A Perfect Case Study - 2

Year 1998 (continued)

Much against the wishes of my near and dear, I shifted my family from Chennai to Pune as my younger brother got a placement. I do not want to trouble him as he had just landed up in his first job but his genuineness, sincerity and my inability to generate cash in flows made me to take the difficult decision. The situation, however, did not improve at all.

We celebrated our first son's first birthday in Pune in September in a simplistic way. Though my maternal uncle had good connects still I could not get a job I was looking for - Oracle Financials. After a search of almost 3 months, I decided to go back to my roots and strength - Accounts and Finance. But, the lady luck was yet to smile.

The experience during this search was unique. First of all, the lesson learnt in hard way - never quit a job without an offer in hand. Those days jobless individuals were viewed as 'good for nothing' and taken for granted. I traveled to Mumbai and visited few HR consultants by staying at my cousin's place in Andheri (Mumbai) and also shuttled (yes!) to Chennai whenever I heard a good offer.

Due to good network of my maternal uncle, I was told 'just to appear' before the Managing Director of a reputed company in Pune ONLY to collect the offer letter but it boomeranged as the MD felt I am too big for his reputed upcoming company. In another instance, I was made to travel to Chennai (no reimbursement!), work for two days and asked to leave without any explanation. Finally, I settled for a job which is a blend of 'Accounts / Finance / IT' with a hourly salary of INR 8.

I was without a penny at the year end, literally living in support of my brother with a dent in my confidence.

Year 1999.

January did not bring any good news. I left everything to destiny and continued in my current job. As there was a good opportunity coming up in Mumbai in Oracle Financials, I traveled during the weekend to take a chance. I stayed in my maternal uncle's daughter's home in Chembur.

Her husband Mr. Ravindran, working as a Regional Head in Sundaram Finance, a self-made individual, who had earned his place through dedicated hard work. He was managing the entire West Region of Sundaram Finance and (literally) I was introduced to him as a jobless youth. He is aware that I am related to his wife as there was not much interactions before - mostly due to his stay in Mumbai and mine in Chennai.

The first impression he had on me was definitely not the best impression but that meeting had changed my life.

-To be continued.