Dos & Don'ts while job change (Part 2)

If you have happened to come here directly, please read the previous post here before continuing further.
Whenever we think of any job change, it is more often than not for a better career as well as for a better life rather than getting out of a messy work environment i.e. your present job. So, you should always look for the positives what your next job is offering, but at the same time, you should also take sufficient precaution to safeguard yourself from landing into another worse environment.You should leave no stone unturned to scratch every truth beneath the carpet whatever you can.So, here are those that one shouldn't do while going for a job change.Needless to mention, the below points are in no particular order.
Do NOTs #1: Do not mix business with relation. You might have heard it before, but here the context is little different.If you are planning to join an organization through reference of your friends, ex-colleagues or any other acquaintance, listen to them but finally take your own decision with enough self conviction.Just because he/she is saying everything is good at the new place, it need not necessarily be true.Do not forget that your acquaintance also has responsibilities toward his/her own org, so practically there is no point to believe that he/she is baring all the facts in front of you & also to remember, if something does not work out as planned in the new place, it is mostly you who has to take care of yourself.Listen to everyone, but believe your instincts and take your own decision.
Do NOTs #2: Do not be a hanging fruit,have your own roots.During your job interviews, try to get clarification about your job responsibility as much as possible. You should have your own identity and you should not be identified as which big tree you are working under. You might get some advantage being in the shadow of some big boss, but you also run into danger of loosing your job when the tree top itself is chopped off.Also do not buy statements in response to any of your concerns like "oh..don't worry, you will be working with/under me and everything will be fine". What is the guarantee that the person who is promising you today will be tomorrow in that organization? Try to get the answers you are looking for, then question yourself and if you find yourself convinced, go ahead.
Do NOTs #3: Do not compromise with yourself.After seeing the big pay cheque being offered, we think we would be able to adjust, compromise.But unless you are into the situation, you do not know the limit you can stretch.Think yourself & compare the excitement you had after seeing the first pay slip of your present job and the excitement that you get now after receiving your month's salary. It is the day to day proceedings that keeps you going and if that starts to piss you off, I doubt even your dream salary could hold you back in that org.There is a core among all of us and there is a wrapper, where we try to do all the adjustment keeping the core intact.Do not compromise with that core of yours, exceptions apart, most people are not comfortable compromising that in lieu of anything!!
Do NOTs #4: Do not let your decision be wrongly influenced by others. The young people face a dilemma when what they want is different than what their parent wants.Do not take a decision telling your parents that they don't know a thing and also do not take a decision only to make your parents happy sacrificing your interest.It is very true that if you are not happy, you can't make others happy. There are better ways to show respect to your parents, to make them happy. But if you feel they are wrong, don't accept it, have a decent discussion, let both the parties put forth their perspective, and then reach a conclusion.
Do NOTs #5: Do not blind yourself just after seeing the offer letter, but unfortunately this is what most of us do.If career to you is to only make money,then you should not read any further :P.Otherwise,make a career, reach the desired destination, everything else will automatically fall into place.Do not look for a job change to bail you out from an unplanned bank loan. do not look for a job change to have an extended foreign trip at the expense of others.It is very important for all of us to realize that the Indian industries(specially the software industries) are changing and gone are the days where you are as big as the no. of reportee you have in your excel sheet in spite of you might not have any substantial knowledge.You have to really put lot of effort just to plan your career, focus on your learning, make yourself indispensable and to quote someone I have indirectly worked with "Be buyable, don't be sellable".
Again, thanks to all those great people I am privileged to have work with and when people are appreciating the posts on this subject, the credit actually goes to them.I am just conveying what they have taught me & I am absolutely not political here, sincerely.

Dos & Don'ts while job change

One of the most disturbing element of your otherwise peaceful work life is the news that some colleague of yours is leaving the present organization with a hike of X%.Suddenly a whole list of dissatisfaction from nowhere starts floating in front of your eyes and you loose your mental peace. The more is that percentage hike figure, the more you loose your good night sleep. Changing a job becomes your prestige issue. There is nothing wrong in changing a job, but if there is not enough reason to leave your present job & if you have not thought well about your future job, you will be in further mess & if you continue this for 2-3 times, you will soon find yourself in no man's land where every road in front of you seems to be blocked. So this is what I feel every one specially the young ones MUST do & MUST NOT do before changing your present job.

Dos #1: Ask yourself what would be the exit criteria for your next job that you are considering taking upon.I was simply stunned when I was asked the same!! We become so obsessed with the excitement of leaving our present job and going to a new place, we hardly try to see a little further. If the exit criteria for my present job is as same as that of my next job, it is of equal probability that it would be the same for my next to next job,too.And if we keep on this job hopping, the reason could be either we are escapist, or we don't know what we want or we just want to have short cut always.But irrespective of the reason, there is only one outcome and you will simply find yourself lost.

Dos #2: List down what all is causing pain in your present job, what you did to rectify them and what you are looking from your next job.Believe me, there is a difference between thoughts roaming around our minds and penning them down.Only when you write them, you will find many of the obvious issues you thought is actually no longer an issue, it was just one of your random thoughts. When you are completely sure that there was nothing more you could have tried to solve the existing issues, then only you should look for a new job, otherwise mostly the problem is with you.

Dos #3: Always have a plan for your career and if it is not for your entire career, it should at least be for the next 3/5 years. And you will change your job only if it is aligned with your master plan.Some time people change jobs with the intention of changing again within 1-2 years, nothing wrong if it helps you reaching closer to your target, otherwise just changing the job for whatever reason without any plan will not lead you anywhere.

Dos #4: Remember the golder rule "You will not get everything".So, be prepared for surprises in your next job. Other than your pay cheque, there are lot of other aspects in your present job, which has intangible value but we just don't realize them because they don't reflect in our pay slip. Don't get yourself disheartened if you miss any of them in your next job. You get some, you loose some, that's the way it is.

Dos #5: Think of this.To take a big leap forward, it helps if you first take few steps backward and then jump in stead of jumping from the same place.This is so true in life as well. If you need to sacrifice here and there while changing your job, it is fine as long as it helps you reaching the target as per your plan. Don't try to get everything.Every individual is different, give weightage to what is important to you and if you get them, go for the change.

This post is already long enough, so I would talk about the DONTs in my next post.

P.S. The above Dos are in no particular order. My sincere thanks to all those people from whom I have learned whatever I am talking here otherwise neither I have enough professional experience to be seasoned nor I am formally educated on this subject.

P.P.S. This is my first post after almost 6 months.When you have a jam packed work schedule and a new born baby at home, I guess you hardly have time to even breathe:)

GolMal hain bhai Sab gOLmAL hain

During my onsite trips in early stages of my career, I used to write long emails back home to my college friends giving them "update".Those emails were not my usual tour diary, covering common stuffs,but I used to focus on any weird, foolishly funny and mostly unique incident that occurred on that trip surrounding me. So, when few days back, one of my college friend told me that I am blogging good and that he first noticed the "writer" inside me after going through those long emails, I thought why not revisit those emails from Hall of Fame (read from the old mail archive of yahoo group mail ) and share with a larger audience here.So, without wasting further time on introduction, here are those real funny stories, bole to ekdum 'dil se'

Words of caution: This post contains mild non-veg, I could not edit them as they are being integral part of the story itself. Viewer discretion is advised :-)

Story #1:

While going to US, I had a stop over in Frankfurt for around 2 hours and it being my first trip, I got lost while searching my connecting flight.I was late and did not have time to freshen up in the morning,thought will do it once I board my connecting flight. As soon as I boarded the flight to Chicago, I headed for the restroom with my toothbrush and toothpaste. But after I started brushing my teeth, I found something unusual, weird, indescribable taste, not the usual foam, too. I came back to my seat with a disgusting feeling inside my mouth that I never tasted before. But when I was about to keep the brush and paste into my shaving kit, I realized the toothpaste was already there!! What did I use then? I looked at my hand and I was holding, along with the tooth brush, a tube of HIMALAYA AYURVEDIC CONCEPT......ANTICEPTIC CREAM!!!

Story #2:

Once me and my friend were travelling & I was driving the car. As I needed to change my lane, I started blinking th indicator, but there were cars coming at a faster speed on the adjacent lane, so I had to wait. I let the first car pass by, then the second and then the third. By this time, I was impatient and I thought it's now or never. I sharply changed my lane in front of the incoming car from behind and almost instantly, all those colorful lights started flashing on my back. I was very confident that i was within the legitimate speed limit. Not knowing what my fault was but following the rules, I stopped at the sideways and the flashing light followed me, I was sure it was "him" and it was me he was after.

I came out of the car barefooted, with my shorts on and started walking towards the cop .By the way, I did not know that in such situations, I am supposed to sit in my car and wait for the cops to come. Any approach made by me could be seen as revolt and the cops are allowed to shoot me. Anyway, knowledge posessed at the right time matters and not afterwards. I heard the guy shouting at me but did not realize his words. I gradually reached towards him and after a long discussion with him, I finally realized what I did. The cop was chasing those three cars which I let pass by in the beginning as they were over speeding and I actually blocked him from following them. Poor me, but I was still fortunate that I was not fined and more importantly, I was not shot.

Story #3:

After exploring all the nice scenic beauty around the Miami beach, we felt it was time to take a step forward. Yes, you are right, we wanted to explore the nude beach!!! We did not know the direction, nor did we get any help from Yahoo Maps. Only information, we had was one of our senior visited there few days back with my same old friend (I mentioned before) and now that friend is to lead the way for us from the front. But unfortunately , he only remembers some turn at some places not the exit number not the name of the place. He told us "You take me there then I can recognize but I can't tell how to go there"!!Can you imagine a better navigator??

So, we set out for this audacious adventure and after roaming around for an hour or so around Miami, finally we reached the parking lot of a beach. My friend told us the name of the beach sounds familiar to him, but as opposed to what he promised before, he can't recognize the place!! Anyway, we entered the parking place hoping to get some information from the security guard there and to make things worse for us, there was a lady at the ticket counter. How could we ask a lady whether that is the nude beach!!! Everyone was hesitant but at the same time not ready to back off after coming so far. So, I (Why me? I don't know. Either I was the foolest of the lot so they could have convinced me or somewhere I had read before leaders step up in situations when no one else does !!) finally gathered some courage and approached the lady

"Mamm..(mumbling already) is it the XYZ (I don't remember the exact name now) beach?" Even though we had read the name at the entrance but we had no other idea of starting the discussion..
Lady: "Yes, it is the nude beach you are looking for. $20 per hour"!!! We were still as if struck by a lightning, we did not expect to be exposed and that too in front of a lady that we were looking for a nude beach. We might be just interested to visit the beach in general and not interested in that "special" fenced area!! GOD knows what made her think like that, but I hope it was not evident on our facial expression.Still feel shame about that incident :(

Story #4:

This is the second part of the story related to the same beach, happened after a year during another trip, it was time to guide our juniors. This time, we did not have any difficulty reaching there, enjoyed a lot and came back to our apartment. Everyone got involved chit-chatting of what they have seen, they have done there etc. Suddenly I saw one of our junior very depressed, not taking part in the discussion and sitting aloof.

"Kyu re kya huan?..tu itna udas kyu hain" (what happened? why looking depressed? ) I asked...
"Nehi actually not feeling good, mujhe wahape(he was referring to the beach) nehi jana chahiye tha" (I shd not have gone to that beach)..he replied.
"are thik hain" I said, "parents ko thodi pata chalega, aur tera abhi GF bhi nehi hain...so why r u worrying"? (anyway parents will not know this and you do not have a GF yet to answer, so chill)
He replied instantly "yeh thik nehi huan, kuch cheese ey shadi ke bad hi dekhna chaiye"!!!(This was not right, certain things should only be seen after marriage!!) I have never heard a better one liner than this in my entire life.

Customer is GOD

If there is one mantra driving business all over the world, then it had to be "Customer is GOD". Since the day we turn into a professional till we retire, so many times in so many situations we are bombarded with this single line phrase, that the real GOD sitting above takes a back seat.And because GOD is the super power, he can't ever go wrong, he even can't afford to and so are His so many avatars on the mother earth.'They' are always correct.

Whether we like it or not, this business model will continue until and unless someone comes up with a better idea/better slogan to run the businesses with a bigger profit margin.And this model works OK as long as we are inside the four walls of our neat and clean AC offices, some time we curse the customer, some time we make fun of them to flush out our frustration but we accept that he is the GOD and we move on.But the ugly teeth of the problem comes out even bitterly when we are out of the office, the role is reversed and now we are 'the Customer'.We start behaving as if the rest of the world is at our service, be it the restaurant we go to, the airlines we fly in and even the mere grocery shop we go to.

Basic dignity and respect towards a fellow human being is vaporized. We are all out with our 'the Customer' tag, a slight mistake on the other side make us furious (only we forget the lesson "To err is human") and we don't mind asking for his head, after all how could he make the customer unhappy.We easily forget we were nothing more of a kitten a few hours back inside that four walls, not even daring to speak. In a country where the demi Gods (read the cricketers) are often treated better than the real GOD & where money talks more than anything else, this is of no surprise at all.Incidents of human being harassing another human being in the name of not adhering to 'Customer Satisfaction' is so common that we have lost the sensitivity to even notice it.

Once I was traveling from Mumbai to Kolkata on a flight and because of traffic or whatever reason, the airplane was waiting for long on the side ways before taking off.I was feeling very hot and asked the air hostess whether the temperature inside the flight is Ok.In the same situation another discussion goes between the person sitting beside me and the air hostess as follows:
P(Passenger): Is not the AC running?

H(Air hostess): Yes sir, it is running perfectly.

P: Then am i lying? Are not you able to see the I am sweating? (How on earth an air hostess would know whether a person is sweating?Is that part of her job responsibility)

H: Sir, I am sorry, but as soon as it would be air born, the temperature would be just fine.

P: Why is it taking so long to take off? Why don't you ask the pilots?

H: Sir, I don't have any idea and because this is take off time, we are not allowed to go inside the cockpit.

P: So, then what do we do now? Wait here for eternity and sweat like pig? (This was not some dehati flying for the first time, but a suited booted executive)

H: Sir i am really sorry, we will try our best to adjust the temperature.Sorry for the inconveniences.
And as soon as the air hostess is gone, that guy starts talking to me to gain support in favor of him and as always I feel disgusted talking to such people, so just after nodding my head once I looked other way.

We copy so many things from the west and we don't forget to refer to the west when cribbing about our country but more often than not, we forget to imbibe the good qualities from them and one of them is "No job is detestable".There are better jobs and there are not so good one, there are highly paid ones and there are of low wages, too but nothing of them gives any one the right to disrespect the other fellow human being.Why are we so much self possessed about our social status that we don't waste a single opportunity to show it off?Why don't we be a little considerate in our demand (I agree that we should get the service if we are paying)?And above all, why do we forget what mental trauma we go through when humiliated by our supervisor/customer? When we are serving the customer, we wish if the customer was understanding, flexible and shows respect to us and unfortunately we forget everything when we are sitting at the other side of the table.I don't think I have ever seen a worse example of double standards...

Our Eid, Their Durga Puja

The religious demarcation does not leave as much an unfathomable impression on the aged mind as it does on a young soul. Being grown up, you make a choice and take a decision, but for the younger ones, who are yet to conceive the true essence of religion, it is baffling as well as sometimes heart breaking not being able to realize why Durga Puja is “their” festival where as Eid is “our”s.

All my close friends till date are from non-Muslim background & I never seemed to have questioned why. Neither had I any prejudice of considering their religion before making friends, nor my traditional parents ever forced me to be friend with “Muslims” only .They were my closest circle and they still are and I never found difference in religious beliefs making any interventions ever into that sacred territory.

But it was that time of the year, when the two biggest festival of both these religion, the Durga Puja & the Eid, were celebrated I used to find myself secluded from this known circle of mine. Neither did they do it intentionally, nor did I keep myself away. I was never fascinated about wearing new clothes during festival, but when they used to boast of their increasing count of Pujo’r Jama (Puja shopping), I wished the same for me, too. When I saw all their houses coming to live with pre-puja preparation, it was the usual day-in-day-out in our house. The gentle touch of the sweet breeze without the suffocating humidity from the previous rainy season, the blue sky above except a cluster of clouds scattered throughout, the huge puja mandaps being built and the roads being lit up to embrace the Mother Goddess, everything in the whole environment seemed to have gone for a facelift except my nearest vicinity being the usual same, everywhere I used to sense that pujo pujo gandho (I could not translate it into English, but here are the ingredients to make that "pujo pujo smell" in the comments section of this post ) , except no activity, no hustling bustling in and around our house.

Of all the four days, I missed the Ashtami the most. All the people used to gather at the pujo pandels to offer the Anjali to Debi Durga. While for the elders, it was devotion time, it was that unique golden opportunity of the year for the Gen Next. The boy would anxiously wait for her since morning and plan the timing for Anjali together (the girl will obviously come with her family, so the enactment had to be perfect with precious timing as if they just bumped into each other to sweep away any suspicion). Therefore, on the D-day, while all my friends would be rigorously working on their self made assignment, I would be trying my heart out to concentrate on my studies, just to distract myself from being left alone, just to brush off the despondency of not being able to offer my Anjali with her, not being able to contemplate that rare glimpse of her in those gorgeous sarees (Well…for those looking at me with a suspicious look, you know most of these were one-sided that time & today I don’t have slender idea of where she is & I am happily married, happy ha?).

Nabami night is the one, I would be earnestly looking forward, when all of us would go for our puja darshan. This was the only breather for me in those suffocating four days, when, I would be among them again and enjoy the festival, which is as much of mine as of theirs. We would roam around the town for Debi darshan with most of us eagerly looking for the "other" debi, the love of our life, how fabulous they look in their puja dresses, we would also keep an vigil so that we don’t get caught off guard by any of our teachers, and we would finally end our excursion by having an sumptuous meal in a restaurant (in those days we did not have cultures of eating at places every now and then and so we would look for this day to have a full meal outside, of our choice and most importantly sponsored by parents :D)

And when it was Eid for us, my day would start with praying Eid er Namaz at the nearby mosque in the morning, taking blessings from the elders and giving blessing to my younger sister too, a 100 rupee note,and then having delicious meals in friend's & neighbor's places. Somtime it also included various sports competition arranged by a local club. But amidst all these, I would still feel solitary, my celebration being incomplete and would be impatiently looking for the afternoon, when all my friends would visit our house. Then only, my Eid celebration would be in full swing. Without them, it would be just another day gone by.

Today, staying away from Kolkata I don't miss Durga Puja as much as I did then and I also don't miss Eid without my friends, for my very own circle has grown up with my wife, brother-in-law, nieces and likes. I have also realized friendship is not about meeting them day in day out, more importantly be there when they need. But the silent solitariness of those 4 days still scrape my inside, and the ineffable pain of missing those precious moments makes my heart tattered at times. My sacrosanct childhood questions my profane adulthood "Was I incomplete? And why was me different from my coevals"? Is it because the month long Puja'r chuti, the family vacation, the Rabindra Sangeet being played out at almost every Puja pandels, everything created an exuberance that wrapped the whole ambiance which Eid never did for me.Or is it because somewhere the thin underlying religious difference played its part, if I was to offer Anjali with them and if they were to pray Eid er namaz with me, religion would have reached the pinnacle of divinity. If i had Muslim friends, would the celebration be different? Whatever it may be, the aged me never had an answer to the question of that effervescent child and I will never have the answer...

My MOTO: Memories Forever

Disclaimer:
This is my personal opinion about one of the organization I had worked before and I have intentionally ommitted the name of the organization to avoid any
unnecessary controversy. I have used "MOTO" below whenever I need to refer to the organization.
I repeat this is my "personal opinion" & everyone is entitled to have their own and agree/disagree with me.********************************************************************************
Hardly a couple of months back, with MOTO announcing the closure of one of its business division in Hyderabad, the journey finally came to an end. The journey, that started a decade ago in a tiny little corner of a rented house with very few employees, made MOTO-Hyderabad standing on its own feet on the Indian IT map. Over the years, it had created an identity of its own, shredded the image of being a younger sibling of MOTO-Bangalore, crafted an platform for so many success stories worldwide. The journey reached its pinnacle with the release of "MyRazr" (dummy name of a world famous mobile phone), when it almost become the #1 player in the mobile world.

But unfortunately of late, a combination of various reasons resulted in declining market share & the graph started descending. People had started to leave for better opportunity. There were those who tried to hang on till the very end, but some of them had to be practical, leave their emotional attachment aside and move on. But everyone, including the one who already left and the one still hopeful, prayed that MOTO should bounce back. The most surprising fact was that more than the one still being with MOTO, it was those who already left, wanted MOTO to return to its glory. They already had seen the world outside, the work culture, the relationship among people and so many other factors that they were quick to realize what made MOTO stand out from the rest of its contemporaries. Every now and then I used to receive those phone calls from my ex-colleagues eagerly waiting to know any sign of a good news. They were on their toes. just to be back to the old family. I could see the dreams of reuniting again in their eyes.

With the decision of MOTO shutting down one of its business division in Hyderabad center, these dreams are all shattered. Everyone has accepted the reality that the distant hope they had of going back to MOTO again, is no longer feasible. The far reaching effect of this lost hope is more than the immediate effect of some people losing their job. You loose a job today, you will hopefully find another one tomorrow, but it is painful to accept that you will hardly get those relationships where one is in hurry to catch the train to go home and his manager is doing his work sitting at his desk to meet the deadline or the one where you can ask for your manager's opinion about the organization that you are going for an interview next week or even the one, where an appraisal meeting went for 5 hours till the wee hours in the morning because the person being appraised had lot of issues to discuss other than his own assessment and the manager believed it was his responsibility to listen to all those issues first, whether or not they are relevant, can be discussed upon. MOTO is not the only organization in the world, where you find such instances, but such examples are very few and MOTO is one of the best among them.

There are not too many places in the world which teaches you that human beings are more important than the mere deliverables, that taking care of personal responsibilities is as equally important as taking care of professional assignments, that relationships are built over time with respect and trust irrespective of an individual's position in the organization. It is always believed that a base should be strong enough to build a monument and I am fortunate MOTO has given me that base both professionally and personally. And the same feeling is echoed by others, too some of them even are introspecting whether they took the right decision by leaving MOTO. I guess it was then rightly said that when something is not with you, then only you realize its actual worth.

Like every other good thing, this was to come to an end and may be so did it happen. But the name "MOTO" is etched into our hearts, those memories are still vivid in our minds and that very dream of reuniting again may be still alive in some eyes. Some dreams are too good to be realized, but still we should dream, who knows one day it might just materialize.


Note:I would specially request to all my MOTO ex-colleagues to share your experiences with MOTO. And stick to "MOTO" please, don't take the name while commenting :-)