From Worm's eye to Bird's eye: A view from the ground up!

ITS that time of the year again. B-school exams are over or are in the process of getting over. Convocations are happening across the country and those who have been placed in campus selections are poised to take up their new assignments. The tendency is to throw away one's books and buckle down to the next thirty-five years of hard labour. No more bunking classes, no more all-night bacchanalias and no pig-outs at the dhaba across the road.

There is a fresh vision, one that includes a stable populated by Mercedes and BMWs and bankers falling over themselves to snaffle their custom. They bounce into their new work environments only to be poleaxed by the dismal reflection that they are the lowest of the low, drawing less attention than the meanest worm in the company window box! Dreams about the limousines and the gold-card bank accounts tend to recede into the middle distance. Plush offices dissolve into the reality of shared workstations, salaries that cannot maintain the lifestyle their parents maintained them in and no one to give them a loan to buy even a moped! Welcome to the real world! Getting no credit for the hours of hard work you put in, no thanks for doing the painful job of stacking files, engaging in pointless research that nobody needs or is interested in is the common lot of every new 'pupil'. But stop! You might think it drudgery, you may think it of no relevance or use to your future career, but actually it isn't! This is the best time of your corporate life! You can sow the seeds of your networking now, you can learn the workings of the corporate machinery and show the world and your superiors what you are made of and what you can do!

Everything you do and how you do it, from the bottom up will come in useful. Maya Acharya's, "Cactus Climbing" (Miasma Publishing, 2001) says it all. "Learning is a process that you should want to involve yourself in. If you can't learn from the most minor occurrence in life, you will never learn".

Attitudinal Aptitude

You view point and the way you do things is the most important facet of your character. Your character is revealed when you face adversity.

The weak buckle, the strong endure and succeed. Thinking positively is widely appreciated, but arrogance is abhorred. Doing the 'menial' jobs of filing and researching may not be much fun in the doing but do it well and being cheerful and positive about it will get you noticed.

If you crib and moan about the job your usefulness will be called into question and the beginning of your end will heave into sight. Should you think that you are the prize gift from Heaven to the corporate world, and you show it, you have begun digging your career grave with an earthmover!

At CxK Networks the greatest value is seen in the 'newbies' spending time getting on top of whatever work is assigned them. If there is a free moment, it is best used in learning something, or volunteering for something else to do. Not having done something before is no excuse for skinching an opportunity to learn how to do it.

Acharya says: "It's paramount to follow the Tao principle of water and the empty pot. It is after all true that one can fill water into an empty pot. A full one merely overflows. So should it be with the new recruits. Open minds are essential, and the bottom rung of organisations is a wonderful place to learn. Worms are the creatures that turn the earth so that verdance prevails."

For those who were not placed in campus recruitment sessions, it is acceptable to take anything that offers itself; even the support functions can be turned to your advantage. "Use every job you take, even if it is not your ideal choice, as an ideal stepping stone to your dream job!" The more you know about organisational mores and structure, the more valuable you will be to the organisation that finally hires you into a slot that you want to fill!

Grow up and grow out!

You've left school physically. Now leave it mentally! Your conceits, your uppance as a 'senior' should now be ideally swept under the carpet. You are in the corporate window box and you need to grow up! Things are not the same and as mentioned before you cannot choose to bunk classes any more. You should expect to take the rough with the smooth and know that in the window box there is a lot more rough than there is smooth! Just okay will get you through your papers and through the semesters, but it wont get you through the echelons of a career! You'll stay a worm, and never become the bird that soars!

Killing 'em Softly!

True, your B-school will have exposed you to industry over the summer or even in the last semester, but then you were free labour and the company knew they needn't depend on you, so they rode you easy. At the bottom rung, you should use all the time you have to hone your soft skills. You will get kicked around, so make it into a learning experience! Politeness is the best way to deflect unreasonable behaviour and so use it with everybody! Learn to speak well, learn diplomacy and tact, learn how to manage conflict and learn how to get your way. Build up your 'trustworthiness' factor. The best time to hone these skills is now! You won't get a chance later, and it will be too late to learn it then! You will also have time after work; you won't have it when you are farther up the ladder! Learn a new language or attend seminars and lectures. These will come in useful later! Drive yourself, nobody will spoon feed you or coax you to do better!

Weaving your Net and

Casting it Right

The best place to start doing this is in school and I don't mean B-school! You should weave a fine network of acquaintances who will remember you and your abilities. Not many people think about this but if they did their career would benefit hugely! B-school is a good place to start if you haven't already done so. Your classmate may become a high flyer. A guest lecturer may be your next reporting head. It pays to market yourself well at this stage! In your first job you will meet new people daily, both from within and without the company. Take pains to impress both! Today's visitor may become tomorrow's boss! Why leave anything to chance? Go to management association meets, go out with colleagues, and make yourself agreeable. It's the best way to weave your web!

Try to avoid taking sides in the squabbles in the office! Be aware and observe, but remember that you are far to junior to be taken seriously and if you do it will be held against you! Watch, don't dive in.

Only fools rush in where angels fear to tread! Learn as much as you can from watching group dynamics at work, analyse them and if you have a mentor, talk it out with him.

Understand that inter-office war is a reality and you will have to deal with it a few rungs up!

Do not look for red carpets and air-conditioned cars right from the start. These frills will come later! Be content that your lot cannot get any worse! The only way for you is up!

From a worm's eye view of the career of your choice, you should put the blocks in place for getting a bird's eye view! You need to sprout the feathers of skills, the talons of power and the wings of wisdom to soar in the boundless sky of your chosen field!

S.RAMANUJACHARYA

professor1@sify.com