Eighteen years back, today’s date was a fancy one. The calendar said 06 / 06 / 06, the sixth day of sixth month of year 2006. More than being fancy, it was probably one of the most important days in my life, the day when I started my corporate life with Mindtree in Bangalore!
Two years before that day, I stepped into the beautiful campus of Christ College in Bangalore. As a first year MBA student I was quite sure that I’ll be specializing in Marketing as my core subject. HR wasn’t that interesting; Finance was not my favourite and since I already had an IT background, opting for Systems would’ve been an overkill.
After two years and officially becoming a ‘management specialist’ in Marketing, I joined an IT organisation as a Business Analyst in the Staff Operations department where part of my profile required me to allocate Business Analysts and User Experience Designers for various projects across the world. Little did I realize that the department I was associated with, will give me a tough time during my catchup with my college friends.
In all subsequent gathering of college mates, I started getting my legs pulled for doing an HR-kind-of-job all the while being a Marketing specialist. Each time we met, I got worked up with the joke and every time I vehemently defended my position citing the Analyst part of my profile. Nothing seemed to work and the teasing went on for a couple of years.
On the third year of my job, I got into a full time Analyst role where I was assigned a client and started doing none of the HR-like job for which I had to endure all that mockery. My Marketing days finally arrived.
A few months into the job and I started asking the question. Being a Business Analyst in the Travel & Transportation Industry, figuring out solutions for challenges faced by renowned names such as SITA & Travelodge, wasn’t this more of Systems than Marketing. Little did I realize that behind every conversation I was having with a client, my HR skills combined with my Marketing dexterity was helping me to solve issues for my clients with the help of technology of course.
A few more years with Mindtree and it was time to move to Dubai to be associated with one of the greatest brands in the world of aviation, The Emirates Group. One of the biggest realizations that dawned on me was what they say in Spiderman, ‘with great power comes great responsibility’. In my earlier avatar, it took weeks to finalize Use Cases especially working with legacy customers. On the contrary, Emirates as an airline with the growth trajectory facing North, had an unsatiable appetite to expand and develop. The time required for finishing a couple of Use Cases in my previous job is what I got to prepare a fully completed Requirement Specification Document. The scale was exhilarating.
Soon enough the last standing specialization which I kept at an arm’s length started peeping at me. Estimations were something which I never laid my hands on. It all started with smaller ones and as days went by, it was no more testing waters. Before even I knew I was neck deep into numbers. I still use a life jacket though.
Long story short, the close to two decades has taught me one fact of life. Earlier days of your career, you may fret about specializations or core competencies that you think will differentiate you among others. While on the short run it holds some value, on the long run, none of those matter. As you climb the metaphorical ladder, your number crunching along with people skills ably supported by the technological prowess, completely enveloped with how best you can market your idea or product, all come together as an inseparable bond which makes you a better professional and a person with whom your colleagues love to work with.
Remember, the big picture is not something you can see from day one, but it is out there for you to see for yourself. Just keep an open mind.
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