If
you light a lamp for someone it will also brighten your own Path. –Buddhist Proverb
A mentor helps you
to see the beauty in your dreams! This phrase seems to be true in my life! I am
very grateful to that one Mentor who contributed to where I am today! Apart
from parents it’s always good to have a person to guide you and light your path
to success.
It was in the end
of July, 2012, when it was already three months of my job hunt in Bangalore
after my Masters Degree (MBA) that I received a call from the HR of Thomson
Reuters scheduling my interview with the manager of the team that had few slots
for contract employees. I didn’t even care of the short term position and
immediately responded YES for the interview the next day. The HR briefed me to
prepare on some excel functions and on General Knowledge. I had never worked on
excel till then other than few summations & subtractions during computer
classes. I was worried but my elders guided me to take help of “Google Baba”
and learn it. I just had less than 24 hours to prepare myself and at the same
time I wasn’t feeling well so which means I needed some rest as well as strong
preparations. As the interview was scheduled after 6pm, I had the day’s time to
prepare. I decided to take proper rest and leave the rest for the next day. The
next day I got up early and sat down with the laptop. I tried few functions
nonstop skipping my lunch and kept reading stuffs about the company till it was
time for me to catch a bus and rush to the MG Road which usually took more than
45 mins to reach in the Bangalore traffic.
I was taken to the
HR’s room in the ground floor for the first round of introductory session where
the HR wanted to know about my education and why I being a Bhutanese wanted to
work in Bangalore and not return to the home country. I explained her about the
experience I was looking for as the employment for those with few years of
experience in India was more than the fresher’s just out of College. She even
asked why did I opt for such temporary job and I justified saying I need to
learn and see how a corporate works so for me time is not the limit and I shall
try grabbing the maximum. She then said that there was possibility of extension
after the contract ends and there were many employees getting converted into
the full time employment due to their performance as well as the requirement on
the job.
I was then escorted
to the 2nd Floor by the HR where I would be introduced to the Team
Manager for which the recruitment
was going on. As we entered the 2nd Floor office we could see many
candidates seated waiting for their turn. The HR asked me to sit with the rest
and wait for my turn and left the floor wishing us all “All the Best”. My hands
were getting cold and I knew it well that it was not because of the AC of the
office but with the fear from within as there were more than fifteen candidates
waiting. The first round was interview with the Assistant Manager, an advanced
Excel Test, Interview by the Head of the Department followed by an hour of interview
with the Senior Manager, which I call it as the first Stress Interview in my
Life.
In the meantime, I
could see a man dressed in formals calling names one by one and taking them to
a room little away from where I was seated. I didn’t see how many were seated
in that room but could make out that it was a meeting room where the interview
was taken. Everyone took 20-30mins to come out of that room and each one of
them had different expressions with which they came out. I was the second last
person and had to wait for quite a long time.
I was then called
and asked to follow him to the room where a Madam was waiting for us to reach
and she asked me to sit down. They then introduced themselves to me as Ms Sharon and Mr. Kumar Saurav and they were the Managers and the recruitment was
for their team. I was surprised knowing this as the man who was calling out the
names outside was a Manager and if I was hired I would be working with them.
Till that point of time I had always heard & met many managers but none of
them were this young and in their thirties. All I knew and imagined till then
were huge, tall, fat fellow and with gray hair. Since then my perception of
manager changed. After their introduction I felt so good that the coldness of
my hands & feet were gone and I felt inspired and spoke out everything they
asked. Those of few which I wasn’t sure of I told them that I would not attempt
to answer as I am not confident with the answer that I know. They then
explained me all that I wasn’t able to answer and the interview turned out to
be a discussion rather than a hard core interview. After it was over we
realized that the 20-30mins with others had gone up to 45mins with me. I was
happy and satisfied with what just happened inside and walked out with a happy
smileJ. The other
candidates were watching me with a question mark on their face so I told them
it went well. I waited with them for the other rounds and I was escorted to a
PC where I had to sit for an Excel test! I kept my fingers crossed and remembered
all that YouTube had taught me all morning. There were two questions- one on
the lookup and the other on the pivot table. I wasn’t sure if what I was doing
was right but I remembered all that I practiced from the YouTube and completed
it. The next round was with the head of F&R along with one of the managers.
I was asked what made me stay back in India and work instead of getting back to
the country of Happiness. I gave them my motto of life and they were quite
impressed with the way I answered them. They let me go but with no feedback so
that kept me wondering what next!
In the meantime, the
Mr. Saurav asked me to leave and told I would get a call to update my results.
I went home then. The following day I
got a call asking me to come to office for another round of interview which was
a kind of the stress round where I was being drilled off with lots of financial
questions by the Senior Manager, Mr.
Suvadip Kundu and was even asked to give reasons/ examples to support my
answers. This was the longest interview I ever had in my life. Once I was out
of this I felt like I was on the top of the world and I had actually enjoyed
the stress round. It had in fact given me lots of practical examples of how I
should lead my life professionally as the bookish knowledge was just for
passing exams and the actual reality was to use those concepts practically. I
still turn back and re- look on that day which made me feel so good being
interviewed. The interviewer also did
not care about who was there in the queue for the next interview but enjoyed
having this interview as we were equally engaged in our conversation.
On 2nd
August 2012, I received a call from Thomson Reuters giving me the good news of
joining to work from 6th August. That was a special day coinciding
with my dad’s birthday along with Raksha Bandhan and followed by a tragedy
which was about losing all the gifts from my brothers while travelling. It
included very expensive gifts along with few chocolates but I did not mind
losing them as the biggest happiness then was a call for being selected.
This is where the
Real Mentor comes in picture in my life! I joined Thomson Reuters on 6th
August and I was to report to Mr. Saurav
along with Ms. Sharon. They were the managers who took the first
round of my interview (who actually did not look like managers to me at my
first sight). I was in a group of two and five others had joined a week before
so the two new comers were put in a room and given with documents to read for a
week long. That was the time when Mr. Saurav came and spoke to us time and
again and taught us few things about the work. Then later we were allotted with
our system and cubical, given with the trainings and he used to come by and sit
on my table and talk about the work.
I closely watched
him and his actions as he seemed to have friendly attachments with his team
mates and taught us so well because he knew we were just out of college and we
needed 100% guidance. We used to get very scared of him during our long tea
breaks but he was never too scary. We could walk up to him and he would take us
to a meeting room and discuss our problems. He had solutions for every problem.
My cab mate was a friend of him so I used to get to know him better through her
and I always thought that my conversations would have reached him. That was the
time I heard about his would be and I was excited to meet her but never got a
chance to.
Time flew off as
our contract got over but he kept saying we were his armies and we would be
safe. One day I decided to take his help off my duty and stayed back at office
for extra hours to learn advanced excel. He used to assign me tasks and check
on me as and when he was free from his work. I was fascinated with his
dedication to help me out with excel and he was clear when he meant I should be
selected for a full time job. I saw no gain for him while helping me out but I
gained lots. Today I am in this position of my career all because of him. He
guided me off all the ill times I came across and gave me suggestions on how to
tackle my problems. I could sit with him in a meeting room formally but speak
out my heart in tears and he consoled me giving practical examples which always
made him so special in my life. I could get his views on my professional issues
to personal issues and he always kept it with himself.
On his birthday, we
the fresher’s decided to gift him something which would contain all of our
faces but as we did not have time we managed a card with animals and named all
those animals with ours and presented him. He said he never celebrated his
birthday but we managed to have one that day! (4th Jan 2013) I am a
bird with the glasses on that picture!
It was end of
February when our contracts were getting over and we were busy searching for
alternative jobs and I got an offer from a different team within the same
office. I was sad I will have to leave his team but that was a temporary thing.
The best part was I would remain in the same company and I could never let go
of the feeling that I had a mentor to guide me there. We used to catch up for
short conversations whenever possible and time passed. I faced some problems in
the new team without work for almost six months and decided to move teams but
he was there by my side to keep pushing me forward to be positive in life.
One day he planned
a trip to Bhutan and I took that opportunity to introduce him to my parents and
got them stayed with my parents for few days. No wonder they enjoyed hosting
him and his sweet wife whom I had never met before though but my parents were
happy as same was the feedback from him. I missed being with them during their
visit but they promised me to visit Bhutan again in future when I was in
Bhutan. That came into reality in April 2015 after I moved from Bangalore in
September 2014. After their return
from Bhutan, I visited them and stayed overnight. It used to be fun as I now knew
them so closely and we enjoyed it. I used to spend chit chatting late night and
being served with yummy food.
I missed such
outings lately as I was to move to Bhutan but the real mentor never stayed away
from me. He was there by my side 24/7 helping me get over the depression I was
suffering from after lots if ups & downs in life and I was so happy when I
got to host them in April 2015. I felt like the Bangalore was here but not for
too long. I skipped my work and went around with them. We trekked to Takshang
which was his main motto of his visit then. We went for morning driving
classes. Like the excel classes- lookups he taught me the pickups. We thought
of having long chats but could never speak out but expressed it all through my
messages. Even today I never let go of any day without his messages. I
understand he would be busy living a city life but I take that privilege of
being his kiddo and trouble him all the time. I keep him in my prayers always
and wish him lots of love & best wishes in his life! I bet no one on earth have got such a person
in their life as mine!
Hats
off to my Real Mentor!
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