As I complete one year in industry, I would love to share my experience in this first year with corporate world. It may make no sense for my seniors who are already into it since last 4-5 years but prospective professionals who are still to jump into the foray may take home something from my experience.

First and foremost, it is a pleasure for me to complete one successful year in industry and needless to say it feels as if I joined yesterday. As I look back to the day of my interview, the first thing that comes to my mind is the ‘confidence’ with which I faced the interview. If my memory serves me right, out of ~ 120 applicants 12 were finally selected from Bangalore Campus conducted by the TATA group. TATA group recruits chartered accountant through ICAI and the program is conducted half yearly at Delhi, Kolkata, Bangalore and Mumbai just before the Campus placement of ICAI. I had to go through two group discussions and a rigorous technical interview of forty odd minutes. The very first professional interview of my life (leaving aside the interview for article ship) and I dug myself into hole by showing interest in ‘treasury department’ when the panelist asked – “Amit, Which domain would you like to work in?” No sooner did I reply than the panelists started frowning as if it was a crime to vie for treasury department. I was expecting this gesture and had done my homework but still their reaction made me a little nervous in the beginning. Their gestures could not shake my confidence and I took over the control as the interview progressed. While one of the panelists kept staring and monitoring my movements, the other kept asking mind boggling questions one after the other. Questions came in from all areas – accounting standards, FCCB, External Borrowing, Accounting Standards, Consolidation, Company law and so on. As the panelists posed question which are in the domain of Company secretary like insider trading, arms length transaction , clause 49 and so on, I started thinking in the mid of the interview – What on earth tempted me to go for the course of company secretary. By the grace of God, I made to the final list and everything went on smoothly. This is the story of my entry into the most trusted brand of India – TATA. To start my career with TATA group is like a dream come true. The best part which I drive home from my occupation is that I am working for a noble cause as ~66% of the profit of the group for which I am working goes for philanthropic cause.

If I talk about my company, the learning in last one year has been phenomenal. Telecom business is the most dynamic industry and one year is too short to learn even the basics of this industry. Last one year has been a great learning phase for me. From understanding the dynamics of business to attending high profile meeting, organizing and participating in trainings and much more with learning in galore was the mantra throughout the year. Every day is a new learning process and there is a lot to learn. But the area in which I have really honed my skill is – corporate ethics which includes e-mail and meeting etiquettes, corporate lingo, soft skills and so on. I can talk non stop about my company and could not help myself from falling in love with the company which has both pros and cons as Mr. Murthy says – “LOVE YOUR JOB, BUT NEVER FALL IN LOVE WITH YOUR COMPANY BECAUSE YOU NEVER KNOW WHEN COMPANY STOPS LOVING YOU…” I beg to differ from MR. Murthy, and am thankful to God that my company breaches his rule. My first day at TATA Teleservices Limited is still afresh in my mind as seldom do people forget their first day at job. We had tight induction program of two days (after a week’s Group induction at Pune) and on the third day, I met the CFO of my company. It was a cheerful experience and I had gathered information from informal sources that people working in his team are crushed under work and the exposure in his team is unbound. Without thinking for a while, I expressed my anxiety to work in his team and I still remember the exact conversation between us. As I uttered, “Boss! I want to work in your team and I want to feel the corporate pressure”, he was impressed and returned the gesture in his classical style – “You are a killer man!” Good CFO’s don’t grow on trees and he is one among them. The best part of his personality is his smile and co-ordination. I have never seen him in tension even if he is about to make a presentation to the board. He is so down to earth that he never hesitates in walking down to the cubicle of any employee and I remember him walking down to my workstation and appreciating my writing skill when he came to know about it from one of my colleagues. I appreciate the devotion of my CFO towards his work. Very often, he replies back to the mail at three in the morning. In spite of being so busy, he tries his best to be present at the birthday celebration of the employees. He is not left with enough time due to pre occupation with loads of work but takes regular feedback about each and every employee from people reporting to him.

After a month or two of joining, I remember discussing with my CFO when I felt that I was underutilized and was not having enough work. This became a boon for me and he involved me in a special assignment in which I got to work under his supervision. There had been times when I had to sit idle and times when I stayed in the office late till midnight. This is how corporate world works. When your boss needs something, you got to be perfect and on time. Nobody cares whether you stay late or work from home. So far as myself is concerned, I enjoy being at work place and even my boss is well aware that I am not keen on going home and he is happy with my attitude. After all, boss needs someone who can work round the clock. I also feel that young guys are the employee on whom company can bank as they can work 18 hours a day if the need arises. I reiterate the words of my CFO as he always say, “We need guys like you who can work really hard.” At this remark of my CFO, I always reply by saying, “Boss! I need to go back to guest house only to take nap or else I am fine in office.

Every time I see the numbers of my company, the only thought that keeps troubling me is how am I contributing to these numbers and even if my contribution is there how important is my contribution? Something which might be fruitful in long term but according to me is hitting the EBITDA of my company makes me a bit furious and I try diving into depth to get to the root cause of it. But sometimes, I do feel lost in an ocean without any answer. This is referred to as learning process by great scholars who had been through it to reach the zenith. When I see the advertisement of my company, the sense of belongingness makes me happy and my only wish is that we are able to target as many customers as possible through this means of sales promotion. I beg to differ from notions of top management about consultants where I may be wrong. The way people at the helm bets on consultants for improving processes and cutting cost in the company may not go well with the employees of the company. How can someone who is having no idea of the processes and costs incurred by my company, contribute in improvising it? I feel the people who are in the system and incurring cost are the best person to tackle such issues. Someone who is having no idea as to what for the cost is incurred can never help in bettering it, no matter how smart the person is, no matter how many degrees the person holds, no matter what tools the person is using. It only depends on how devoted are the employees to reduce the cost and how big is their concern to reduce it. It is too early to comment on these issues and there are lot many areas where I don’t buy the ideas of management.

The most cherishing experience in my first year with industry which I would like to pen down and share with all of you is my meeting with Mr. Rajiv Dhar, CFO VSNL. There is not so much to read into this meeting except the humility of my CFO which made me a part of this high profile meeting. One fine morning, my CFO requested me (mark my words, he requested as he never orders) in his humble words – “Amit, would you like to accompany me to VSNL?” I was so elated at this request of his and questions started flowing in the back of my mind – Boss I had been waiting whole life to be a part of this meeting. I would love to be with you; in fact I am more than eager to go with you. Why on earth are you asking this question? Do you really feel that Amit Khandelia will say no to it? I had been dreaming since time immemorial of this meeting and now you are asking an approval for it from me. Let’s hurry up Boss before you change your mind! What followed is a life time experience. I got face to face with Mr. Rajiv Dhar, CFO VSNL whom I had so far seen on cover page of some business magazine. I was stunned to be a part of this informal meeting. At one point of time we were just three people in his sea facing cabin. As my CFO introduced myself to Rajiv, he inquired, “Amit, do you know him?” and I was like, Boss! I had grown up reading about these CFO’s and they are my idols. How can I fail to recognize him? It is a corporate crime to do so. I replied, “Yes, boss, I have seen him on cover page of one of the business magazines.” and Rajiv was impressed. When I discuss these experiences with my friends working in other companies, they get envious of my proximity to the CFO. Leave aside talking to CFO, generally employees at the entry level don’t get to see their CFO daily. The best thing about my company is that the hierarchy is absolutely flat and anyone can walk into the cabin of CFO anytime.

Everything is not fair in corporate world as this world too has some nuisances .One thing which I dislike about this universe is one can not be his/ her self and no matter you must be in deepest of pains but should always wear a smile on your face. But with the passage of time things are easing and sometimes you are forced to get out of the professional garb. So far as I am concerned, I am always the last person to cross the line but all is not well with me too. If you give me a call, don’t expect to hear a caller tune on my cell phone as mixing personal taste with profession is considered misconduct and professionals generally don’t subscribe to caller tunes. Last Sunday, I saw the movie Chak De after a much awaiting and I was so impressed by the movie that my friends cum colleagues forced me to subscribe for the caller tune of Chak De where SRK is motivating the team through his ‘sattar minute’ dialogue. They started citing reasons that being in telecom world we are promoting value added service (VAS) if you are subscribing caller tunes and there is no harm in doing so. They wanted me to step into this informal zone as they had already subscribed to caller tunes long back. Even I was more than eager to subscribe to the inspirational dialogue of SRK from the movie and taking the plea that Professionals from telecom world have a liberty to subscribe to welcome tunes, I finally subscribed to that tune which I still consider a bit of violation of professional ethics.

Apart from business dynamics, one area in which I need to work on is ‘ego massaging’. I feel if you are bad at it, it is really difficult to survive in corporate world. Regular feedbacks from my friends and colleagues make me feel that aggressiveness and patience is another area where I need to put some effort. Aggressiveness is necessary but there should be a perfect mix of patience with it where I trail behind. To sum up, the experience in last one year was a mixed flavor ranging from ecstasy, frustration, disagreement on some issues, pride, but at last one thing which is common to all these feelings is loyalty and commitment for my company.

Long live TATA group!

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