I was sitting in the Manipal Academy, in Bangalore. The on-boarding training program for Probationary Officers of our bank was about to end and we were supposed to know our first branch. Everyone was nervous. We could get posting in any of the branches all over India. We knew that already, but we're still hoping to get posted to our hometowns. As soon as I received the envelope, I tore it open wishing it to be any city in Maharashtra, my home state, but it turned out to be Raipur.
New Chapter: Raipur. New place, new challenges, new beginning. I stepped out of train. It was a different place- geographically, culturally and socially and I had no clue how I was going to survive there. I booked a hotel and prepared myself for my first day in corporate world. Next day I woke up early and suited up. Wore the Louis Philippe Suit that I had specially bought for this occasion. I was full of these emotions surfacing on my mind. It was exhilarating. But deep down I was nervous a bit. My mind was getting crazy with a lot of questions. How am I going to work in the corporate world? Will the laziness deep rooted in me allow me to work in such a competitive environment? Whether I would do justice to the role I was assigned to? Am I prepared for this? Cause the worst is getting an opportunity, one is not prepared for. It was completely new field for me. I didn’t have any formal education in the field of banking and finance. And here I was dwindling with the all sorts of emotions. I took a deep breath and walked into the branch. As soon as I stepped in my head started spinning. I saw that it was fully crowded with the customers. There were long lines in front of every counter. Everyone on the counters was working like an robot. I was taken aback by this. My first reaction was will I be able to manage it? I knew that it was going to be hard but didn’t expected such a depth. This was a new game altogether. That time I realized what it is to be in the corporate world. I found it too hard in the beginning. I took time to get accustomed to the environment. But eventually I learnt the things and could manage to do justice to my role.
To summarize in a nutshell I can say, it all boils down to how well do you handle the challenges that come in your way. How do you keep on improving yourself over the course of your journey and I can say that banking taught me all those things. It laid down the foundation of my career. And now I can build one more floor on it by enrolling in Management Development Institute for an MBA program. This is gonna bring more challenges, but with the experience that I have I can manage to overcome the hurdles and solve the problems, one step at a time.
Why Aditya Birla is big in your life?
Aditya Birla Group, one of the India’s biggest conglomerates plays a pivotal role in everyone’s life. Its ubiquitous presence from fashion to aluminium, telecom to cement is marvelous. On the global front it is representing India proudly for decades. Its CSR policies such as mid-day meal, medical camps and hospitals, schools, solar lamps, it is an everlasting list, makes lives of millenniums better. The group is all about giving more than what they consume. It got an idea which can change the life of every person. These values that it puts forward makes me more humble and giving in nature. It inspires me a lot and instills the feeling of gratitude in me.