Book Review: Joker in the pack
Joker in the pack.. Or Pack full of Joker !
Well my brother heard of this book and asked me to get it for him. Since I completed my previous book, I started reading Joker in the Pack by Neeraj Pahlajani and Ritesh Sharma. Both the authors, ya! This book is written by 2 author and both are IIM graduates and speaks of middle class mentality.
The story revolves around Shekhar Verma, who after getting very good score in 10th standard go ahead and do engineering from some Delhi university. After completing the engineering he realized that it was not his forte and he can do much better with MBA. So he starts preparing for CAT and manages to get call from most of the IIM’s. Finally he lands up into IIM Bangalore and from here on his journey begins.
The 2 years in IIM-B are like being in the rat race. Either you get the best out of best or will be termed as rest. Shekhar Verma who wanted to be king of the world struggles to keep himself on the top float so that after completion of 2 years he gets recruited by top companies. The experience of failure during summer placement motivates him to give his best not just for pre placement offer (PPO) but also for final recruitment.
The book is nice read. Someone who is preparing for CAT may get motivated. The struggle one has to do after going to IIM is humorous. The language is very simple. You can actually finish this book in just 2 days. During summer internship period I felt like I was Shekar Verma, since I did the same job. Apart from that anyone who is doing or done MBA from IIM will find all the details so true.
What I didn’t like about the book is how our education system is working. The motivation for student (who is studying in India’s Best institute) is not learning nor is it about following your passion. This entire book speaks of how a middle class guy will go after money and do whatever it takes to make his resume flashy. From joining the finance club to giving best summer project all is done for what will be there in the resume. Even on Day Zero (known as 1st day of placement) people want job, they don’t care whether it’s financial company or consulting company. They don’t care whether it’s in New York or Singapore. All they want is job with lot of money.
Why we all run behind money? Does passion is out of fashion? Does knowledge is of any importance? Does anyone care to know what he/she exactly want in their life? It’s agreed that at the age of 22 we don’t know many stuff but that can’t be the excuse for living your life just behind the money without any knowledge of profile, work and passion. What we do in life or even in college its learning and we forget all that by taking it as an add-on to our resume. We are not here to make our resume attractive for the company. We are here to do what we like or want we want in life.
This book has completely changed my mind towards IIM graduates. I thought they were the one who knows what they want. But it turned out that they are the one who knows only 1 thing and that is to make big bucks. Sometime I feel they are making their resume jazzy by ruining the career of deserving candidate.
When such things happen in real life, I feel like why we can’t have just 1 joker in the pack rather than pack being full of joker.
