Catchy title? Well, for the Indian friends it would have worked!
After my teaser blog post, I have been wondering about what to write next. What is it that I want to share, I thought for about a week and nothing really came to my head. At first I thought I will start with some gyan on Digital Marketing, a blog dedicated to some tips and tricks around performance marketing. Then I thought to myself, if I was reading this would I continue to read it? I mean assume you are my friend and I am talking to you about technical jargons like backlinks, app store optimization, seo, adwords, etc etc etc. Would you even bother reading the next post? Probably not! So, I decided to keep the content technicality free and focus on life experiences. This way I get to re-live my life and you get to know the spicy (& not so spicy) stories.
Let me start with my first job:
I went to one of the most prestigious institutions in the country (*drumroll) – Shri Ram College of Commerce. Now, unlike how I had assumed, my college life did not really prep me up for anything substantial. The only direction it did show me was the direction of “being somebody”. The batch size was about 500+ and my peers were some of the smartest ‘almost adults’ of the country. Can you imagine the pressure one can face in such a setting? Everyone around me was a member of popular societies in college – Drama society, English literary society, Editorial team, etc. I on the other hand was just playing Table Tennis for my college. I was the captain though (because I was the senior most!) for two consecutive years and had been selected to play the university nationals on behalf of Delhi University (a.k.a DU). Was that enough? Not at all. So, I decided to join a few societies in college to get a certificate. Now that I look back, I totally think that pursuing activities because you want to fit in or be at par with others in college is one of the biggest mistake people make in college. If I got a chance to go back, I would just join for experience and learning, not for some certificate or a bullet point in my CV.
In the midst of all the hustle and chaos inside my head, I somehow discovered that post third year I have to start being someone. I have to start working, I have to start being independent – financially and personally. An independent strong person is someone I was and I fail to figure why I was still chasing being one. I think it is mostly because there was a pressure to be someone, someone with a job or an offer from one of the A-List Business Schools of the country. Once I made up my mind and convinced myself that CAT is not an exam I will be able to crack, the only option left was to get a job. As a person, I always choose easy to difficult. I am not the ‘I will be able to move the mountain’ type of person. Give me some good food, a mac, some movies and a decent (subjective) amount of money and I am good to go. Overachieve? Not really!
Going back to the college placements. The focus was always to get the highest paying job – McKinsey or Bain or one of those fancy banks. The failure to score a 70% average (first + second year marks) resulted in ineligibility for these dream companies. They are actually called “dream companies” as if dreaming was only restricted to high paying jobs. How unfair, isn’t it? Look at how our colleges mould our thinking. You seem to think that the first job will decide who you are, who you will be and who you are meant to be. It is that one giant step that will decide your fate. I was very disappointed when I wasn’t able to get through these ones, I kept thinking to myself that maybe I will be living an average life and just be a nobody. Under confidence is one of the biggest set backs when we are young.
Then came Google – my knight in shining armour. It is everyone’s dream company, right? Wrong! In my college it was one of those places where 40% of students did not apply because they paid less. Can you imagine the situation? Anyone I meet today tells me that they would kill for a job @ Google and here I was, in a college where the cream wasn’t applying because the salary wasn’t a dream for them. Anyhow, 250 students had applied and 200 had got selected after a basic english language test. When a company selects 200 out of 250, you kind of think that they want to hire people in bulk (like the Infosys and TCS of the world). I remember I got an email from my placement cell that I have been selected for the first round of personal interview when I was at home for a vacation. I was super psyched and my parents felt so proud. A little family trivia here – noone from my family was working with an American company, the only one person who was was my uncle who was settled in the US for a thousand years.
The day arrived, the first interview I was eligible for. It was 26th of October 2010 and I remember this because it is my sister’s birthday every year on that day! I had focussed a lot on presentation – I re-worked on my CV and made sure I looked good. Due to lack of funds, I bought fabric for my skirt and got it stitched instead of getting a readymade one. I was lucky enough that someone had gifted me a crisp white shirt for my birthday that year. So, there was my perfect look – crisp white shirt and a well fitted pencil skirt. I woke up that morning and it was unusual. I felt so confident and I told myself that I can do this. Somehow I felt like I was ‘someone’ and I can be someone better. Round one, round two, round three and then they told us to go home. They said they will do the final evaluation and let us know via email. I reached home (PG) at around 7:30pm and felt like I had truly achieved something that day. The rounds were difficult and my answers were bang on point. It was as if something had got into my brain and increased the efficiency. It was fabulous and still remains to be the best day of my life.
After a few days, Google sent our college a list of 8 candidates out of the 200 they had interviewed and said they are considering hiring them. When I received the email and saw that I was one of the top 8 people selected by Google, my happiness knew no bounds. I think I might have shed a few silent tears. Dramatic and perfect! The next steps were a few rounds of telephonic interview and rolling out the final offer. The telephonic rounds got done within a month, by the end of November 2010 I had done everything I could to land my first job. Then what? Well, Google did not get back for two full months.
One morning towards the beginning of Feb 2011, I was sitting alone, eating paranthas & sipping through my masala chai for breakfast at my usual place and I get this call. I don’t recognise the number and say “hello” in a very casual tone. The person at the other end was a HR executive from Google. She said, “we need to send you your final offer letter, can you please confirm your address”. All I heard was Offer Letter and jumped with joy. The parantha suddenly lost its taste and all I could think about is how awesome my life just got.
My first job was @ Google India. I was one of the 8 people from SRCC to get into Google from my college that year. The feeling still is fresh, three jobs and 5 years later. It was something else, it will always be!
Marketeer by Chance 