My Musings Jan 3, 2008
AS stated earlier, this was not about writing everyday but rather noting the important events as they unfurl in my life. I decided to keep this in the office and note down the incidents as they happen. I thought of maintaining a separate one for office but then I knew that won’t be confidential which I hope this will be.
How did my new job go since 22 Oct till the year end?
Let me list down the challenges and achievements so far – I can use it at the time of my PMM. Yay!
I think the induction and training went fine. But I got into action at work from Day 1. The Shared Analytics bit got some focus once I was inducted into the system. I was introduced to a host of new faces but my first contact was with Justin and Smita. And I was partied the first week that I was at work … ha.. ha.. ha. But there has been a lot of work as well. Everything was in a disarray when I joined …
Major Challenges
- Meeting the team and understanding each and every members career aspirations esp. since each of them belong to a different background.
- Adapting myself into a place which has a completely different culture. I am more used to the American way of things, here its European, Swiss actually – everything is quite conservative. However, one good thing is that they don’t expect you to work on Sat and Sun. There is also a more casual attitude – chalta hai, ho jayega … kinds.
- The other interesting thing is – after I joined I realised that there were 3 separate teams – 2 much smaller ones which needed to be managed. And there is a third team underway and this is connected to Vendor Analysis, contracting and sourcing. Quite different from anything that I have ever done but new challenges are exciting.
- Probably the biggest challenge would remain to understand the financial industry and understand the terms associated.
- Biggest disappointment so far was the announcement that there would be an intermediate between boss and us who is the Sr. mgr. We didn’t hear any good things about her (Justin’s feedback based on his association with her – they are ex-colleagues. Worse is the fact that all that seems to hold true even now. This infact will be the biggest challenge – to handle this lady rather than do any work given that I have never reported to any lady so far.
Initially she started by not doing anything but of late she has started grabbing everything and doing it herself. She usually works like 14-15 hours daily creating quite a few issues but such is expected in the corporate set up. Maybe I will be jobless after a while 
. But as someone says – she is the senior, let her do the hard work if she so desires.
Now a few issues :
- In the absence of a clearly defined job desciprtion, there is role ambiguity leading to confusion.
- Competition within the team – not keeping everyone in loop. This happened in number of cases with the weekly tracker file and had to request her to also keep me in the loop. Now, she has started maintaining it.
- Grabbing client attention – she does all the talking on client calls.
- In one case, she did resource allocation of a team member without consulting me which I later realised must have been prompted by the boss!
- Sending self developed formats directly to the client without even discussing with me.
- Trying to interact directly with team members without involving me in cases where I am around and infact the situation isn’t that urgent.
- A shared presentation was created without involving me. I was just called to give numbers which points towards lack of collaboration.
Given the current circumstances, I should be hopping around like mad and already having a dialogue but through various discussions with Justin and Bharat, I have realized that we need to give her time and by month engage in a talk first with her and then the boss! 
I am certainly not used upto my potential. But these are early days and thinking about extremes is not the solution. I need to spend atleast one year here.
Goals for the year / Reasons to stay on
- Get the brand name on the resume which I already have but some credible experience will help matters.
- Get the experience of handling 50 odd members as well as some new AMs / TLs.
- Some exposure to BFSI will enhance my chances of hopping into another bank.
Biggest goof up – 
I got into the Contract X meeting which I had no clue about and didn’t know that I need to be knowledgeable about everyone on the call. Boss was angry though I honestly told him that I didn’t know. Needless to say, I learnt everything the next day!!!
Achievements so far …
Hmmm should be the Shared hiring – the status of it changed after I was given the deadline and I met that.
There was also another case where Smita mentioned about a client being particularly impressed with the way we handled a call. I was personally pleased with the way I handled Manoj during the initial calls in the absence of any senior person.
However, since the lady is here and she has cornered all the accolades and so far doing a decent job, I must say.
During her short absence for a week, I also did well. I sold 3 roles and was generally busy handling clients. However, I am sure those might not have been communicated to the boss.
I also dealt with the people issue concerning Phani. I personally feel that it was blown out of proportion but it has delayed his growth prospect to the extent of delaying his confirmation. However, the lesson for me is not to trust any transition person. They all want to earn a few brownie points and my impression on Gaurav is totally changed now.
Per my perspective – I don’t yet know the expectations set for me. Maybe I will be told after 6 months once my confirmation review is ready. They need to inform me then…
I am still quite pissed off with the fact that the lady does not trust me and wants to butt in everywhere. Yesterday, she was discussing on how we need to measure utilization. Gosh … that’s all I did in MT for 3 years.
Also she is getting her people into the team now. I guess this team will really grow now but will that mean my growth – only time will tell. Maybe I will talk to the boss pretty soon about that – where do I go? I am quire angst with the way things are progressing and don’t feel the freedom to perform. Coming from MT – there’s a whole lot of change.
I have decided to upload my chronicle on the blog instead of maintaining a dairy for that purpose. I chose this space as this is the one closest to my heart. Explore my space and keep coming back for more.
Jan 1, 2008
Before I start setting my New Year resolutions, let us review my resolutions for last year.
- Lose weight – lost about 7-8 kgs.
- Learn driving – I started only in Nov but I think I am pretty much there. However, perfection will come only with practice. Will give myself another two months to attain that . So we will revisit in March.
- When I started 2006, I thought I should get a promotion, maybe the Sr. ROM that was not possible at MT. Thankfully, towards the end of the year, I got a much much better opportunity to work with this company. And this couldn’t have come at a better time. I would consider myself lucky that I didn’t even have to shift cities. Now, I wish it had come a year earlier.
So, for 2008, what would I resolve to achieve?
- I guess I should be Sr. Mgr. by the end of this year. Hopefully, a trip to Zurich, but this can’t be a resolution since not much is under my control.
- Compile my weight loss program and reach 60 kgs this year and stay there.
- Skin care treatment should start this year to cure the scar on my chin … it’s high time.
- Switch to healthy diet, One day of the week should be a fruit diet and 2 days should be salads and that apart include a lot of vegetables.
- And this year, I need to let go- its about time. The next 4 months would give me that time and maybe opportunity. I know it will be difficult but I have to try.
However, the first day went pretty well. I grabbed the chance of watching a movie with both hands. It was my first picture in ages and with good company too – the movie was “Welcome”.
Now, how do I wish to use this space – It’s not a daily chronicle – I will use it to vent my thoughts and musings. I realise that some noteworthy and fruitful thoughts and ideas are lost – coz I have a bad memory. So, this space will be an avenue to etch those thoughts, opinions, feelings, rumblings, ravings etc etc. Well now, I need to go to bed because tomorrow is another day and I will get back to work after 4-5 days. That’s a long time. And … I did nothing useful. I didn’t even finish reading up the Contract X manual and OBI doc.