last day at work

I cursed it a lot, I got mad at it so much, but in the end, it is something I will always remember. I talk of my first company, where I almost spent 3 years. Learnt a lot, and made friends. Though I am not being sentimental about it, I am unable to find a better word than nostalgic.
I left behind some friends and then there were those for whom I said "good riddance"

anyway, my good bye email went something like this:

I have been trying to capture the last 3 years in last 2 days… it’s not that easy.
You know how in the movies, someone has sudden flash backs about important events and then there is a realization? No, I am NOT having that. Though I am trying to.
What I have learnt in my first job is something I doubt I will ever forget. Maybe I might learn a few skills, but nothing to the magnitude of the learning in last 3 years. Being the first job, the first company, I didn’t have trouble getting familiar with everything new around, with tones of helpful people.
20th June 2008 onwards, I started learning how to work with diverse teams. When we were younger, in college or in school, we used to team up with friends for our project works. In your work life, things are a bit different. You work with people who know about the project or the assignment. You consult even people you may not like. But at the end of the day, you don’t worry about working with friends, but working with people just because they have a “skill set”. If during the process you make friends with them, Great, but either way, you work for getting the work done. That’s what I was lucky with. I worked with people I didn’t know. Met them because of their skill set, and over the duration, made friends. Not only that, I made friends with people who I commuted with. Made friends with people who I met through other friends and BLAH BLAH BLAH …But when I look back, I think I liked most of it.

And I don’t think I can forget the help I got from my team, the Patient handling team. Thanks , , and .

Though I bit adieu, I will make sure I keep in touch with friends from here, who I am sure I will cross path with soon. It’s a small world out there.

B-school old-age home?

I am writing on my blog after god knows how long (didn’t even feel like checking the date of my last post).
And well, I confess, my post today is totally inspired after reading this article that reminded me of something that I have been fearing for so long.( Link to the “INSPIRING” story: http://siddheshagashe.blogspot.com/2011/05/tragedy-of-being-25-in-indian-bschool.html)
Talking about my Life in a B-school? Huh? What? I barely could study and get through my engineering what am I gonna be doing in a B-school? And to top it off, I even hate reading the documents in my projects at the office, even the ones that are barely 3 pages long. What happens when i have t pull the all nighters like what the seniors have told us? Why the hell did I even bother to chase a CAT 3 scary times? Probably cause the technical line is not for me. And studying abroad is another story altogether. Hell I don’t even know what specialization I will be opting for when I go into the 2nd year of the college.
Did I get too comfy in my job? No, not really, cause I’m sure I worked hard to balance a decent performance at work and a not too bad performance with the felines (read CAT,XAT etc). but then, it’s a whole new and different world out there. 2AM being assignment submission deadlines, books, reading , journals reading, and on top of that, you gotta seriously think about your future. OH Man, im pretty much wetting my pants thinking of the life, in the b-school.
Destiny has a weird thing going on for me, and I guess for the matter pretty much every other person. Last season I had worked very hard. Used to get up at 3:30 or 4 in the morning, study for a few hours, occasionally go to the gym or for a round of jogging before I left for work where a a decent project awaited me at the office. With confidence filled attitude, I was pretty sure to at least get an IIM-K if nothing else, I didn’t even bother to apply to “PETTY” colleges like LBS or any of the Symbiosis and guess what? A dismal 93 %ile in CAT last year and a borderline 97%ile in XAT, I realized that the only call I have is from XIM-B. With a weird sense of depression and confusion, I went on my onsite trip to the USA keeping track of the waitlist movement everyday at XIM-B, and finally at the time of closure of the admission at XIM-B, I was at waitlist 3. I can truly say that Pagalguy made me Pagal. Then I told myself, “Dude, these stupid B-schools don’t deserve you”, and I mentally prepared to write GMAT, go abroad, and maybe look at a financially secure future probably in USA/Australia/Singapore or what not, but not India. I guess that was my anger speaking. I came back to India and talked to many people and finally thought of writing CAT for the 3rd and last time in my life. I was prepared to give it one last shot before I gear up for the main thing lying in front of me. The idea was to prove to myself that India B-schools are more like factories churning out robots. With competition oozing from every sweat drop, there is no scope of breathing; we would become robots in flesh.
So I joined a crash course at TIME, and started preparing giving a half heartedly effort ( compared to my previous season of hard work). I got percentiles in the range of 40 to 98 in the mock tests. So I told myself, “There is no shame in applying to decent places like LBS, Symbiosis, NIRMA this year. All I need to do is forget my arrogance that I was possessed by last year, and I will surely join some B-school this year. “ And the cycle of preparing started all over again. So I filled roughly 25-30 application forms to colleges that I had totally ignored last year, spend roughly a total of Rs 90,000 on my TIME classes, and B-school applications and another 25,000 on travel expenses to interviews to colleges that don’t bother to setup interview centers in other cities. All this because I was pretty sure that I would not get above 92% ile in any entrance exam that I write for any B-school.
As I mentioned, destiny has a funny thing going on for me. I surprisingly got decent percentiles in all my exams. Well I say decent cause I was not expecting as much in any of the exams, and with my percentiles, the only calls I didn’t get were from the older IIMs. So I was pretty happy for a few weeks, getting calls, going for interviews to almost all the colleges that I had applied. To top it off, I was among those who had 2.5+ years of work experience, so if any B-school had some marks for that, I would at least ace that section.
And then the results started pouring out. Each time, my breathing slowed down as I tried to open pages for results, I logged on each website, and each time I realized that I have a either cleared the interviews or have a waitlist close to clearing(except for MDI where I don’t know if the WL will get cleared).
I had resigned from my job since I had secured admission in B-schools such as XLRI(HRM), NITIE, and am waitlisted at MDI. I think all these are decent B-schools and hope that there will be a few more people who would be roughly as old as me. I will turn 25 this year, and by the time I am out of a b-school, I will be almost 27. My fellow blogger who inspired me to write this blog today is right on most counts. I consider myself Uncle even without someone giving me that nickname. regarding girls in B-schools, I could not gather courage or find someone interesting enough in the last 24 years of my life, “Ab kya teer maar loonga?”( what could I achieve in the next 2 years with grueling pressures to keep us busy?). Regarding the politics, I hope to at least learn a bit of it. Could not do it in my company, could not do it in during the under-graduation, and I really am praying that I finally get placed in a city with affordable cost of living or with a fat salary to support me in pocket burning cities like Mumbai. Shit, I already feel the heat from the burnt wallet.
I have not spent my 34 Months of working in IT, but in a very niche field of medical equipments engineering, so I can proudly say, “I AM DIFFERENT”. I am even willing to come back to the same company in a better role, in a capacity having more and better responsibilities, and yes, definitely with a better salary. I am hopefully parting on decent terms (well, with at least with most people).
The bottom line is, i dont know if i will fit in. In the crowd of the freshers and those who have lesser work ex than me.
Is there a chance for a better salary jump and a leap in the role within a company? God I really hope so. Otherwise the obsession with B-school with sleepless nights, with tensions comparable only to hostage negotiations and fear like that in a combat situation, all my work would have been for nothing.
So, with an extremely pessimist attitude, will walk into a B-school and prepare for the worst. Maybe if things turn out better, I can take solace in that fact that life may not really be as screwed as I feared. And if things turn out bad, I can tell myself, dude, life is screwed for everyone. Try to relax.

PS: apologies to anyone specially from Tier 2 B-schools. I am genuinely sorry if I offended your college.