There and Back Again: Savio Story

Some time in July 2008:
After 4 years of B.E  I was waiting for the day engineering would end. Was tired of the boring lectures, faculty droning on and on about something (seriously I don't remember a word what I had learned in 4 years of Engineering). I already had a placement in my hand from a MNC so was chilled about that part too (its another thing that due to recession the MNC called us for joining only 1 year later, of-course I didn't join the MNC cause of obvious reasons). So was pretty tension free was looking to enjoy a long holiday.But fortunately or unfortunately my friends were not so tension free as me they were going around knocking on company's doors for jobs. And yours truly being as sporting as he always is (another thing I was looking for timepass) went with these friends of mine to Zeus Learning Tech and again  fortunately or unfortunately I was the one selected from all my friends (these friends of mine congratulated me but also gave me gali's :) )

30th July 2008 onwards
I went from being a student to a tax payer. Well seriously let me tell you it was not real fun for me becoming a salaried guy. Why you are asking? Well!!

1. In the 1st One and half years it was real slog. Late nights in office, later nights in office, all nighters in office you name it. There were days in which we spend more that 40 hours in office. Not fun dude. Not at all fun.
2. Money in the pocket at the end of the month was good no doubt. But it was my hard earned money. I really had second thoughts before I spend it. (seriously you don't feel the pinch as money running away when you are spending your own toil)

So was it all work and no play, Nope here was plenty of play, Best thing about Zeus was it didn't have a formal structure to it. Suited absolutely well to a guy fresh out of college. You could go to your PM put your hand around his shoulder and tell him something is wrong. Or you could remove your frustrations by beating him  up on his Birthday. No formals, go to office in a t-shirt jeans no one would say anything. Team Mates were great, made a lot of friends. :)

Well if everything was so great, why did I quit? Wait lets put the question in another way. Was I happy with the job? Straight answer NO. I was not seriously enjoying what I was doing. Everybody said I was doing great, got good appraisals,promotion etc (didn't mention before, I was a Senior Software Tester). The job didn't feel suited for me, wasn't seeing any real growth in the company. Seniors (I mean the PM's) were real good but seriously I had a inner feeling inside me that I can and will do a better job than them (Not trying to hurt anyone, but that was the feeling inside me). In 2 years I felt I have learned what ever the company could teach me, both the good and the bad.

Zeus gave me chance in designing of some projects, give juniors to delegate work to, responsibilities. Anybody looking from outside would feel like I was in a perfect setup. But "Dil Mange More", feeling I can and do something better kept growing inside me.

Jumping jobs was a option but then again I would get stuck in the same rut some other place, wanted a good jump. Had time on my side to take risk, So MBA, why MBA? 1 word answer - MONEY

Well a MBA is much more than a money, its a chance to get a good role in a organization, go from being a follower to a leader, what it means to be a leader, how & why leaders take some decision. It seems like a good bus to climb on to. Well so here I am

1st July 2011:
2 years 11 months of travelling the corporate ship called Zeus am jumping to a PGDM ship of Welingkar B-School. Searching for directions, searching for new horizons, good lucks and wishes in my ears off I go. Well follow me right here saviojosev.blogspot.com to see which shores this Ship is going to deposit me on :)

All the best to me

What are my Goals in Life???

Hey, Where do you see yourself 5 years from now? What are you aiming for in life? What are your goals in life?
We have all heard these questions; this and many variations of these are one of the staple questions in any interview, a Date, when you meet some one new.

Somehow in the last couple of weeks I have been asked one of these questions a couple of times, and every time I never really had a convincing answer to give, The answer didn't even sound right to me, I wonder how it felt to the person who heard it.

When we were kids grown ups always asked us, "Beta, What do you want to be when you grew up?" and we would give some silly answers from Actor to Doctor to an Engineer (even when we didn't know what an engineer did), and these grown up just smiled, gave some advice or cracked some joke.

Now if someone asks you this question, what can you say? I am already an engineer, i.e. I got my B.E degree, but to tell the truth I don't feel I have any more knowledge in me that a 12th pass kid.

Seriously I don't know where I want to be after 5 years. In a good position perhaps, earning good to enjoy life, giving orders rather than taking them and most of all I want to be doing something that I enjoy doing. But what is that position? what is that job? how do I reach there? I have no answers to that question.

I feel as if I am a ship, flowing with the water currents, running with the engine on Low power, If the water currents are flowing right, I turn right to go with the current, IF I see something on the portside, I turn my rudder to the left still with the engine on low power, If I really want to go there I might push it to medium power, but never really to full power, IF I see the current is too strong, I give up.

The thing is I really don't know where I want to go, so how do you expect me to push to full power to some destination I really don't know if I want to go there.

Someone please help me, how do I answer this question the next time I am asked, and not come our looking like a fool?

Comments are really welcome, If someone is reading this please comment and give me some advice (hey I am asking for a advice, here’s your chance, take it). Please post a comment