Tell us about a time when you messed up, and what you learnt from the experience?
In my previous organization, the first project I was staffed on was a Secondary Analytics project that required SQL knowledge. Until then, I had no experience with SQL. We also had daily end-of-the-day calls with our onshore team to discuss project updates and the next steps for this project. As it was my first project and since I didn't have any prior experience with SQL, I relied completely on my senior to lead these calls and the next steps. Once when my senior was on leave from work, it fell upon me to lead the call with the onshore team. Needless to say, my contribution to the call was not up to the mark. As a result, my Consultant asked me to be more proactive and contribute more towards the project. After this point, I made sure to take daily SQL training from my senior. I did hours of self-study from the w3schools website. I also scheduled regular feedback calls with my Consultant to understand if he was happy with my progress. I became comfortable with using SQL and started actively contributing to the project and the EOD calls with the onshore team. My major learnings from this experience were that we could never run away from our issues; there's only so much that we can delegate. We should face our challenges head-on. We shouldn't take constructive feedback negatively, and we should take it in the good spirit of self-improvement.
Tell us something about yourself that others may be surprised to know about you.
Despite having numerous achievements in both academics as well extracurricular, I don't give myself enough credits for my achievements. I often attribute my achievements and accomplishments to luck. I really wish to get over this imposter syndrome of mine.
What have been your two biggest successes in life? What did you learn from them?
One of my biggest successes in life yet was to get selected by the Indian Army for the National Integration cum Cultural Program of 10 days in Jammu and Kashmir. I was among the 30 students selected from all over India to represent different states of the Indian union in Jammu & Kashmir. This tour was part of an ongoing initiative that the Indian Army had taken to bridge the communication gap amongst students from different states of India about J&K. It was meant to foster the spirit of national integration by providing a first-hand experience for us to interact with our peer groups in different academic institutions in J&K. We also visited the Northern Command HQ in Udhampur and North Star Officers Institute (NSOI). We interacted with various senior officers, members of the high command, such as the GOC Chinar Corps in Srinagar. One of the biggest highlights of the trip was that I got a chance to interact face-to-face with the former Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, Ms. Mehbooba Mufti. We discussed the order of affairs of the trip and the progress of the tour with her.One of the other biggest achievements in my life is that I bagged 3 campus placements (including 2 from consulting firms) during the campus recruitment in the final year of my college. I was among the very few students who got offers from more than 2 companies. Initially, when the recruitment process started, I was very skeptical about my chances of getting placed as most of the companies that came to our college were tech-based. These companies had a coding round as their filtering criteria, and I don't have any experience with coding. However, eventually, non-tech companies also started visiting our college, and I was able to bag placements from 3 companies - ZS Associates, EXL Service and L&T. My biggest learning from these 2 events was that things that are meant to happen, will happen. We should always make the best use of opportunities available to us and then wait patiently for the results.
Professionally, what is your ideal image of yourself five years from now? Where do you see yourself?
Five years down the lane, I see myself as a consultant or a general manager for a global firm, managing and taking care of a big team and directly affecting the company's decision-making process. There's a lot of suffering in this world and we take a lot from the people around us, so I also wish for a job that would provide me ample opportunities to give it back to society. Therefore, a company with great CSR activities would be a dream one for me. Also, if my role allows me to visit local offices, it would be a cherry on the cake.
What is the one skill or characteristic you possess that you are most proud of, and why?
I'm very proud of my time and project management skill. Early in my life, I learned the value of hard work and perseverance. This has enabled me to always be among the top 2 students in school and top 4 students in UG college. Due to this consistency, I've always been a scholarship and a rank holder throughout my school and college years. Apart from academic achievements, I have also been very proactive in extracurricular activities such as sports and photography. I've played volleyball and badminton at various state, university and district level championships. I also represented my school in a couple of National-level sports events. I was the winner of the university-level photography competition in which anybody from 15k students in the college could participate. I have also been part of an NGO and dedicated many hours to its projects. I have been able to do all these simultaneously because of my good time and project management skills. I always try to keep up with tasks as and when they come rather than procrastinate and complete those just before the deadline. I diligently take out some amount of my time every day to exercise and play some sport. This helps me in keeping my body and mind fresh and healthy. We also need to understand here that we cannot work as machines and excel at everything. Therefore, I always make a list of priority tasks daily that I make sure to complete before the end of the day.
In your opinion, what skills or qualities does a successful manager possess?
The most important quality of a manager is to lead through examples. They should not force themselves to be a leader. They should motivate teammates even when things are not going their way. Coordinating well with the teammates is the driving force of good management. A manager should also be open to give and receive constructive feedback. They should always make sure the expectations and responsibilities of everyone are apparent, and that we give regular feedback to each other. The feedback given should also have a framework and the points mentioned should be action plans and not just abstract statements. One of the most important skills of a successful manager is to be organized. Keeping things organized helps manage multiple projects efficiently minor best practices such as documenting work help get things delivered on time.
Tell us about an ethical dilemma that you may have faced, and how you resolved it.
During the final year of my UG college, we were supposed to submit a major project related to my stream, i.e., Electrical. The deadline for this project submission was very stringent and there wasn't a lot of time for us to do R&D and execute the project in the crunched timeline. A thought came to mind or minds: what if we borrow the project from one of our senior groups and show the exact same model during our submissions. This was a very convenient choice for us, but we decided against it for several reasons. The number one reason was how the guilt associated with doing so would consume us all in the coming years. We also felt that we would miss many learning opportunities if we cheat our way through the major project. We decided to pull all-nighters for a few days to conduct desk research about our topic successfully. We took help from our peers and seniors to clarify any of our doubts. We divided tasks among us based on each of our strengths and weaknesses. We were finally able to submit our original major project before the deadline successfully.
If you were the CEO of any company of your choosing, which company would you choose and what would your first action be as CEO?
I would choose to become CEO of any nascent start-up, such as Primathon. My first action would be to understand the mission and vision of the company and align all my communication according to it. I'd streamline the communication to make sure everyone else is also aligned as per the goals of the company. I would ensure a proper feedback mechanism is put in place from the front-line staff where improvements could be made. Next, I would ensure that I develop a clear understanding of the challenges that my company has been facing and will potentially face in the future. According to the challenges identified, I would make my short-term and long-term strategies.
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Comments
Mohd Bilal Aziz
I feel motivated after reading this article. Thanks for sharing your story!!
8 Sep 2021, 01.31 PM