In Conversation With Aneela Sinha (Vice President, Operations), Aviva Life Insurance India Ltd

Q: Any passion of yours that helps you become better at your mainline career?

A: My determination has led me to the position I am at and helped me streamline my work in the office. I am passionate about my work, and completing all the tasks in hand unblemished. I understand the importance of customer satisfaction and customer relationships and heading the Operations of the company, I know how challenging the work is. But I establish some self-made protocols for myself with the help of which I am able to complete my work and help my team do it too well within deadlines and with net to perfect excellence for which my team is appreciated time and again. I have followed this passion of working impeccably over the years and it creates multiple avenues for me in my work to become better each and every day.

Q: When you are looking for people in your team, apart from specific skills, what kind of attitudes and approaches do you look for in candidates?

A: While inducting people in my team I focus on a proper blend of academic and interpersonal skills which helps me with the selection process. Apart from the subject knowledge (which I don’t consider a big factor in selection since these can be learnt through trainings) I evaluate the attitude of the candidate. The level of optimism, enthusiasm, passion and openness that the candidate brings with itself helps me to judge whether he/she is a good fit for the role and the organization. I prefer candidates who are curious enough to try out new ways of doing work and who are inquisitive enough. He should be open to feedback as well as providing and receiving suggestions. Analytical skills are a “must” for the type of work we do and hence I judge the candidate on the basis of the level of analytical capabilities exhibited to a series of problems and scenarios given to the candidate in multiple rounds of interviews. I want the candidate to be confident and give invaluable inputs from day 1 at the office.

Presented above was my interaction with Mrs. Sinha. It was a very insightful discussion as I learnt a couple of things about the corporate world even though I have already been a part of one.

• Companies actually judge you more on your analytical skills and interpersonal skills than academic knowledge.
• Don’t hustle into taking a job and end up landing doing something that doesn’t give you satisfaction. Do something you feel you are good at and something that makes you happy.
• Connections and networks are very important in the corporate world. They act as a catalyst in career progression and success.

Mrs. Aneela Sinha (Vice President, Operations)

Aviva Life Insurance India Ltd.