Its been many years since I started working in the industry. But the thought of my initial days of career is still fresh in my memory.. Of course no one can forget their first job and their first pay check.
Here is a conversation with Binoy, my friend who has just joined the industry and his thoughts on campus to corporate. Hope it brings back the good old memories of being a fresher .
Me :What is office life according to you?
Binoy: This July the 13th marked 1 year of corporate life for me. I get asked very often what it’s been like making a transition from college life to the corporate jungle. In my very honest and unbiased opinion it’s really not that different.
I mean true in college you could bunk whenever it became just too cold in the morning to wake up. But then we had to maintain a 70-75% attendance record to be eligible for our exams. Here in the corporate world we have the corporate term for it- ‘sick/emergency leaves’. When it seems just too difficult in the morning to wake up I call up the project lead and say -
“Hi, (cough cough), I’m not really keeping well today (blow nose, sniffle), I don’t think I can make it today (sneeze-acchooo), I’ll try my best to come in the afternoon if I feel better (cough, cough)”.
This works every time.
Me : So what kind of similarities you find between both of them?
Binoy : Appraisal meetings and Vivas aren’t really that different either, we bullshitted our way through most Vivas in college, its pretty much the same scene in the meeting room. Unshaven faces and checked formal shirts (always worked in college lab exams by the way) are replaced by clean shaven faces and crisp neatly ironed shirts Louis Philippe or Van Heusen shirts. When questions are put forth we’ll talk about everything but the subject of the question.
Me :What about deadlines?
Binoy: Project deadlines and last minute preparation for exams is pretty much the same thing. We curse ourselves over and over again saying we should have started before, we then begin to grab whatever resource we have and try make do with it. We take the name of every god in our memory and bribe, cajole or yell at him/her to make this result successful. When ‘D-day’ comes we prepare like warriors going into battle, give our loved ones a longing gaze in the morning, make whatever religious sign we follow, remind our god’s of our deals and then we go ‘Charge!!!!’ And when it is done we act like we’ve scaled Mt. Everest with only one leg.
Me: And Dresscode…..???????
Binoy: In college we went crazy with hairstyles, from Mohawks to spikes to ghajini inspired hairdos. In the corporate world since hairlines are receding or starting to recede there’s not really much room for experimentation in that department. So we move into a new area- Body art or tattoos. Now the experimentation is on how colorful, big and attractive and daring the tattoo can be.
Our circle of friends has changed no doubt but our habits haven’t. In college it used to be hanging out near the chai shop outside college or under some shady tree (if you were among the lucky ones that went to a college with a large campus). In the corporate world it’s the cafeteria or food court or the allocated smoking zone. Whenever our lecturers passed by we’d immediately bend our heads and pass some comment about him/her. Similar scenario in the corporate world, when we see our managers pass by, only now the language is more colorful.
Your final say about college life….
I do really miss the number of holidays we got in college, I mean for any festival under the sun we’d shut shop. In the corporate world it’s restricted to just 8 holidays with two optional (read complete nonsense) holidays thrown in. True since we are being paid we are expected to work and not sit reminiscing about life love and failures (that we do anyway during the weekend drinking sessions) but would it kill the management to raise that number to at least 15-20.
I guess when you really come down to it campus life and corporate life aren’t really that different. Lecturers are replaced by bosses, classrooms are now cubicles, and exams are now review meetings, vivas made us just as nervous as appraisal meetings do.
At the end of day when we receive our appraisal letters we open them with same amount tension we felt as we searched for our names through that long mark sheet in college. If the appraisal is good we celebrate just as we did when we saw a “pass” next to our name. If the result is bad we hang our heads in shame mope around for a few days and then finally say -
“Next year is always there”.
Here is a conversation with Binoy, my friend who has just joined the industry and his thoughts on campus to corporate. Hope it brings back the good old memories of being a fresher .
Me :What is office life according to you?
Binoy: This July the 13th marked 1 year of corporate life for me. I get asked very often what it’s been like making a transition from college life to the corporate jungle. In my very honest and unbiased opinion it’s really not that different.
I mean true in college you could bunk whenever it became just too cold in the morning to wake up. But then we had to maintain a 70-75% attendance record to be eligible for our exams. Here in the corporate world we have the corporate term for it- ‘sick/emergency leaves’. When it seems just too difficult in the morning to wake up I call up the project lead and say -
“Hi, (cough cough), I’m not really keeping well today (blow nose, sniffle), I don’t think I can make it today (sneeze-acchooo), I’ll try my best to come in the afternoon if I feel better (cough, cough)”.
This works every time.
Me : So what kind of similarities you find between both of them?
Binoy : Appraisal meetings and Vivas aren’t really that different either, we bullshitted our way through most Vivas in college, its pretty much the same scene in the meeting room. Unshaven faces and checked formal shirts (always worked in college lab exams by the way) are replaced by clean shaven faces and crisp neatly ironed shirts Louis Philippe or Van Heusen shirts. When questions are put forth we’ll talk about everything but the subject of the question.
Me :What about deadlines?
Binoy: Project deadlines and last minute preparation for exams is pretty much the same thing. We curse ourselves over and over again saying we should have started before, we then begin to grab whatever resource we have and try make do with it. We take the name of every god in our memory and bribe, cajole or yell at him/her to make this result successful. When ‘D-day’ comes we prepare like warriors going into battle, give our loved ones a longing gaze in the morning, make whatever religious sign we follow, remind our god’s of our deals and then we go ‘Charge!!!!’ And when it is done we act like we’ve scaled Mt. Everest with only one leg.
Me: And Dresscode…..???????
Binoy: In college we went crazy with hairstyles, from Mohawks to spikes to ghajini inspired hairdos. In the corporate world since hairlines are receding or starting to recede there’s not really much room for experimentation in that department. So we move into a new area- Body art or tattoos. Now the experimentation is on how colorful, big and attractive and daring the tattoo can be.
Our circle of friends has changed no doubt but our habits haven’t. In college it used to be hanging out near the chai shop outside college or under some shady tree (if you were among the lucky ones that went to a college with a large campus). In the corporate world it’s the cafeteria or food court or the allocated smoking zone. Whenever our lecturers passed by we’d immediately bend our heads and pass some comment about him/her. Similar scenario in the corporate world, when we see our managers pass by, only now the language is more colorful.
Your final say about college life….
I do really miss the number of holidays we got in college, I mean for any festival under the sun we’d shut shop. In the corporate world it’s restricted to just 8 holidays with two optional (read complete nonsense) holidays thrown in. True since we are being paid we are expected to work and not sit reminiscing about life love and failures (that we do anyway during the weekend drinking sessions) but would it kill the management to raise that number to at least 15-20.
I guess when you really come down to it campus life and corporate life aren’t really that different. Lecturers are replaced by bosses, classrooms are now cubicles, and exams are now review meetings, vivas made us just as nervous as appraisal meetings do.
At the end of day when we receive our appraisal letters we open them with same amount tension we felt as we searched for our names through that long mark sheet in college. If the appraisal is good we celebrate just as we did when we saw a “pass” next to our name. If the result is bad we hang our heads in shame mope around for a few days and then finally say -
“Next year is always there”.
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