First year as a Corporate fresher

Day - 23 rd June , 2008 Time : - 8 PM

A boy wakes up to the call of his friend -- " 8 baj gaye , ready nahi hona." He takes his tooth brush and rushes to the balcony to see the rising sun. The day was cloudy , but weather was pleasant. He took his file out of the suitcase -- which had been organised and cross-checked hundred times by himself and his mother to make sure that all his certificates are there . Then , wearing the formals --- got to the auto --and reached the place . The building in fornt was majestic and he felt a sense of pride in entering it . It wasn't for the first time that he was entering such a beautiful campus -- but, definitely the feeling of oneness was there with him.
The campus greeted him with an automatic door - ah good.... he liked it. Then , the reciptionist counter he finds a few more similar but anxious faces waiting for their name to be announced. Finally , his turn came and he gets the security clearance and "NEW EMPLOYEE @ ORACLE" batch . He was shown the way to the conference room . The inside corridors reminded him of the galleries of the big offices . In the conference room , HR were there to greet all the new joinees. He comforatbly positioned himself in the 3 rd chair from the front-- a thing quite unusual for him - looking at the fact that he has hardly promoted himself to sit in the first 4 benches of the class room . He said to himself -- the days of being a backbencher has gone. This is a new beginning . After a long presentation ( and boring also) , he was given uncountable number of sheets to make uncountable number of signatures. While signing on the main sheet - he knew -- that the journey has began . He was novice and lonely in this new world - away from his childish desires and fun . Now, every matter is a damn serious business. He will have to overcome his casual attitude , even if he wants to leave a small mark on the industry.
Soon , he was off to meet his new manager -- who will decide his future at his own will. Everything was new , the only exception being his two teammates who happenned to be his previous classmates. Soon , he was to found two more people sitting in his manager's cabin.After some initial introduction, the task-to-do leaflet was in his hand. Although , he was quite impressed by the fact that a lot many neccessities like seat, working station etc has been taken care of by his manager . He still has to do a lot many by himself --- the only grace were the four other new joiness with him .Lets meet the other four -- two of his classmates hwo had been with him for last 4 years -- Muni and Abhishek and two new faces - Vaibhav from IIT-M and Arunoday from IIT-B . Both seemed to be friendly and more or less had the same frequency of mind. He soon got comfortable with them . Their fun loving , casual and take-life-easy attitude matched with him and that nostalgic feeling of the colleges was back in the cubicle.
After a day or two , all five were sent to the training of -- Oracle Database and PL/SQL. The tutor was a knowledgable person. Still ,somehow he could not find training to be much exciting. The luxury of having a net-connected computer and tutor not complaing for not listening was definitely a new experience. The profs would have screamed at him in the college and must have taken this on their ego. But, yes , it was corporate world. No one would push or pull you , they will just throw you out of the race. But , the same attitude was there with everyone and he felt no reason to be exceptional. The only other thing - this fab 5 - did was to be consistently complain about their tutor who was teacing them non-stop from 9:30 to 7 with a few scattered breaks of 10 min . Other batches were left to explore the new city at 5 , and this hurted them badly. So, the days passed and the course completed on paper . Thank God , he didn't had any test post-training . Oracle trusted her employees so much , no test --- A word of wisdom from me -- Don't trust freshers , too much -- atleast engineering grads -- who had an attitude and aptitude for last hour forced study . No force, no incentive , no study -- thats has been motto for last 4 years of engineering.
Well, God has listened to our prayers and next tutors -- were the ones who himself were ultra cool -- just skimmed through the pages -- reading out the lines. Longer and frequent breaks with early departure were the theme of the next training classes. And , officially the training finished after a month. So, a month salary was drawn doing nothing. Thanks Oracle and hence, came the first salary .
The training ends and he is inducted into a team . Core-HR . All 5 friends divided into 5 different teams . New manager is a technically-inclined guy . Well , thats good for me - he thought. Now, he is at work . Business process was too time-consuming. Yet, he started doing so. The quality of work wasn't much interesting for him . His previous coding experience , was no where coming to use, as language was different, and logic required was too simple to need any coding expertise. However, the boy was left to play and know the system . The functional aspect was more to learn than the technical one. Cubersome business processes were to be faced. He was given enough time to make himself well versed with the system and process. Gradually , he started learning the new things.
On the other side , at the personal front also,there wasn't much to cheer about. He was missing the freedom of college , perhaps more than his home. Soon, he realised the next stop was to be IIM . Perhaps, this is only thing which can restore his pride back. So, the nights were devoted to the CAT study. Sundays went in giving mock-cats. A first few scores were average, but , soon he picked up the momentum -- only in DI and Quant, Verbal as always been was still the obstacle for him.
Days passed and then, the months . Recession was there to haunt everyone. Collapse of Lehmann was a shock to him , but the worst was yet to come. Gradually, a few of his friends lost their jobs. Now, the fear of losing the job started haunting him . Yet, in middle of all these , 16th november arrived . The CAT paper came with a new surprise -- 40 questions in English . He knew -- he has lost the battle . But, still he tried his best . Well , next 1 month passed away - trying to save his job.
Came new year and new responsibilty . He was greeted with the P1. His first P1. Good he managed it . He was noved under new mentor. Now, bugs started flowing into his queue. He fought with them bravely. Quite soon , he was well versed with the data-fixes. By this time , CAT result was announced and it was as expected . Once, again he was second best , not the best. He started concentrating on his assignments at office .Bug came and went , he grew in confidence. Code issues started coming in and slowly, he started understanding them after some initial problems. Although , he was solving the bugs , he couldn't see much value addition to his skill sets.
He was quite settled at his workplace as well as his home - although he cannot deny a few disturbances at his home.The difference of opinion and culture could be seen and felt. A series of incidents has left an unerasable remark on this mind.
By this time , he was knowing that he is not there to fix bugs. He has potential , attitude and abilities to make big. So, once again , he started working for CAT - and decided to stop only -- when he is in the best --- this time I will not settle for second-best , how long it takes.2 years , 3 years , 5 years I am ready for it.
And from then onwards , he has been channelising his efforts in this direction. May God bless him and show him the path of success.
Yes , this one year has made him commit a few mistakes , but , he has also, learnt from them. Hopefully, these will be avoided in future.

The burden of responsibility and the joy of earning .
The enthusiasm of learning and the disappointment of parting.
Meeting the new ones and leaving the old ones.
Wondering in the market and looking for utensils.
The late-night fundaes and sleeping sundays.
Maggi in morning and chachi in the dining.
The days are flying, flying and flying .