Is it really you or something else?

” One more week to go and then I am free”

I thought while spinning around in my executive chair. That was the best thing in the office- My spinning chair.

Suddenly my mentor entered the room and I was back at looking at numbers. Rows and rows of numbers ! 

I remembered how happy I was when I joined this internship three months back in may 2020. Lockdown had just ended and I was already frustrated sitting at home studying for an exam’s November attempt. It wasn’t my blood to drop an year for an entrance so I kept doing internships to keep myself occupied as studying could not keep me busy all day.

My research internship on equity research had ended two months ago and I was bored out of my wits. That’s when this in-office internship came along and saved the day for me. It was a home office of one of the partners and at 10 mins distance from my house. I couldn’t be happier !

But as a month passed somehow, I had already started questioning my life choices. I have always loved numbers and mathematics in particular was like meditation for me. It absorbs you completely ! A lot of my friends hated numbers but I was totally in love with it and was one of the few students to score more than 90 in University level mathematics. I could never hate numbers.

But two months into this internship I had already made up my mind to give up the idea of finance and go for marketing or something more creative for my post graduation major. 

My so called office had only two other people apart from myself and both of them were 50 year old males. Though both of them were amazing mentors and I will.always be grateful for what they taught me, there was not much of friendly interaction. I did most of the number crunching and sometimes lines and lines of entries that did not have any mental stimulation or challenges. Most of the times I felt sleepy as the task did not challenge me enough. They paid me what CA students are paid, a little stipend but I hadn’t joined it for money I had joined it for an experience which wasn’t the way I had expected. 

I had decided to give up this feild all together. But by the divine grace, a few months down the line I got a job offer from one of my dream companies and it was a tough choice to make as I had admits from my desired Universities too. But I decided to give numbers one more chance and took up this dream job.

It was only after I joined my team I realised that it wasn’t the feild of work. It was the team I was working for, the place I was working at and also, at some level my position that made me question everything. At the internship they treated and paid me like a student. I felt like more of a support staff who does the grunt work than the team member. 

The organization you are working for and the work culture also matters a lot. In a good firm you get a lot of opportunities. Just like  college they have different activities going on like meditation, yoga, donation drives and special leaves if your work was very busy for a few months. They keep reminding their employees that they care for them. One of the secrets to successful firms are satisfied employees who work at the firm because they want to!

An employee friendly firm makes working a lot more enjoyable. I always look forward to  be assigned in new assignments.

A few things that really surprised me was – They had a week long induction, the welcome week.   There is no sir/mam everyone calls everyone by first name and quality matters more than quantity. You are treated and respected just the same irrespective of your designation. There is almost no micro management and it’s totally on you on how to manage your work. It doesn’t matter if you take an after lunch nap in between if you deliver on time. Yesterday my project head caring-ly  asked me to logout and take some rest. If your work feels like home, what more can you ask for? 

There is very much possible that I might switch after post graduation but I am not tired of numbers for sure. So, if you are frustrated with your current job and are confused why all of a sudden your specialization isn’t working for you then instead of self doubt (a mistake i made) you should think about better opportunities.

PS- I had made a promise to the community about writing a fitness series and book recommendations(Which has been sitting in my draft for weeks) but hadn’t found the perfect moment to publish. Since I wasn’t able to participate in the previous challenge I might be doing in this one most probably 😋

And don’t shy away from participating yourself. Hope to see all of your posts. Har har Mahadev ❤

#thewritechoice