I did and they hired me upfront. I would request the College to get them because it is obvious that people with skill are the only ones that will get hired. Not everyone had the same experience as me when the Covid arrived; we all should have ideally been placed, but few could. The College didn't back out and helped all the students to give online interviews. So, for placements, the College needs the loudest cheer.

The campus area is small and therefore only a girl's hostel was accommodated inside the campus space. The boy's hostel was a little far, but the College has arranged their own buses for the students. I lived a life at the hostel already and my parents could see that I lost a few kgs while staying at the hostel. So, this time around they allowed me to stay with my friends at a flat close to the College. There's no doubt that the College has arranged a great hostel facility but the hostel has curfew time rules, and that denied me any night-outs in the city of Pubs; but while doing PG, I managed to sneak in a couple of times.

The campus is a building, a basketball court, a little parking space and a shed outside the gate for students with vehicles to park their vehicles. The College block starts with a statue in front and then the stairs through which we had to walk two floors because the lift was for staff and not the students. If this wasn't enough to keep the students fit, the College has opened a modern gym on the second floor and students were free to use that facility till 7 pm. The refreshment bar was small but served great coffee; that was the need of the hour while attending lectures.

GIBS organizes a country level management fest called 'Enchainer'. All the popular Colleges of Bangalore including IIM-Bangalore were invited for the fest which had management quizzes and debates. Colleges from Mumbai, Pune, Delhi, and other cities of India were invited. Almost 60 Colleges participated in the event and that was the only campus life part where studies were not discussed.