[Anuj]

I know that this thread is mainly for b-school experiences, but high correlation b/w corporate & b-school experiences, made me chose this forum.

First Quarter in Corporate World



Since the time I’ve left my alma mater, I was wondering whether I’ll stop writing the journals which started at the time of entering the hallowed portals of IIM-A. There were many mails requesting to continue writing about experiences post IIM-A & so here I’m back to scribbling about my first quarter in corporate world.

Actually it has been quite happening life since the time I joined the company. Was there to experience first hand the wrath of monsoon rains on 26th July in Mumbai (To give just a glimpse of my experience, I spent a night in a BEST bus & then walked around 7-8 hours with water level varying between knee level to neck level) & also was present in Amritsar to experience on field the hottest day in Punjab for 2005 with thermometer quietly pointing 46.4 degree C only! Incase you are wondering what I actually do, I’ve joined a fmcg major which is mainly in soaps & personal care business in India. As of now I’m in Mumbai for my marketing stint but soon will be in some obscure part of India for my exposure to the life of sales officer. That is a highly unglamorous job of going to around 40 retailers daily & getting orders. Add to that responsibility of handling the distributors, super-stockist & junior sales officers etc etc. & one ponders why I didn’t consider those highly comfortable jobs in IT sector where you just sit chatting on various messengers in air-conditioned office, sip from a cup of coffee, plan for coming weekend & try to do some work if time permits in such a busy schedule.J

But that was not the case to be, I was bugged by this love for sales-marketing since 3rd year of engineering. Now that I’m in a career of my choice, there were a lot of learnings to be grabbed on (hey just because you are out of b-school doesn’t mean that you lose the learning focusJ). First of all, one is shown the harsh reality of life in sales & realizes the real meaning of terms life “retailer push” & “Demotivated sales force”. For example the sales officer at the bottom of pyramid usually gets around Rs.4000/- per month even if he has had 10 yrs of experience, this figure is less than the daily charges of 5* Hotel which company allowed me to stay in for my business tour. Experiences like this give a new perspective & just makes one realize that how secluded the life was in campus.

I also visited the campus for our annual event called t-nite & it surely was a great experience to see the new batch doing same all stupidities with high vigor as we did during our timesJ. Few things just never change, like the red bricks of wimwi! Got to meet a number of my classmates and found that still few people are not clear about what career they are looking for! The general perception that IIM grads hop jobs just because of higher pay package is a farce. Have seen a number of classmates ready to switch to lower paying job just because they wanted a better job profile/company culture and money was the last criterion.

Now a days my IIM-A yahoo group gets its regular showering of marriage invitations from classmates & reminds me of my “happily single” status J Atleast I’m saved from the fact that my parents are also not thinking about getting me settled, unlike few of my classmates whose parents keep bombarding them with that dreaded question, “Betaa jindagi mein settle kab hona hai?J”.

Also i’ve realized how important a date can be, for me its 26th of each month (I get my salary on this date!). Having bought an apple-ipod & plans to buy a sony-vaio in near future, my empty bank account is even more desperate than me for next 26th of the month J

But to summarize it all, it has been a good working experience (atleast till now!). With all things going as per plan, after next 7 months I’ll end up being an ASM (area sales manager) with a complete or half state as my territory & monthly sales target of around 1.5-2 crores only & I’ll be still 23 yr old then! So heavy burden on my young shoulders J but after IIM-A everything seems possible. With confidence & hope as my pillars of strength, lets see what future has in hold for me.

Signing off,

Anuj Arora
IIM-Ahmedabad (Class of 2005)

Assistant Manager

(XYZ Company with high expectations from its MBAs J)

[curtz-imi]

as usual awesome post anuj.....really gr8 to know abt ur life post wimwi..as usual a hard hitting article showing life as it's in reality...keep posting ....n ATB ..

ciao..