I joined HCL Technologies on 11th May, 2007, after successfully completing my MBA degree at Army Institute of Management, Kolkata. The journey from Kolkata to New Delhi was horrible. It was perhaps, my second chance to assume what I was going to get in there. But, no. I did not get any clue.
The Rajdhani Express was shut down midway, and we waited for around 5 hours in the middle of nowhere.
Anyways, we finally reached the New Delhi railway station, 7 hours late. And, when we say “we”, I mean myself and my other so-called friend, Swaraj Chakraborty. We took a cab from there till Mayur Vihar, Delhi.
It so happened that the cab driver did not have the license to drive in Noida. So, we had to take an Auto-Rickshaw to Sec-3 Noida. And then the funny thing happened. We got down at the office, and were directed to go report at our guest house. For Swaraj, he was grouped with the other guys in a deserted guest House. Myself, I was grouped with the chicks at the Girls’ hostel.
LOL. Maybe because of my name, they had a mis-thought. But, for the rather minute moment before they found out that I was a guy, I really enjoyed those instances of time, thinking about what’s in store for me. Anyways, we finally got to the “guest house” at sector 51. And guess what! There were no rooms available. I thought perhaps this is what the HR meant, when she came in our campus and talked about “WOW Management”. We waited there for around 3 hours, in the reception (with no AC, not even a ceiling fan). Finally, got the news in the evening that we need to move to another guest house, which was just 4 buildings away. For how long? One night.
Ok, we got our stuffs done, and slept well in the hot room, singing wonderful songs with the mosquitoes.
And next morning, the HCL bus arrived. And before we could say anything, we were instructed to pack up our stuffs and move them to the other guest house (where we arrived first). Great first night, we thought.
And then, we visited the Sec-3 office for our first day of induction. Big promises, miles to go, loads of opportunities, is what we thought of HCL. Came back to our guest house at night to find a new room allotted for myself and Swaraj on the top floor. The AC was awesome here as well. It looked like it was made at least 15 years ago, and had to be started 5 times, before it made to its full speed.
And this way went on the next 4 days of “induction”. And, essentially, I was made to change the guest house 4 times during those 5 days. Not to mention the sorry state of the air-conditioners, the out-of-this-world prices for food and the retarded watchmen. Three cheers to the management.
My first posting came to be in Bangalore, the place where I did my graduation from. It was Mr. Srinivas Sishtla, who accompanied me to Bangalore. He and I together took up a 1-BHK apartment in Bangalore for Rs. 4000 per month, with an advance amount of Rs. 35000. He had some problems at home with his mother being hospitalized, and did not have enough money at that point in time, so I paid his part too for the advance amount. And then we started our quest into the unknown world of Sun ODC at Gold Hill Square building. We were given the task of performing a Six Sigma project to lower the number of erroneous cases in the project. It was like a dream come true to me. I always wanted to lead a Six Sigma project. I did the same here. I was given a team of 3 gentlemen and a lady, all of whom were developers. unfortunately, my pal was more interested in bad-mouthing the company rather than doing some productive work and helping me in my dream project. It was awesome at office. The people were really cool. The food was good too. But, at the end of the day, each day, I had to listen to "HCL is bad and Infosys is good" crap. It had almost become like my bedtime story, the same story each day, with a twist.
In the meantime, I did a Six Sigma training, trained around 75 people and started preparing for my Green Belt.
By that time, it was October 2007. And then came the day, when Mr. Sishtla never returned home.
Bloody scoundrel! He did not even return my 17500 bucks that I paid for him for the apartment advance amount.
Anyways, my life went on. I completed the Six Sigma project by February, and appeared for the Yellow belt exam for Six Sigma. Came out with flying colors, and applied for Green belt. But my manager, Mr. Rajesh Singh had other plans. He said, "I am the PM for this project, so I should get the green belt. Not you." What the hell! I said, "But, I led the project, I trained the entire team. that makes me eligible for Green Belt". But I did not know that I was talking to deaf ears. Anyways, as I waited for the pilot result of the project, I also did some pre-sales stuffs with Mr. Lokesh Sahni.
Wonderful gentleman he was. Difficult job working with BU-Head, but exciting and challenging too.
Anyways, finally the result was published. the project went from 2.3 sigma to 4.7 sigma during just 15 days of the pilot run. The Six Sigma black belt from Bangalore told me, "This is probably the highest growth I have ever witnessed". And that became the first-ever successfully completed Six Sigma project in HCL Bangalore. I was elated. Anyways, as we had a policy of relocation every 6 months, I had to move out of that project. Although it was far more than 6 months, but, better late than never. So, then came my first major change of career line. From Hi-Tech & Manufacturing, to Pharmaceuticals.
That was the day of 1st April, 2008 when this major change came into being, and hence, my turning point #2.
