My interview with Ocwen Financial Solutions for the Summer Internship went like a breeze. The partners who interviewed me and I, conversed like old friends – our love for swimming, old classical music and everything else. I got out of the interview room feeling relieved – Day zero, first interview cracked - awesome summer it was going to be. Summer came. It was the 4th of April, and I was excited. The orientation went smooth until I was informed that I will be working from 4:30 PM to 1:30 AM, EVERY DAY for TWO MONTHS! Even worse – my project had a “no camera phones” policy in the work station. That meant no Whatsapp, no Facebook, no contact with the outside world – I was doomed.
What started off like scrambled eggs turned out to be the best “sunny side up” of two months. Ocwen Financial Corp is an American Mortgage Servicing company and they facilitate home loan owners to pay up their mortgages. I was to work with the Dialer Management team – this team controlled the large number of phone calls that were made daily, to delinquent customers. My mentor was the Director of my Business Unit himself. To help me on the ground level, I had a Senior Manager. I had worked for four years before I joined IIM Bangalore. So this was not my first job. But what these two months taught me will take me very far.
A team is as good as the manager is. A company as good as its leader is. My manager set the biggest examples by demonstrating the power of team work – both inside and outside work. In a week’s time, my team showed me what it is to work in unison. Although I was to work alone on my project, that did not stop my team from helping me decipher complex queries or explain the simplest concepts ever so earnestly. Technology corrupts you. We end up wasting so much time on our mobile devices. If only every company took up this idea to ensure that employees controlled distractions from the outside world, you really begin see a difference in how easier it becomes to live and work in unison.
Humility and a sense of equality go a long way. Most of the employees on my floor were call takers and customer care agents. While one might be the biggest guns from the best universities, everyone is here to work and everyone has a family to fend for. Through my two months at Ocwen, I saw so many corporate events and employee engagement programs that actually helped make the environment so amicable – Directors and agents quizzing together. A great culture makes happy employees.
At the end of the term, my project and presentation was judged the best among in the Summer Internship program. And this was only possible because of all the help that came from everywhere possible- managers across teams, mentors of my co-interns, IIM alumni within the organization. With the kind of bonding I saw here, it didn’t take me two weeks to feel at home. I was going to miss the happy faces, the cordial greetings, the earnest offerings of help and even the Customer care agent who thought I was working for “IIN Bangalore from the television ads” instead of IIM Bangalore.
It was time for the farewell dinner, the rain gods were merciless and there were satirical talks of the airports flooding when a Director joked saying “Grishma can help us swim our ways through. She loves to swim”. He was the same person that interviewed me. He remembered me from the many students he interviewed. What better way to end this journey than with a personal acknowledgement from “a top man”.
True to their tag line, Ocwen cares!
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