Noah at Work ! Striving hard to stay afloat.

Trust me, the most difficult part of writing a public entry is zeroing on what to jot down. I normally am decently spontaneous when it comes to scribbling, but when it comes to writing a blog,the right set of words simply stop flushing out from the whatever brains vents. Thank goodness, I am not very choosy about writing in ‘the only’ right words :-)

As I said, its difficult to decide over what to write, I thought will just pen down my thoughts over one prime question which am facing in every quarter these days. Being an MBA and then having joined a good Banking Corporation, the most common question I face is how am I finding my workplace and hence the work. Probably will talk about this only this time around.

The company I work for. Well, I should not hesitate in accepting that it feels wonderful working for a corporate which is still driven by its strong work-culture legacy. The environment as of now, is extremely professional and competitive. So are the people. But then should I try indenting a firm mental opinion in just 3 months of career association.

My work profile. Frankly speaking, quite broad. However, the role definition is decently carved and even the career graph seems well poised. The financial domain for which I work is called Global Payments and Cash Management and is a fundamentally growing sector. Other than it being a in-demand service, keeping in mind prospects of Post 2009 banking reforms, not many Cash Management Specialists are available in a still metamorphosing sub continental business environment. There is no dearth as such but as compared to other commercial banking fields, people are not handy. So can say that a good place to be in.

There is a backdrop to my take on the issue of whether if I like my role. When I look within myself and scratch accompanied historical evidence, I feel a bit out of place. Throwing a glance back to my academic career, I find a sense of revulsion to core finance. There were instances during my MBA when I wanted to escape the accounts related stuffs and get back to branding and market research. There were occurrences when I couldn’t tally my trial balance sheets after zillionth attempt and felt stupid when every other soul was as adept at it as I am at crapping. Those were the times when I wanted all the finance related stuff to go out of the windows, and be taken over by more interesting subjects like Operations. Marketing, Systems or even HR (Yah Yah, this is not a typing error, its HR only huh!). Later on I just held on to the anchor with a compromise that will try my level best to pass in the exams and then will put a brave face to nightmares of flunking in the same. And I did that only for full term 2 years of my tenure as Masters :-) Who says MBA makes you learn a lot of things. It just makes you learn how to make way out of Chakravyuhas without actually learning in principle how to do it.

So when this banking company came to the campus for recruitment, I had a full 30 min debate within my own self as in whether I wana’ opt for something which I might no like and eventually quit. Whether its’ worth taking a chance and that too such a critical one. But there is one thing that I have learnt from whatever I have faced in life. Every damn thing that makes you cringe out of fear and despair is definitely worth giving a full fledged and convinced shot. If it fails then you might end up getting disappointed but at least then will have some kind of satisfaction of not yielding to temptations of easy route. So here I am, trying to learn whatever I can about Cash Management. Learning how the various segments of working capital cycle management can work for corporates and banks alike; learning how simple CMS solutions can help corporates grow and dream big; learning the knitty gritties of IPO/Dividend business. Candidly, I still am not very comfortable with the basics of how the whole business works and probably my confidence at work is still not at its full helm, which is very much unlike me. This is putting back oodles of pressure back on me but the only thing that is keeping me in saddle is a strong will to get over the scare phenomenon. To just be myself ‘coz that is when I am at my best. And if am not mistaken that is when I actually leave back my footprints which has always been my unconscious aim.

I don’t want to leave an impression here that I am not enjoying my work. Courtesy guidance by some of the finest professional I have ever met, I am sailing off pretty fine. The whole prerogative is to establish that its’ not a smooth sail for me. Its a not an easy journey ahead for sure but I don’t mind traveling as long as there is a challenge underneath and a threat that fate will lead me into retreat. Let’s see, it is an open war!