Why Aditya Birla Group is big in my life
Aditya Birla Group is an Indian Multinational Conglomerate headquartered in Mumbai. They have a presence in 35 countries with over 120,000 employees working globally. The group was founded by Seth Shiv Narayan Birla in 1857. Aditya Birla Group has a wide range of products like viscose staple fibre, metals, cement (largest in India), viscose filament yarn, branded apparel, carbonblack, chemicals, fertilisers, insulators, financial services, telecom, BPO and IT services. The group had a revenue of approximately US$44.3 billion in year 2018.
I personally believe that the role of any business is to not just generate revenue and maximize the value of the firm, but also to give back to the society. In this regard Aditya Birla Group scores high. They have excellent CSR initiatives that aims at improving the livelihood of the underprivileged and in turn raise the country's Human Development Index. These initiatives are led by Mrs. Rajashree Birla, Chairperson of Aditya Birla Center for Community Initiatives and Rural Development in collaboration with various government bodies and other like minded organisations. They run 5000 medical camps and 20 hospitals in villages across India which has helped in immunizing an estimated 70 million children against Polio in India. They have also undertaken several other initiatives like providing solar lamps and midday meals to school children. It is because of initiatives like these that Aditya Birla Group is big in my life.
How I overcame challenges to achieve something
Let me give a brief overview of myself. I am a mechanical Engineer from Chennai with two years of work experience in Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. I joined TCS on the 9th of February in 2017. After my Initial learning program, I was thrilled to get into a project. I was really looking forward to it as it would be my first taste of a real work environment. I was initially drafted in as a manual testing resource and the first few months were smooth sailing. Being the newest member of the team, my responsibilities were limited and I was quite comfortable. All that changed when I was told that I had to automate the test cases as well.
Now let me tell you about my skill set. I was adept at analyzing the requirements, framing the test cases and manual execution. Coming from a Mechanical Background, I had close to zero knowledge about programming languages. So, when my responsibilities increased, I struggled to adapt. I would say these were easily my worst days in the company. The pressure of having to do something that you are not comfortable especially when you are expected to learn on the job was truly getting to me. I would be lying if I said I didn’t consider quitting my job. It's safe to say that I had a mountain ahead of me, but mountains are meant to be climbed. The first step that I decided to take was to accept that I cannot run away from this challenge. Coming to this realization helped me in focusing my efforts on the task at hand. I actively started taking the help of my more experienced teammates. Needless to say, they were extremely helpful and encouraging. During my struggles, I also felt that I was letting my team down and often felt like the weakest link. I later learned that my colleagues had gone through the same ordeal. This helped me realize that I was beating myself up for no real reason.
After a few weeks of learning on the job, I was able to handle the automation testing for the requirement assigned to me. Now, it wasn’t a complex requirement and I do not claim to be an expert in automation testing. But it is safe to say that I went from zero to Intermediate. I was filled with a sense of accomplishment and that feeling was only compounded when my Team Lead praised me for my efforts.
