Like a butterfly I had always known,
That I loved it when the wind had blown,
Across my face and ruffling my hair,
Making me soar, higher up in the air.
I had grown up living life on my own terms,
Like a tree; benevolent, upright and firm.
Friends told me I had to curb my way(s),
And mellow my heart which sang aloud like a jay.
They said the corporate world was big and bad,
And people wouldn't think twice before making me sad;
It is a maze, it is a race,
They shouted all day long in my face.
I wished and prayed that life was always fun;
And then, I was chosen by the Number One.
"I am sorry bro; you did not make it to the final round of interviews." These words kept ringing in my ears on the night of January 22nd, 2010 at around 10:00 p.m. when the results of the first round of interviews for Deloitte were declared by the placement representative of my college (IBS Hyderabad). After two years of MBA, three months of grueling placement preparation, two days of multiple online tests and after eight hours of waiting for my interview I had been rejected yet again. This time by the company about which I had heard a lot from my seniors and friends of how they encourage talent, I had read blogs about their culture and integrity and I had started harboring hopes and day dreaming of being a part of it after clearing the initial rounds of online assessments.
I went blank for a while, then called up mom and told her that the dream seemed to be over. She comforted me and I trudged back towards my room in the Boys Hostel with a heavy heart and leaden footsteps. My friends who met me on the way were saying words of encouragement but I couldn’t hear them. I seemed to be far, far away from everyone. I reached my room and I prayed to God and was contemplating what to do next when my cell phone rang. On the other end was the placement coordinator asking me to get dressed and reach the placement cell as soon as possible. In the same breath, he informed me that there had been a mistake and my name actually figured on the list of people who had made it to the next round of interviews and hurriedly disconnected the call. I didn’t know how to react. Disbelief, happiness, anxiety, nervousness, suspicion that it might be a prank and hope were just some of the emotions which flooded my mind at that instance of time. I rushed back, was interviewed and was hired at 04:00 a.m. in the morning. I usually stay awake into the wee hours of the morning but I can vouch that in my entire life I have never been as happy as I was on that day at that unearthly hour. I returned to my room this time craving to meet my friends on the way back but alas everyone was fast asleep. Thus, began my foray into the corporate world and my journey with the ‘Biggest of the Big Four, Deloitte’.
Days, weeks and months flew by and the D-Day, 28th of June, 2010 arrived. To say that I was longingly looking forward for this day to dawn would be an understatement. The desire to join office, meet my buddy and actually get to experience the feeling of being part of Deloitte was literally killing me. E-mails and telephone calls from the HR department and the on-boarding team asking for details and pre-hire formalities to be completed only added to the frenzy of it all and by the time the bus gathered us, the new hires, from the guest house where excellent provisions for our stay had been made and ferried us to the Novotel Hotel I was so excited and light-headed that I was afraid that I would soon fall sick.
As soon as we alighted from the bus, we were ushered into the hotel lobby and courteously directed towards a section where we were handed brand new laptops and other computer peripherals. Gosh!!! Was I dreaming? No, I wasn’t. This was surreal but true. I wanted to start operating the laptop then and there just like a kid who becomes frisky when he/she has just been gifted a new toy but an announcement informed us that we need to assemble in the auditorium. I thought it would be a long, boring day which would require us to fill numerous forms and sit painstakingly through various presentations. None of my apprehensions came true. In fact, not only on that day but also during the course of the next four days of ‘Welcome to Deloitte’ (the induction program) we did nothing that can be classified as boring. We had interactive sessions with, believe it or not, the leaders in Deloitte and the Who’s Who of the world of taxation. We were addressed by Mr. Hari Kumar, Mr. Kevin Potter, Mr. Nathan, Mr. Eiran Wolfman and various other eminent people who not only told us about their professional journey but inspired us to take ownership of our careers at Deloitte and always take the initiative to innovate and take full advantage of the ‘Open Door Policy’ and freedom of choice and expression provided by Deloitte to its employees. Well! These sessions were enthralling and awe-inspiring and punctuated by numerous breaks and sumptuous lunch buffets. The four day long induction program ended on a fabulous note with the leaders gelling with the new hires and egging them on to perform to the best of their capabilities in the games – ya, you read it right, ‘GAMES’ – that were planned for us. The high-point of the day was a specially composed song for the new hires, the notes of which were rendered melodiously by Mr. David and his band members and which I am humming while penning down my thoughts in here.
Well! This was just the tip of the iceberg. The first day at office took my breath away even before it started. Deloitte Street is the name of the road on which our offices are situated. How many organizations can claim to have a road named after them in India? None comes to my mind. The four tall, gleaming, multi-storeyed, glass and concrete structures stood gallantly against the blue sky as if they were the sentries who had seen the Deloitte way in India and were testimony of the sanctity and stress that the firm lays on integrity and ethics. On entering the office we discovered the facilities that were nestled inside each of these buildings. It was mind boggling to find Barista, Café Coffee Day, Deli 9, a gymnasium, two ATMs, a huge multi cuisine cafeteria and a concierge department jostling against each other for space and attention. But the cherry on the cake was certainly the awesome people who always wore a smile and helped you at every turn which was something that I had never imagined after having being fed on stories about ruthlessly crazy career driven professionals by my already employed friends. A doubt crept into my mind then. Did people actually work here? All I could see was smiling faces and people having fun. Four months into the job, now I understand how Deloitte promotes the work-life balance.
The fourteen weeks of training that followed were brilliantly planned and executed by the learning team. Kudos to them. We were taught by professors flown down from the U.S. who endeared themselves to us over the course of three weeks so much that we didn’t want them to leave. Their farewell was marked with cake cutting, snaps being taken, gifts being exchanged and promises being made to each other to stay in touch through the medium of omnipresent social networking sites. Managers, seniors, professionals on rotation from different offices belonging to various countries, from diverse cultures and with varied periods and levels of experience taught us the nuances of U.S. taxation. The investment that the firm was making in its human resources was huge and apparent to all and sundry and we, the CSR batch, lapped up the knowledge being dished out to us. But, surely by now you must have guessed that it must not have been only learning during that period. You are correct. We were taken to Lahari Resorts and believe it or not the ‘Rain Dance’ turned out to be the event of the day with Kevin ‘the dude’ Potter being the cynosure of all eyes when he decided to shake a leg with all of us. Whew! This episode is clearly etched in my memory and will always remain special. The other incident which I will always cherish is when one of the leaders simply walked up to my friends and me in the cafeteria one day and asked us if he could join us for lunch. He chatted with us as if we were all long lost friends. This incident taught me that the firm with which I have decided to start my career has people who don’t just talk tall but who also practice what they preach.
That reminds me, the last four months has not only given me a lot of inspiration and self belief but it has also given me the most coveted relationship of humankind, ‘friendship’. I have met loads of people and have made numerous friends in office. Friends who take pains cajoling me out of my mood swings, who cheer and hoot wildly for me when I win an award for being an outstanding achiever during training, who get a cake to my doorstep in the middle of the night braving rains to celebrate my birthday, who make sure that my weekends are more hectic and exhausting than the weekdays and who have taken it upon themselves to link me up with every pretty female so that they can pull my leg. Thank you God and thank you all of you for being there.
I can go on and on about office and life and life in office and office cricket matches and team dinners and kick-off calls but I guess I would spare you the agony of reading all this until my next blog post. So, keep coming back!!!! I would love to end this special one with the following lines....
Now, I live my life and love work;
Office seems to have everything like the Noah's Ark.
-Tj
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