Friday, June 27, 2008

I wanted it, my first career step, I got it..

When I finished my college, I had already been campus recruited. Though I wanted to do an MBA right away, my complascence would make me wait another 2 years. I joined the company of my choice, UST Global, at trivandrum. I was recrutied as a software engineer. After three months of training in Java, I was finally a full-time employee at the company. I already had things running across my mind. Software engineering was not what I was made for, I wanted to be different, as usual. My heart told me to do what I can do the best, be with the people, find something which would help you work with the humans rather than the machines. I made up my mind and hence started my quest for a post in the Department of Human Resources(HR).

We were told that there were no immediate projects available for us to be allocated to. We had a lot of relatively free time. I thought of utilising this time to roam around the place and meet some people. My first stop was with Deepa, the lady from HR who helped us filling up forms during the joining formalities. She clarified the doubt that there were people from the technical side who join up at HR. My first challenge was down, and i saw the ray of hope. I asked her for the person to whom I should talk to so that I can convey my wish to be a part of HR. She told me to meet someone called Senju. Senju was the lady to whom all of us freshers were supposed to report to. So, my next stop was to be Senju!

Senju was part of a group called RMG, the Resource Management Group. I went to the RMG bay to meet this lady. Since I didn't know this person I went in and asked a middle aged man. Basil, as I came to know to be his name, was a cheerful chap and he was happy to know why I wanted to meet Senju. We had a good chat and he introduced me to another guy called RK. RK is an ex-Best Emplyoee of the company, a masterpiece of a character! We had a detailed chat and I moved out of their cabin with a boost of confidence to meet Senju the next day.

The fist thing I did the next day was go to bathroom.. lols.. just kidding! Next day, I went straight to meet Senju and with some luck I found her. I asked her is she had time, and she was happy to talk. We had a lengthy one-hour discussion. She wanted to know why I wanted to join HR, she was trying to brainwash me into staying in the technical side. But, I was clear on my goal. She probably sensed my determination and she took the next step for me. She called in Aravind. Aravind was her reporting manager and the Trivandrum head of RMG. The conversation that was to follow left a lasting impact.

Aravind was a lean smile-faced young man. He took me to a discussion room and he asked me each and everything in detail. He listened to all that I had to say and he had all the patience in this world. Then, when he had satisfied himself with all my statements, he spoke. He told me a lot of pros and cons of being in HR. He probably wanted to bring more clarity to the understanding that I had of HR. He told me that with the strengths he sees in me, I would do much better in technical stream. But, I guess I was also determined. We had a long long diplomatic conversation which lasted for and hour and forty-five minutes. We concluded with him asking me to think over what I really want to do and let him know, by thoughts remained pretty much the same. But, I respected Aravind for the way he handled the situation, and he would become one of the people I really look up on!

I got worried a bit on what would happen next. I decided unilaterally that I'm not really on the right path, I wanted this to be done somehow. I called up Sareedha, our HR representative to the trainers. We had become fast friends during training. She was laughing upon listening to my desperacy! She told me that she can handle things only to a limit, but perhaps if I can send her an official mail, she can redirect it to the right people through the right path. I really didn't have too many options, and her words were giving me hope, I decided to send the mail right away the next morning.

Next morning, I went to the training room to send the mail to Sareedha and logged in to my e-mail. and WHOLLA!!! I saw the mail, I couldn't believe it, I rubbed my eyes, pinched myself to ensure I wasn't dreaming. I had the mail from RMG,"Allocation to WellPoint HR Team, Arun Raj". I was so deep in disbelief that I read the mail ten times to ensure that they are referring to me only. I could not breathe properly due to excitement, I went straight to Aravind to confirm. I told him about the mail. He said,"Go and get a feel of HR. If you like it there, stay there, else I'll pull you out. Enjoy and take care!" It was one of the happiest moments in my life!! I was on the clouds!!

My inbox filled with congratulating mails from friends all around! I knew I had done it! The feeling of satisfaction was filling me. I wanted it, HR as my first career step, and I got it! The story after that just went on an incredible note... and I would post it some other day!

3 comments:

Angelus said...

so nice to see you back on the blog... aur likh.!!!!

Anonymous said...

hey.. congrats broo.. by the way, the rmg person was sinju susan jaco and not senju! :)

Unknown said...

hahhahahahahha the way we became friends hhahahahahahhah

one of the unforgettable moments of my hr life -