From the womb of recession - Class of 2009

The one thing that is really crucial while selecting a b-school for any aspiring management student is its placement record. But for the children of recession, it hardly mattered. They all joined a premier institute at a time (2007) when the economy of the world was doing really well and they hoped it would be in an even better position when they graduate or at least remain the same worst come worst, but no way could it get go down. ‘How could that happen to me’ would have been the thought on any average wannabe MBA’s mind while he/she had joined the course.

And then the so called recession did not hit the bschool located at Nungambakkam alone, nor did it hit the city of Chennai alone, how about the state of Tamilnadu, no? India? We are not yet done my friend! It hit placements of graduates all over the world and no one was spared. Though some of them must have got jobs, decent profiles, so-so pay packages but then thousands of them hardly had a job for a long time while the next batch was slowly getting placed. And if at all they got placed it was may be at a lower band than they usually would have got, and at a pay scale that in no way was comparable to the preceding batches, but no one could help it, we were not the destiny’s children, we were specially chosen to be the recession’s children.

We were the batch that was tested the most for its patience, skill sets, competitive spirit and above all our faith. Luckily, at least at my bschool everyone was placed, if not on day zero, at least in the months after it. But there were thousands of graduates across the globe, who either dint get a job, lot of whom had quit a job to graduate, others gave promotion a slip and so on. But what made this batch born from the womb of recession special was the fact that, they joined a bschool when the markets were at its best and they graduated right when the markets tanked to an all time low, unemployment rates soared like the sun would in the noon and the number of opportunities available were as high as the number of stars you could count on a sunny day.

One instance that stands out on my mind with regard to the placements during the recessionary period was the episode of a top investment bank that was supposed to visit our campus for recruitment on September 18^th and all my batch mates were excited and were preparing really hard to be able to ace the selection process of one of the best investment banks of the world. They prepared so much so that, it felt as if it was the only thing they ever wanted in life. I would have hardly seen them prepare for any other thing the year or so before that. But how could they have known, the company they were aspiring to work for went bust just a day before it was supposed to visit our campus. Yea, you read it right, September 17^th was the day when the Business Line newspaper that we had started reading for quite sometime then to keep ourselves abreast of the business world read, “Lehman Bros files for bankruptcy” as its top headline on its front page. Lots of dreams were shattered, lots of them more or less lost hope, but then some of us who were still out of the trap of the fantasy world of big brand ‘dream company’ realized that what had happened to us, was may be in our best interest. If Lehman would have filed its chapter 11 on a day after it recruited some of us, it would have been a much much bigger shock, cos then it would have been a case of having a job in a company that had ceased to exist. It was far better that we ‘did not have a job’ rather than ‘have a job but not have it’. In fact this was the case with a dozen or more students from a couple of other premier institutes of the country who were recruited by Lehman before it was supposed to come to our campus, I know how difficult it would have been for those children of bankruptcy.

A lot has been discussed, argued and felt about this class of 2009, but what is it that has transpired with respect to these children of recession should be of further interest to the world, as these are the people who had seen both boom and bust at a very young age, in fact even before the start of their career. And I thought this was the best thing to have happened to us, we learnt some of the lessons we would have learnt much later in life, much earlier than a lot of others do. Though its been a painful period of 20 months since we have started working, but we’ve grown up with a lot of learning’s that would take us a long way in the future when may be such a catastrophe hits the world again, we would be prepared far better than the rest of the crowd.

Though at a psychological level we might have had a few advantages and disadvantages over the rest of the management crowd, we have definitely lost out on the monetary quantum and the sense of security standpoint. Lot of us had got job’s on contractual basis and our fates will be decided really soon, we would stand again on the same point as we did 2 years ago, if these companies don’t make us permanent employees. It would again be a period of anxiety & patience, again trying to get a good job and getting settled down with what we would like to do, but boy! its not going to be easy. Though the markets now are doing far better, destiny isn’t always with the lot that in some sense has been rejected (if I am allowed to use that word) by some other corporate.

When we graduated I used to think that the jobs we got are the jobs that were really crucial, as companies wont really recruit in such times unless they really want people to fill certain vacancies, but for certain companies it was just an easy way out to hire cheap than in years of boom may be, though not true in all the cases. The pie chart below would give you an idea about how the class of 2009 has been doing over the course of 20 months since they started working.

It’s clear that close to 70% of them are still with the same company  they started out with, but the fact is, at least a quarter of them are seriously looking out for other opportunities mostly because they aren’t really fond of what they are doing, as a process of which some of them have already changed one job (20%). The remaining 13% who are not working are the ones who have either quit their jobs as they want to pursue something else, including starting some business of their own or a completely different career or may be got married and settled ( you know what that means). Now the question is, is the story similar with other batches who either passed out before or after, I would say more or less YES, but still there are things that this particular batch is going through which others might not have gone through, things that cant really be expressed, but can only be felt.

One thing I firmly believe in and have understood through this whole experience is, destiny’s child or recessions child, as long as things are good make hay, but remember things won’t remain good or bad for ever. The markets have gotten back on track and companies are recruiting astounding number of people this year, breaking all kinds of previous records. Just be patient and give your best, recession or no recession, there is a billion plus population in the country that has to be fed, transported, taken care of and a lot of other services to be provided to. Someone has to do each of these things, so just stay active and you’ll definitely find something that you really deserve. Last thought (or piece of advice you might call it) for all management’s children would be – Stop measuring your success in life based on your CTC, it hardly matters as long as you find something that you would love to do for a large fraction of your life and a management degree is not just a gateway to a seven digit pay check always, it is a great deal more than that, if all of us realize that, it wont matter even if you were from the womb of recession. Let’s stop looking at management education as a platform ticket for the employment station, it’s rather a first class ticket to some of the best learning’s and experiences in life.

P.S. – This post was inspired by views posted in an article on Times of India recently.

Today’s Favorite Line - A cynic is a man who knows the price of everything, and the value of nothing. - Oscar Wilde

Today’s Favorite Song – Pray for me brother (A.R. Rehman)

My Experience at My First Job – Part II

“Well begun is half done” they say, but I am very sure I was not at the best in the beginning; I felt like I kid, I felt like I am in a land where I don’t understand a thing. New experience, new people, new business, new environment, but I was ready to face all this and learn and understand and so I did. I worked as far as I could, learnt everyday and not only business but several silly things like how to staple papers properly. It was learning everyday in some way or the other.

When I talk about my experience, I got only one person in my mind I can think of, and this was the person behind what ever I learnt what ever I did and accomplished. This person was none other than my immediate boss. Apart from being my boss he is also an alumnus of my college (5 yrs senior to me). He was instrumental in making my project as interesting as it ended up being. The moments I mostly cherish and rejoice in my office are the times when I used to be in discussion with him, our discussion at times used to go on for hours and those were the times when I learnt most of the things I learnt in the whole training period. I can never forget his upfront answers, straight forward remarks and cool attitude. He would have edited my reports N number of times, every time I used to edit it and he was able to find many more faults in them, but all he used to ask in the end was “are u not confident and satisfied”, if my reply was No, he used to say “don’t submit it as far as you are confident yourself” and these words always made me work harder and review things as well as I could. There was scope for improvement always but I was never in condition to determine when it was time to say done and then I used to seek his guidance. I owe major part of all my acknowledgement and regards to him for my project work, but he doesn’t believe in all this formality. I cherish those days and I have been telling all my friends that I have got the best possible boss amongst all of us.

The training period gave me various opportunities to learn and understand a lot of things, to have a new perspective, to be bold enough to take a stand (this is the most difficult lesson I learnt, I am quite bad at it at times and there were numerous occasions in the training period which highlighted this) and to be clear enough while saying or doing something. Overall it was an amazing experience and mainly since the head of my department once told me “I (we) like working with you and we have liked your attitude”, I was on top that day and had only one thought in mind that I need to carry on this good work and image throughout the training period, hope I succeeded in it.

Over all the experience and exposure was good, the other people in the department were very supportive, I did not have much interaction with them but then it was like a home away from home for those few hours I used to be there. One important thing which I would mention is the facility and the infrastructure provided in the organization was remarkable, again I would say I got the best even in this case compared to others, be it the refreshments provided or the printout facility or any other thing I did not find even a single problem, everything was very comfortable. I truly felt as a part of the team I worked in, even though I was not actively in conversation with others but then I felt as one amongst them.

I truly feel to have had an amazing experience and I feel proud to have been a part of such a nice organization and having worked with such great people. Pardon me I haven’t mentioned about the owner of the company yet, believe me if I start writing about that personality I would not know where to stop, he is such a Legend from what ever I know about him. Only thing I repent from the training period is, I did not get a chance to meet the Legend, who owns the company. Would some time share about him as I keep doing whenever I talk about my internship to everyone I know. And I wish I could some day meet or see this brilliant mind that runs such a great company.

Stay tuned …….. :-)

My Experience at my First Job – Part 1

I joined with a lot of enthusiasm and hope and here I am still with the same enthusiasm and hope but hope for a great future. I have been thinking all through my life, how will I like doing a job, how will I feel, will I be able to face the heat and so on, but here I am, with just one more month for my summer internship to get over, I am excited and happy for what ever I have got and what ever I have done and now I have only one major goal for the coming month, i.e. to finish the internship program in style by proving my skills and capability and to leave a positive mark. But yea I must tell ya I am enjoying my job but I have certainly known this to myself for all my life now that I cannot and will not do a job for long, coz I don’t have it in me to subordinate for long, yea I know I will work and infact I will have to work as in, in a job but I certainly know not for long, coz I see entrepreneurship for myself and I see only that, I don’t know when but I am waiting for the right time and the right idea to pop in and then there I will be, if not on the top at least some where, where u can see a difference, feel a difference and can proudly say hey its Yogesh its Yogesh Chordia !!!!!.
The project so far has been worth it and I think I have learnt a lot in these 45 approx days which have passed by and most of the credit for what ever I have learnt and done goes only to one person who is my immediate boss, will share more about him and about the job under him sometime later, coz it has been an amazing experience and as one of our faculty says with hands on approach. So do stay tuned, I just came in just to quickly share my experience so far and yea I cannot forget to mention this here and now, I have earned my first salary in life from this job and to be honest and frank I was not very excited or as people say ‘on top of the world’, it was just another moment for me, rather it was just another event in my life and as I know and u know as well, I got to go a long long way yet, so keeping my fingers crossed and hoping to complete this internship program in style and making a mark for myself, will be back soon and yes this time with a bang.
Keep watching this space for Part 2 soon

P.S - I am doing my Summer Intership at a Company called Siva Ventures Ltd, which is a subsidiary or Flagship company of Sterling Infotech Group(A Conglomerate of 33 different businessees and revenue to the tune of $2 billion/year) - just for your information in case u r'nt aware of the place of my first job and just knowing my experience :-) ;-)

My Venture to Siva Ventures

The first interview for summer training while almost more than half of my batch mates were placed for summers, as the process of summer placements had begun almost more than a month back. And this one also was probably one of the last interviews for summers as I had actually applied only for a couple of more companies. The reason for all this was me being too much choosy in the matter of company and profile/project. If I did not get through this interview I probably would have had to take up a project under faculty. The projects under faculty were good enough but the motivation to do your summer internship in a company is far higher than under the same person whom you have been knowing for and listening to for almost a year and also to do the same in the 4 walls where you have spent the past 1 year.

I was not well prepared for the interview, in the sense that I did not do any additional preparation as I planned earlier. I was very cool, as I never had to attend an interview for such a long time while other batch mates were appearing for interviews almost every week. The desire and the spirit to get into this company were high enough due to a lot of reasons. Reasons like
The company has diversified businesses which would give me great exposure and insight in what ever limited time I am there.
The company was family owned and was a venture capitalist kind of firm, which gave me a feeling of adding to the entrepreneurial skills.
The company came to the campus for first time, and an alumnus was already working there very happily.
The company was offering a profile in Finance as such.
And many other reasons…..
We reached the company (8 of us were appearing for the interview) and had to wait for quite some time for the process to start, but I was completely relaxed. There was a lot at stake for me, but I was not much concerned, I don’t know why but I was a bit relaxed than I am usually before an interview. And as usual I being last in the list for the interview as it was alphabetic order wise, I had to wait until everyone else is done and got to listen to how their interviews were like etc… But meanwhile we were talking to the HR person of the company, about the company, its activities and so on. The HR person was a really cool guy, was very casual and spoke very openly and in a friendly way to all of us to remove tension if any from all of us.

The first person came back after an interview of about 30 minutes and she said that it was an HR interview and not a technical one, while all of us were expecting a technical interview. So this piece of first hand information again helped all of us to get a bit more relaxed as there was nothing much to be worried about for a HR interview, so we went on speaking to the HR person. While in my mind the thought that my turn would come after a few hours started as every other interview went on for about 20 minutes, but I knew what ever it is I have to wait how much ever time it takes and this was making me a little impatient as I was hungry and tired (Cos I had already waited for almost 3 hours).

And finally it was my turn after waiting for such a long time, I headed towards the interview room, entered and greeted the interviewer, who was 50+ in age and was even more tired than me. As I took my seat he asked me about myself and started talking on the phone, which made me stop myself until he stopped talking on the phone. Finally after he disconnected the phone I started telling things about myself and I was out of points just after 2-3 points as I could clearly see the level of interest of the interviewer (he was continuously yawning). Then I got silent for the next question to be thrown at me, the next question was “What is the prayer song of D.G Vaishnav College” (It’s the college of my graduation and also of the interviewer, coincidentally), I told him upfront that I did not know the same as I was an evening college student and there wasn’t any prayer for evening college students as such. He nodded his head and asked me a couple more questions to make me feel that I was actually being interviewed, as I answered them and remained silent, this person who was already tired and bored told me thank you, this is enough and you may go. I was shocked by the fact that the interview did not even last for 5 minutes, while others interview lasted at least for 20 minutes. I was not able to decide how to react to this, but then being a pessimistic person I told everyone that my interview was screwed due to my name, as the interviewer was least interested. But the only one motivating factor was the talks with the HR person, who from the start told all 8 of us that, all of you are selected, we are just doing this to know u better. So all of us were pretty confident and were taken by his words. But the mind never was ready to accept this fact, as HR managers are always very sweet in their speech, so never trust a HR manager.

I believe our faith was partially right, as the results came out the next morning 4 of us were short listed for summer internship and of course I was one among the 4. You will not believe me it was as sad a moment as happier it was, as the rest 4 were left out and our suspicion on the HR managers as such proved to be right, he filled us with a lot of faith, but at the end only 50% of it was true, so reacting to this situation became very difficult, as this was not some thing which we people who got selected had proved to achieve, it was an HR interview and it was just how we portrayed ourselves in the interview, so at the end of the day, it was a Win-Win for me, but a sad moment for my friends.

One important thing after the summer placements I would like to share here is the way I describe the company to all my friends and relatives who don’t know the company but know its neighborhood. It is this way “Do you know Kamaraj Memorial (Congress Grounds), opposite to that have you seen a tall building called Sterling Tower (which everyone who has been to congress grounds must have seen for sure), that is where I am placed for summers and it is a $2Billion revenue worth company with 33 different diversified businesses and so on”. This is the way my description goes to show that I am placed in a really good and big company. LoL.

Anyways I am into Ventures, and what about U??????? U there??????

DREAM COMPANY

Dream Company

Have you ever had a dream company to work for, I never had one until some time back when I came to know about it and its activities and objectives. I always used to think what’s the need to have a dream company, there are so many organizations and individuals you admire but just that may not be the reason you need to aspire to work for or with them. But being human and being an irrational human I developed liking for this organization and aspired to be a part of it at least for a summer, so that I could know whether I am fit for it or not or whether I would be comfortable there or not, but fate always plays with you. It does something which you always don’t want to happen and finally you end up cursing it for every issue of your life, good or bad.
When I came to know that this dream company of mine has rejected me even before holding an interview with me guess what was my reaction like…….. It was very normal, I said its ok yaar part of life may be I was not matching their criteria or may be I am not eligible for it or vice versa. People thought that I would lose heart after coming to know about this, but no I am a bit mature and to some extent practical in life, so losing heart for such silly things does not come in to question at all. Yes but I can say I was very much wanting to get into this organization, so I felt a bit bad, because just on basis of my CV I was rejected but its ok, part of life. Now here is the twist in the tale, I have taken this issue a bit differently. I am generally a very pessimistic sort of a person who tries to find fault in himself first and who tries to see the darker side of the issue, but here I have taken this as a positive note saying that ‘yes this company’s work is of my area of interest, but may be I have got to do something else, something better, I am needed somewhere else, so why repent on something which has already gone’. My pessimism has helped me digest this fact easily, so all credits to it. Looks good I am talking philosophy, but trust me I did not think about this issue more than any other issue running on my mind, I just let it go, what if it was my dream company, what big deal I have 100 dream company’s. So the only mantra I have for myself is “Keep Moving, learn from the past and act accordingly in the future, and no one can beat you”.
So stop dreaming, start working!!!!!!!!
(Anyways you know about which organization I am talking)