A Surprise With A Morale

Aristotle, the greek philosopher always had a logical approach towards life. According to his theory, logic forms the basis of life. Reality can be measured, planned and then executed, where life is a straight line with little deviations. However existence would not agree to any such rules. It is a constant flux, with its ups and downs. Events can occur at a moment’s notice, teaching the lessons which we cherish for a lifetime. The below incidences, I leave to the reader’s imagination and judgement, to come to a conclusion of the same.

It was on a Saturday, I  applied to a walk in interview, for a reputed MNC. As this was a rare opportunity, it was by no surprise I caught the first bus, reached earlier than the security guard and waited with anticipation above all, to nail the job. However as the hours passed by, my hopes started fading as the outside crowd swelled up. To give you an exact picture, consider openings of just 40 to 50 and you have thousand of applicants, each vying for that position..

Out of curiosity and again to reduce my growing tension, I decided to enter into a small chat with the person beside me. He felt little hesitant at first, partially of a competition edge and other part of being a stranger. But nevertheless, soon was chatting with ease. For readers convenience, I would like to call him Ravi. Ravi is a commerce graduate, who also had an MBA in marketing. I was amazed as to why he did not opt a career, in his field of study and instead choose to dive into IT. “ I  do understand what you are hinting at. But this is reality, my friend. After all now Engineering graduates work in bank jobs, why can’t we do the same in their field. And moreover this is a stable choice with good package“

The thought of stability reminded me about a biography, from a famous IT entrepreneur, who started Infosys. His name was Narayana Murthy. He recollected how in its infancy, information technology or IT as it is known today, was such an alienated profession, that the very thought of pursuing it, was considered a career suicide. Add to it the hefty tax rates and unstable political atmosphere.

They only had their passion as the net worth then.  Beating against all the odds, against all the ridicules and unfavourable forecasts, resulted in an empire which now contributes a large portion of the country’s economy. And to think of all life’s irony, Ram as easily now put forth, considered as one of the most stable careers.

The gates opened shortly, and the interview process began. As the number of candidates were quite large, we sat in a waiting hall, anticipating the call of our numbers. One to two hours passed by, and the face of the candidates showed clear signs of anxiety and impatience.

The option to reduce this air of tension, was to talk to the person next to you and slowly as an icebreaker, conversations started between the candidates. But herein lies the main problem. I was applying for the BPO job and since this was a walk in, there were candidates from IT background also. To those who are not aware, there lies a sublime tension, at times between these two professions. An ego clash, where one profession is considered inferior to other and this was showing especially in my circle. The person next to me was a tenured employee in the IT department and I was a BPO job seeker, on the next stage of career.

He seemed to be self absorbed in his own world, casually looking at me once or twice. I think I might have seen a frown, here and then. His attitude really irked me. Just because he had 5 years of whatever experience, could he belittle a fellow human being.  After this thought, it makes sense clearly,. His every action hints, that there is a strong tension mixed with narcissism in it.

I decided to avoid this person completely and instead just sit back with a reading material in my smart phone. After all that is one outlet, we all look into when such situations arise.

Time passed by and still it seemed that there were more applicants in the waiting list. But the cold treatment remained between both of us.

Suddenly my name was called from the crowd.  I picked up my resume and headed to the direction of call. “ I am sorry, but it seems there is some issues with your resume. Could you recheck the experience part, as there is some irregularities in one section.. “  Now it seemed like the best time to panic. To make the changes, required a lot of time and without the correct expertise, it would still be incomplete. As I sat back at the waiting hall, the familiar face by the side, asked a question which took me by surprise.

“ It seems something is troubling you. Can I help figure it out ”.  To think this person for the past few hours was in my hit list, suddenly turned into an angel of mercy. “Actually they are telling me to rework my cv. But I am not sure how to make the correct changes in time. “ He took the resume for a look and after a few minutes of pondering, a smile appeared on his face.

“ Only need a minor editing. Come with me. We can get the print out from here itself.” I was sure of the first part of the dialogue. But being a multi national company, you cannot expect to just go to the office section, and demand for a hard copy from an unknown origin.

But he seemed really confident, that I followed him with quick paces. He approached one of the security staff and enquired about someone. She went into one of the office cubicles and quickly came back, accompanied with a person, who had an air of authority.  There was a friendly chat which followed with we being led to their admin office.

We quickly got down to work, and within a couple of minutes, was able to make the necessary changes to the resume. Thanking him, I was able to find the HR in time, to deliver my curriculum vitae. She assured me the next call would be mine. As I re entered the hall, I saw my previous seat blocked by a file. “Sorry about that. I  kept it reserved, in case you come back.” I was only able to utter a thanks and took my seat. Soon we entered into a lengthy conversation and was able to find many similar interests, gradually breaking the wall,  that I imagined our professions would have caused.

“Mr John, please follow me do to the interview room.”  As I was getting ready to leave, he did say one statement which seemed to wind all this, with a morale ” You know, I always thought that people in BPO were ego centric with their false accent and pseudo names. But knowing you changed a lot of this misconception. That was why I didn’t talk to you earlier. Anyway it was nice meeting you. “