Aditya Birla group provides employment opportunities for nearly 120000 people in the 14 sectors across the globe. From Hindalco encompassing a variety of areas like sustainable mining practices, energy conservation, recycling and socio-economic development and UltraTech Cement involved in providing healthcare, education, sanitation and income generation opportunities for communities around its factories across India to Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail fulfilling the fashion requirements for every section of the society, Aditya Birla touches life of millions. One of the stories are mine…
My happiness rose to ecstatic, holding the first job offer of my career as I returned to my hostel finishing the placement processes of my undergrad. I felt relaxed, took a deep breath and took off my shirt. I held the shirt high in front of me flashing a winning smile and remembering the day when it all started. Vacations were about to end, I was tensed, stressed, nervous and had a combination of all those feeling said before. My mother walked to my room, she had the same calm and caring look. She said there is a gift for me and handed a bag, (well...!! l that cheered me up a bit). I took out a white formal Peter England shirt from the bag and smiled (stress, a bit down now). My mother said “All the best for your Placements” and went out. I opened the package, held the shirt high in front, as I did today, took a deep breath and said “Let’s start this journey together”, and the journey still continues …!!
Keeping a right balance is always challenging. Well… I was up for it. I was working in a corporate office while preparing for competitive exams to get into a top B school of the country for my MBA. No doubt it was tedious; client meeting, targets revision and unexpected issues were on one hand and drowning myself in solving quant, reading comprehensions and understanding reasoning on the other. I needed to be a corporate employee and a student at the same time and both were equally important and exclusive. I was always honest with myself. It was essential to understand that with so much on my plate, I do not have all the time to do everything. Therefore, I decided on my priorities and accepted that some things will have to change. I started to set a flexible routine (unexpected critical issues were still out of syllabus) divided my time, set milestones and short goals in my work and preparation for the examination and monitored my progress. To be honest sometimes the pressure was really on, customers unsatisfied and low marks in mock test at the same time, but those were the time that my perseverance got me through. Those were the times I learned that procrastination should be avoided as it would lead to piling of more and more work and study, adding more stress at the top of daily work load. And If I was ever confused, dispirited and struggled I reached out to my friends, colleagues and manager to speak and seek suggestions. I did not succeed early but the confidence and optimism got me going.
And as it says your work pays off…!! (took me 3 years though), I got admission into Indian Institute of Foreign Trade starting the new chapter and ready for the new challenges in my life.