Best Experience

Out of many events encountered at my debut job, my last-working day of the 45 week stint at Convergys India Services (CIS) reaped what one can undoubtedly regard as the 'Best Experience'.

Prologue :

Destination One Chandigarh, are the consultants responsible for the skimming job for CIS in certain Northern States of India. Destination One selects the potential candidates at the college level and then ushers them for the grand finale with the HR team from CIS. All this process takes almost two individual days' rigor and a selection process of 8-10 stages. The selection is done on the basis of Technical 'know-how' as well as Communication Skills, in written as well as interpersonal fashion. The selected candidates are bestowed with the Letter Of Intent (LOI).

Getting the job was a matter of jubilation, but there was no time to sit back as the Final Semester's exams stood ahead. Again conclusion of exams brought a new concoction of ambivalence for me, as the joining date for my maiden job was much ahead of time. Although initially this seemed as an impediment, but later on all the rush paid-off as the unpacking-packing delays were done away with. Earlier than what I estimated the new environment was as friendly as it could be. CIS boasts of swanky American infrastructure, it helped as most of the clients Convergys server for are from North America. Some names worth a mention are Microsoft, AT&T, Cisco, Orange, Citibank, CapOne, American Express. Hitherto as the industry in unworn, it offers amazing opportunity to a wide spectrum of talent pool.

Job Profile :

AT&T, the American telecom major, had established its back-end services' centers in Canada which from the past three years is in India. The internet services offered under the AT&T's umbrella was christened WorldNet. Canada had WorldNet’s business from the past 8 years, spread across 3 centers, with the major center being at Winnipeg. Later owing to the outsourcing wave except for the Winnipeg center other two centers were moved to Gurgaon (read Delhi) and Mumbai, respectively. But soon Winnipeg lost its business bowing to the intellectual capital present at Indian centers. WorldNet support center has two basic components under its belt - Technician Support & Billing Department. We worked for the Technical Support Department and were held responsible to acknowledge the technical issues faced by the customers and AT&T technicians residing in USA. Equipped with 6 weeks of rigorous training on ISP nitty-gritty and American culture, we boarded on the job-floor. Ours was the 15th batch of technicians for AT&T WorldNet, known as WAVE-15 in the CIS jargon.

The day it was ....

28th April 2005 was my last day of work at CIS. I went to the office with a heavy heart, moments drowned in nostalgia. Be it the fun-learning I had with my team during Communication & Culture Training (CCT) or the scolds we bore from our Process' Trainer (PST), I simply missed it all. With these pangs striking every now and then, I took over a mission of my own - 'Make the last day unforgettable'. My peers knew me for my tacit and suave nature, much of which was due to the multi-tasking I performed owing to the CAT preparation along with the job, which further left me little time to join them in the jamborees. With some remarkable feats achieved like 100% scorer in both CCT & PST, I was never a boy-next-door entity, thus my departure was well noticeable on almost everybody's radar. The above-mentioned mission commenced with the T-jotting session, as I got a T-shirt autographed by all those who made my stint at Convergys commendable. Mr. Ghumman (Country Head, CIS) was the first person I chose to break the ice with, as who else could have made this experience as enchanting as it was than The Dean himself. Then came the time when I was to go to my seat and start the day’s work, as the shirt was still afloat amongst my peers, for they wanted to vent off their share of creativity. Abiding by the mission, I made this a point that "come what may, today I’m going to work with utmost dedication so that I can remember this day of work for ever'.

When it came to the routine chores I was 'right on', tough the days’ dedication was not going to result to anything as my scores would not be considered any longer, but only I could tell what all that meant for me. Case after case was a success, may be it was the day's magic that kept me abreast to the targets. But what made this day more remarkable were the outcomes of the cases I handled. First was the declaration that one of the initial calls of the day was put on calibration by the client, a routine that is followed once in a week. So on yearly basis almost one out of two agents got a chance to prove their mettle, fatefully I got this chance on my last working day. The appreciation directly from the client came as a sweet surprise. Then came the second event which I can still visualize with my eyes closed, it was for another live-appreciation from a customer. This customer was expansive of the way I dealt her case and thus she asked for my supervisor to appreciate. When my supervisor announced "Guys, appreciation call for Tedd (my alias)", following a motivational rite all the agents gave me a standing ovation. Never in my life I felt so elated than I was on this day. But this was not the end of the dream I was living, as the big one was still left to the icing on the cake. Last and definitely not the least, I got the much awaited appraisal. Irony of the matter was that I got it on my last day but still it was able to fasten my pulse rate. My immediate boss confessed while giving that appraisal letter to me –“I liked your resignation letter”. He referred to what I wrote on my resignation letter. It was undersigned as –‘I’d always admire my stint at Convergys’. Nevertheless my day was full of joys as I, though enchanted, march forward to a new beginning.