Real Life Learnings for Success are coming from 9 different companies I worked with in my career. This is something that I could learn by giving my 14 precious years to different organizations. This blog is useful for the working class, entrepreneurs, professionals, house-wife, retired & students. I am going to give you these lessons in this blog so that you can avoid the mistakes that I made or you can follow what I could not to faster your journey to success. These learning are going to play a vital role in your life despite the area of work you are into. I will keep heading with the name of the organization so that you can easily understand what kind of work or organization I have worked for.
Eureka Forbes – It was my Summer Holidays after my +2 and before my college. My only purpose to join my first job was to arrange my first-year college fee because my father was not making much money and he was the only bread earner in a family of 5. I got a chance to work in one of the franchises of Eureka Forbes. This franchise was tiny and not completely professional because it was a residence cum office. A boss who used to own it dedicated one of the rooms from her residence to her office. This franchise was looking for a 12th pass candidate who was knowing typing. I was hired via a reference easily because I was meeting their requirements. My position was an Office Assistant. Being it was my first job, I wanted to learn things hence I started copying what others were doing. But once I had been scolded by the boss for not using the keyboard properly. She said you press the keyboard buttons so hard and this may damage the keyboard I learnt it by copying the existing employees there who always press the keyboard buttons much harder and that too in front of the boss but she never reacted to this. I worked there for a month as my purpose for joining this job was clear. After a month, I started with my regular college. Know more about Eureka Forbes
1st learning, I would like to give you from here is that you can’t expect the same treatment or behaviour for you as a new employee that existing or old employees get. You need to create importance in your work.
RK Electronics – A year later, after giving the exams of my first year. I was again looking out for a job as the financials of my family were in a similar form to last year. This time again the job was needed only for a month 🙂 just to pay my Second Year fee. I was looking for an office job this time too but ended up getting a job in a factory. It was the least-paid job of my life but I had a lack of time as the college break was for a limited time and I need at least a month to work to get my monthly salary. I started this job and went on to manufacture the speakers for doorbells. Soon, I became good at assembling speakers. This group of people I was working with was different in many ways. They were not educated and their used language or vocabulary always scared me that my language will be like theirs if I stay here for a long. Though, it was clear that I am here for a month.
2nd lesson, I learned from here was that there is a category of people who has nothing to do with any change in the economy, who will be the next PM? etc. but they know how to live a happy life with less money. They like the way they are. Only more money can buy happiness is not true at all. People making less money are also happy.
InTouch Solution – Here comes the real start of my professional career. It was my first professional interview and I cracked it. This was a domestic BPO (Business Process Outsourcing). My designation was Customer Care Executive. Underwent training for 25 days with the pressure of cracking multiple assessments to clear for securing my job. A lot of different things came in the way like the pressure of taking the performance from average to good, calling for different processes, changes in the rules to work etc. During my first year of this job, many times, I found myself under pressure and lost interest in my job which led me to think about leaving the organization too. Many of my colleagues went on to find different opportunities and joined there, this somehow strengthen my thought of leaving the job. But, when I was going through this all in my mind. The best thing in my life was about to happen and it happened. I got a promotion and became a Trainer after clearing certain rounds of interviews. After becoming a trainer, I entered a whole new world. Many new things to learn, new exposure, new colleagues and new reporting manager etc. Sooner, I got trained on many processes and started handling the training for multiple processes. I learned a lot from InTouch. I became comfortable with my job. Everything was going good but I wanted to better my communication skills rather I would say my English. My fellow trainers and friends used to talk about the admired work culture of International BPO. I became fascinated to work for an International BPO and also thought that it would be a great idea to improve my English. I started giving interviews and unfortunately could crack a few of them the reason behind this was neutral English accents and poor communication skills. It was only me who was responsible for it as I had enough time to improve my communication but still I did not put in enough effort. Finally, an awesome journey of 4.9 years with InTouch came to an end. Leaving Intouch was like leaving your family but everything happens for a reason. InTouch is still there in my heart and will always be.
3rd lesson that comes from InTouch is that don’t be comfortable in your life because comfort shows that you are not growing. Uncomforability is a sign of growth.
iEnergizer – It is said rightly “The grass is always greener on the other side.” Finally, I joined an International process with iEnergizer. I was again back to my initial position as a Customer Care Representative where I was responsible to recover the outstanding money on the credit cards from US citizens. Yes, it was a night shift job with free meals and good perks. Undoubtedly, the work culture was awesome and inspiring. I learned many practical implementations in a short period. My accent got changed and I was bound to use a US accent. I enjoyed my night shift job but soon, it became hectic for me. I used to spend 5 hours daily to reach the office and back. I was bound to sleep in the day daytime and eat out most of the time. Because of the night shift, I used to leave in the evening for my office before my dad comes back from his work and come back in the morning after my dad left for his work. We were living in the same house but were able to see and talk to each other only on weekends. These all together weaken my physique. My parents were also noticing this and they started building pressure on me to find out something during the day shift. Just after 6 months, I made up my mind to switch to a day shift job. Know more about iEnergizer.
The 4th lesson is already given in the first line of this para, “The grass is always greener on the other side.” Don’t make judgments basis what people say. Check out all the facts on your own.
Jabong.com – It becomes very difficult when you switch domestic work culture to International and vice-versa. I started giving interviews for day shift jobs or domestic work set-ups and faced many rejections again and the reason was the same my accent. Domestic set-up demands a neutral accent while I developed a US accent just because of my last job this time I was much more evolved but the situation was no different. This means an accent learning for International set-up became my biggest roadblock for domestic set-up. Fortunately, I was able to get my selection by Jabong.com for the base position of Customer Care Executive. I was not happy with the position as I used to be a trainer in domestic BPO and now was an executive but I had nothing else to choose from in the bucket of my options so I decided to start with Jabong.com. This was a very different journey altogether. E-Commerce was spreading its wings in India and I had many things to learn ahead. The majority of people who joined jabong.com were from an international background. Jabong.com provided good facilities for us. It was a rotational shift job. While working for Jabong.com, I had many days and nights when I felt that I made bad choices for my career. I felt frustrated but always believed that everything has a reason in our life. I was always on talking terms with my ex-bosses. One fine day while coming back from the office, my phone rang and to my surprise, it was my favourite boss who called. She required the position of a trainer and she straight away asked me to come for a meeting. It was the same company where I started my career but this time the company had a new name called Qual-Touch Solutions.
The 5th learning, I want to give is that your belief and patience always pay you back. There was an example of it that this position falling in my lap without any new effort.
Qual-Touch Solution – I was back to InTouch but the name was Qual-Touch Solution this time. I got a much better salary package along with bigger responsibilities. My routine went back to normal as it was the day shift. I had to do what I loved most Training. I started working on multiple processes. Implemented my all-new learnings which put out great results for the training team. I also additionally started grooming new trainers as a part of my responsibility. Then, one of our bigger projects was separating from us and clients wanted to move along with the associated manpower of Qual-Touch. I was also chosen to move with the client by the management. Know more about Qual-Touch Solution.
Here is the 6th lesson, if you have value and the capabilities to outperform then the right people/opportunity choose you instead of you choosing them. Here the Management chose me to work for the client.
Sun Business Solution – A company from Sun Group. Sun Business Solution was responsible for customer services of Sun DTH(Direct-to-Home). I was designated as a Sr. Trainer and expectations were high for me but I was a beginner at DTH services or I can say that I was knowing the least about DTH in our organization. I moved here just because of my skills not because of my knowledge about DTH. But my role demanded to have very good knowledge about DTH. I felt embarrassed when a customer service representative walks up to me with his queries and I had no answer for his query just because of my lack of knowledge. Customer service representatives used to come to me with the hope of getting the answer to their queries but I was not in a position to help them. This lack of knowledge built-up a mental pressure on me. And then I decided that I have to be the best with the product knowledge of DTH. I started working on my knowledge and put in my hard work to be the best. Within the next 3 months with Sun Business Solution, I acquired almost every bit of the required knowledge. Time changed and now I used to have the answers to the queries that others were not able to handle. My attitude changed everything. Know more about Sun Business Solution.
The 7th learning, that I want to give you is that many people perform at their best when they are under pressure. Pressure is important to take you to your best. A stone can only become a diamond under huge pressure.
SERCO India Private Limited – A World-known brand it is. I was referred to this organization by one of my subordinates. My 2 subordinates from Qual-Touch Solution joined SERCO before me. They recommended me when they heard their organization is looking for a trainer with good experience. They recommended me because they were trained by me in their initial days of training career. I went there for my interview and met HR for my first round. This HR person recognized me and I recognized him, he was one of my good friends and met him almost after 7 years. He and I were not knowing that we will be meeting this way too after 7 years. My first round was just a casual talk with my friend but the other rounds were so professional and they dug everything out of me about my knowledge of training and its techniques. Though I cleared all the rounds and I joined there in one of their premium E-Learning projects with a good hike in my existing salary package . I handled the training for the process along with handling the business part. I used to spend my maximum time on the operations floor. Also, used to help my teammates in closing their sales over the call. I worked there for a year and I wanted to reach the next level in my professional career. Hence, I discussed it with my superior but due not the non-availability of the position, they could not do much about it. Hence, I started looking for options outside. Got a call for the position of Asst. Manager Training in other organizations and an awesome journey with one of the big groups of companies ends here. Know more about SERCO.
The 8th lesson, I learned from here is that if you add value to other peoples’ lives they always try to return it. I got it returned in form of a job recommendation from my subordinates. Keep reading.
Syrex Infoservices (India) Pvt. Ltd. – Another chapter of life started with Syrex as Asst. Manager Training was about to start but I was sceptical about joining there as it was a smaller organization and I always worked with bigger brands in my professional career. To get rid of this sceptical thought, I called my all-time favourite boss and discussed my concern about joining a smaller organization. My boss asked me a simple question if every individual would like to work for bigger brands then who would work for smaller ones and how the smaller organization will become big? This question was enough to boost my confidence to decide upon my joining Syrex and I joined there. Like any other organization, Syrex has its positives and area for improvement. There was not any formal training team and I alone started. Quickly, the Training & Quality teams were formed. You get a chance to learn and experiment more in a smaller organization and I was learning quality tools and techniques here. Also, I implemented many strategies to bring a growing trend in business from the Training and Quality end. Sooner, I started with a Leadership Development Program for the entire leadership of the organization and this program became Super Hit. Everyone appreciated it including the Directors of the organization. By looking at my overall performance and answerability to responsibilities, I was given additional responsibilities and I started handling all the clients for all the communications. You can say I became SPOC (Single Point of Contact) for all the communication coming from and going to the Clients. Just a couple of months from then, I was given the complete backend department to handle and within the next 15 days from this, I was positioned as HR Head. Now, I had Training, Quality, Client Communication, Backend and HR. One person, handling 5 different departments and teams. I worked for Syrex for almost 3 years and now my life was taking me to a different route in my career. So far, I had understood that I should go for creating something big and that was only possible in entrepreneurship. A new beginning was on my way.
The last lesson from this blog, I want to give you is smaller organization gives you real exposure. You can do a lot of experiments with smaller organizations for learning while a bigger organization is already bound by SOP (Standard Operating Procedure). It’s very difficult to experiment there.
Conclusion: I am sure that you must enjoy reading this blog and must have learned about 9 real-life learnings for success. These learnings made a difference in my life and I am sure this would make a difference in your life too if you take them as a learning and make it part of your life. Learning is none if it is not implemented.
Thank You for reading. You will see my new blog based on learning from my Entrepreneurship journey soon.
Cheers!!!
MK Mauryavanshi