Far from the madding crowd

As term 7 begins, events seem to have reached a different plane. For most junta, acads have taken a backseat and placement prep has picked up steam. December was interesting in many ways most of which was Solstice, the alumni reunion - one of the few opportunities for our batch to meet the previous one.
Taking a cue from music as always, I almost became 'the man who sold the world'. In a sense, I sold myself out. It was 15 minutes before the application deadline for the 2nd most wanted consulting firm (name starts with an American city?) I knew in April, I knew last week as I do now too that I have no interest whatsoever in consulting nor do I believe in 'carpet bombing' my CV in the hope that something happens. However, I was unable to resist the herd mentality. I applied. And in those last 15 minutes, as I saw myself running around to the printer room like many others, I was disgusted. Never again. Lesson learnt. Temptation controlled. Did not apply to Big Mac. At peace again.
What is the purpose of doing an MBA? To my mind, the most important is that if it gets you closer to undertsanding what you want / don't want to do in life, the year has been sucessfull. And from that perspective, this 1 year at the ISB was immensely successful for me. As an alum wrote last year, this 1 year MBA at ISB is one awesome intellectual wine tasting session. At the end of which , one has to make up one's mind. I have made up mine. When Warren Buffett graduated from b-school, he offered to work for his professor and guru Ben Graham for free. However, for certain reasons, his offer was turned down. Of course, we know today that Buffet is brilliant and the greatest investors of all times. However, in 1955, Buffett was an unknown 25 year old. Point I'm trying to make amidst the entire buzz of brand names and money is that sometimes, the learning value gets lost. In the past week, I have very seriously considered going back to my old firm in Bangalore. There is no brand name and little money today. However, the learning is tremendous and I know over a 5 year horizon, so will the money. I cannot even begin to express how much I enjoyed my work there. Have consulted people about this, most of them advised me to go with a 'big name' firm. Well, the jury is still out on this one. Till then, I wish all my batchmates at the ISB wisdom to make the right choice far from the madding crowd.