Networking within the organisation

Having stayed over last night in Cardiff, I headed out to work in the morning. I decided to work from the head office this time so I could network. The thing with working in a small corporate incubation arm that is intentionally set at a distance physically, financially etc is that you lose out on the network in the head office! And people in the head office rarely know who you are and what you do. It can be hurtful to your career as the opportunities are proportionate to the size of the organisation therefore more opportunities tend to open up in the head office than in the incubation arm. So it's important to put extra effort to bring yourself in front of people where you can. 

With that mindset, I've lately been spending time in the head office as and when I can and so far has been going well I must say. Every time in, I have come across at least couple of colleagues or senior leaders that I normally wouldn't speak to if not for bumping into them. This morning, I head into the office, fire up my laptop and take a casual look to my side and guess what - one of the senior leaders is sitting there and I get a chance to say hi and casually bring him up to speed with what I am doing! isn't that nice! Not just that, I was a bit disappointed that last evening, I organised an internal event for which I anticipated quite a few head office people to turn up including this individual and he hadn't showed up, so I kinda reminded him on that lol. 

And I also had the chance to bump into another senior leader with whom I applied for a role but didn't convert. He said that I was more suited to a startup or incubation arm than a corporate, interesting I thought as my manager at the incubation arm tells me I need to be more entrepreneurial to suit her team. I realised either people didn't know what they wanted or I was really not going after the opportunities that suit my profile. Let's see. I'm giving myself another 6 months to learn and discover. 

Sadly a close colleague shared her frustration as she also tends to be in a similar situation of not finding a good role to move into next. The organisation is not growing and the company doesn't pay as much to afford MBAs so I'm witnessing the downsides of such scenarios for past 2 yrs. I want to learn and grow and give my best but I find limited avenues to do that in the company. I'm trying multiple approaches and I'll share more about them in a separate post. 

91DIVOC Tales#5

From a recent company talk that I had attended (name I shall not mention since they did not shortlist me for interviews and I am pretty mad at them for this), one old and wise gentleman mentioned about 'micro habits' and how they can be influential in our lives. I liked the concept, felt happy then and smiled it off later. Never looked back again................................ Until today, when in the midst of continuous dings due to COVID, I re-visit the daunting exercise of questioning myself, my CV etcetera for not making to a single interview invitee list. It's true, life throws situations at you, both expected and unexpected and watches how you deal with them. For the nth time in the past couple of weeks, I tell myself that this is a time to un-learn and learn! I guess it however took me more time than I anticipated to imbibe this message and that's when I recalled the wise man's message. Indeed, it's time for me to formulate my learning from this unique once-in-several-lifetimes situation and cultivate few micro habits that help me deal with the situation now and in the future. So let's get started!

If I were to describe my exact state of mind right now, it all feels like a dream! Super unreal. Not more than 10 days ago, I was infinite confident to receive invitations to interviews from all the companies I had applied to. I was in-fact selective in applying for firms for the fear that I may not find quality time to rejuvenate from back-to-back interviews. It's rather unfortunate that I got dinged by all the firms and I am still waiting to receive my first break. This may sound sad but trust me, that feeling of deep sorrow only lasted for a day in me. I was really glad, I couldn't believe myself that I could cope with it so well. It comes and goes now and then when I hear of other friends doing well but does not bother me too much. But what used to bother me was the realization that I am not as flexible a person as I thought I were usually. And this is what I describe as the dreamy state, every now-and-then I still struggle to come into terms with what's happening around.

But going back to my earlier point about learning from what life throws at me, isn't this the time I should reflect on what is my key learning from this experience and build a few micro habits to move on? From constant thinking for past few days, this is what I came up with. I want to make myself flexible and adaptable to situations. What does this translate to for me? I jot down couple of thoughts:

1. I want to detach myself from external validations such as brand of the company, educational institute, accolades and so on to believe in myself. This is tough I know, as I grew up in an environment that fosters nothing but external validation as a means for survival.

2. I want to replace this addiction for external validation with personal goals that I set for myself based on what I believe brings me happiness. This is tough too, as I figured lately that I do not much about what brings me happiness besides a few bad habits such as binge watching television.

These are broad ideas as you can see. How do I break them down into microhabits? Lets discuss that in the next chapter :)


  

91 DIVOC Tales#4

I won't say much, let my art do the talking :D

Not bad, huh? I thought so!! I'm trying to rekindle the artist in me :) I always loved colors, especially vibrant colors! I am glad I have so much time thanks to COVID that I can do some art work. The COVID is not that bad after all! Pollution dropped, people are spending quality time with their families, overall death rates have dropped (read economist, you will know why) and most importantly, the world is gonna witness the next sensation in art - Sree Lakshmi UPPU!!! 

91DIVOC Tales #3

Well, my day started with a bit of dilemma. We received the list of 1st round interviewees for one of the companies that we applied to. Guess what? Karthik made it while I did not. I was not sure how to react to be honest. One hand, I was super happy for him. On the other hand, I was super unhappy not because I was not shortlisted but more so because I was not displaying any signs of sadness!! I was really untouched by my performance. I was like 'fine, this company is not lucky to have me'. What am I thinking?? The world is heading towards recession.. Everyone is bracing for impact and applying to all Tom-Dick-&-Harry firms. I am sitting here thinking I will certainly find some job somewhere.. Either I attained highest level of confidence in myself which for a while I have been striving to.. or...... I am simply going crazy!!

Its interesting to compete with your partner in professional lives. I don't know why people make a fuss about it but I enjoy it. Coz, whatever is the end result, I will get my way through. For instance, if I win over him, I simply enjoy the success. If he wins over me, well I still enjoy.. as I trick him into doing chores to cheer me up :D I am a very bad wife, poor guy he never realises it.

91DIVOC Tales #2

I started re-blogging with an aspiration to write fun-blogs. As much as I am aware, I failed at it terribly. Let me try sticking to my goal at least for once today :D

What was one fun thing that happened today?

Well, I attended Brand Management class today and guess what? We were discussing 'Washing powder Nirma' ad. Apparently, Nirma, a local brand in India managed to outperform Unilever, a giant CPG company through its catchy 'Nirma' song. Such a fun fact, isn't it? What's furthermore hilarious is the fact that most Indians of my age still remember the Nirma ad; we started signing the ad as soon as the Prof mentioned it :D

Lately, Karthik and I have started watching BBT over lunch and dinner to compensate for the loss of fun in our lives due to COVID lockdown. However, I do not enjoy it as much as he does and that frustrates me! He has good attention to speech and I don't making me miss out on certain jokes I ought to listen to. I still enjoy watching the episodes with him, his laugh is contagious :D

Oh yea, another fun fact, yesterday was Ugadi, new year in my native town. One highlight of this special occasion is the panchangam - a sneak peek into the year for you based on your zodiac sign. There are several astrologers who flood the television with their expertise in panchangam on Ugadi. I was talking to my mom about how she decides who to listen to (narrations vary with the expert) and her simple mantra - listen to their forecasts from previous year, compare it with reality and decide! LOL

I love these panchangams, they are a way for me to keep my hopes high. I dump them however when they don't predict what I want to hear. Lets see what this year has in store for us and how much of it matches with what we heard from panchangam :D

91DIVOC tales #1

91DIVOC?? What better title can you expect from someone in lockdown in France in the March of 2020?!!

I don't know how long this lockdown is supposed to last, I thought I better have some fun out of it and make my life less miserable :D

I live in Fontainebleau in France. It's a small town and well, no one outside France is aware of its existence. Sometimes, not even the neighbouring Parisians!! Its fun to hear some of my friends say 'the town is dead silent after the lockdown'... I laugh to myself - when has it been other-way? 

This beautiful town is kind of a retirement paradise for few old European affluent, most of who are French. It's an irony that INSEAD is based here - we are young, poor students looking for jobs! Sooo not ready for retirement yet... We have huge loans to clear you know ;) 

Anyways, back to COVID19, so since the lockdown started, Karthik and I are stuck in a small apartment with little outdoor activity. We barely cook at home. I even made plans to hire a full-time cook in the future. But now, not a single day passed without us turning the stove on.  I kinda enjoy it though, it is my way of de-stressing and zoning out for a bit. Besides cooking, now that we are recruiting, we spend time writing cover letters and praising these firms. More than writing the letters, I spend time making sure I am sending the 'right' letters to the 'right' parties :D 

Last fun thing that happened today was our online MBA classes. It did not go that bad. I was surprisingly more engaged than I am usually in a regular setting. The class was truly lot more productive as each of us did what we like to do - some listening, some texting on the chat box, some sleeping and pretending to be attentive (note, with the online feature allowing us to hide our videos, this option just got so much cooler). I fall into the later category, I have low attention span and need to take a break every 10mins to be engaged. So I watch videos related to the class content, search online - all of it with so much freedom and without guilt. Online classes are really so so cool. I am sure this 'zoom' trend is not going away after COVID19 vanishes. Furthermore, I am confident we are entering the hologram age where our digital selves are teleported to places across the ocean in seconds. 

My first visit to London

August 2018. I took part in a Design hackathon that Shell had organised for its employees to develop innovative solutions for some of its retail challenges. Little did I know that that workshop would play an important role in my decision to change my career. I realised that day that I wanted to work in something more creative in the next phase of my career. IDEO was one of the companies that inspired me during the hackathon - it's a design consulting firm that has existed for over 30 yrs and pioneered in human centred design innovation. Today, almost an year later, I could visit this marvellous company in London and interact with their designers and learn about their projects. Dream come true. One day, look forward to working with them!

Though I visited London at its gloomiest days (it was pouring round the clock), these two people made the visit memorable for us. Family who are friends now, will look forward to visiting them again. London Borough market, Springer golf, Boardgames cafe, the Shard and Indian food! Sums up to a good lovely weekend. Waiting for the last but not least - Shakespear's play at the Globe, a perfect icing on the cake :) 

I am often confused - this man I am married to wins almost all the games I play against him in. Should I be happy for him that he won or sad that I didn't win? :D But fortunately Moo came in tie with me, else I wouldn't have featured in this pic ;)

Boardgames are an inherent part of our DNA! Strongly recommend Shariff at Nottingham. 

Life goal - I say we should play all the boardgames existent on earth before we turn 50. He says - we should buy them all instead. Will see.