That’s what the subject line read. The latest mail in my inbox from Monster.com. I don’t know if it is spam or I must have registered there eons ago that I’ve forgotten. Come to think of it, it IS appraisal time at FYIN on the 30th of April. And I am not going to be in office for that. There was some excitement amongst my team mates yesterday as I left the office. CRR1 or 2 and all that crap. You know what, I have been appraised twice already and I don’t know what the hell that means. Guess I just don’t care. My first 2 appraisals happened when I was on bench. So much for assessing me and my work.
Looking back, I could evaluate my past year at FYIN. I would like to change a lot of things. I wish I had some say as to which domain I would want to be trained in. And would definitely not have picked one with night shifts! Would I have picked one in which I would have had some interest? That’s a very tough question, because I doubt I’ll find anything exciting in this field. I have refused a couple of projects that would have hindered my preps for PG. I don’t regret these decisions at all. I think because I said no, I got a decent project, probably the best being offered to us. I got to interact with the clients directly. I felt a thrill when I handled the “IDocs” knowing that it was important that I did my job well because what was before me was millions of dollars of transactions in electronic form. I could set off a huge catastrophe by manipulating a few zeros or decimal places. But knowing that the client had faith in our ability, that we would do our best, to see that it is business as usual for them (if not better), was a gratifying experience. I’ve spoken to banks on behalf of my client, spoken to managers of various ethnicities working all over the globe and have sent many mails to people who I’ll probably never meet, but who were very professional and dedicated.
Many worked at unearthly hours. These were high level executives who wouldn’t sleep till the job was done. Our being a maintenance project, loads of people sacrificed their weekends and holidays just to see that the servers were upgraded. These have been the high points of the year 2007 in the office for me. It all probably culminated with a visit from the client yesterday. Mr J was there looking all magnificient in his trim suit. I wish that one day when I am as old as he is, that I would be where he is. He spoke in a firm, deep voice. Spoke little but spoke well. He smiled as he introduced himself and smiled as we introduced ourselves to him. Cracked a joke and laughed with all of us. That’s why I guess B-schools ask for work-experience. What we experience may not always be relevant to what we will be working on in the future, but we grow as human beings. I’ve seen the transformation in my batchmates who were there in the proj before I joined. Though the energy has decreased now because the project is ending, they are more responsible. They are more aware. And for the ones staying in FYIN for years to come, are driven to get somewhere..
Being driven, is the most important factor to progress in life.
