From Corporate Communications to HR to.....Higher studies??

Am stuck!! Ugh? Stuck...in what? Well, stuck in my so-called career! Took up MCJ...Masters in Communication and Journalism to become either a journalist or take up public relations in an MNC. It was neither that happened to me as a career! It was Corporate Communications. And did I enjoy it? YES! I did and I still DO.

I took my first step in the direction of Corporate Communications on the floor of India's largest IT services and consultancy organisation. From baby steps I was ready for a 400 mtrs relay when I had to change the track and move to Muscat, the capital of Sultanate of Oman. After learning to beat the heat of the summer of Middle East, which took me around 7 months, I joined the largest bank in Oman in the Corporate Communications Department.

It was a cultural and career learning process. It is not a cake-walk to work in a new cultural environment, where whatever you learnt in your previous role has to be unlearnet and then learn the new tricks of the trade. Your communication skills come to a litmus test in a new country. How you greet, how you write a mail, how you take feedback, how you give feedback etc matters! The non-verbal language determines if your CEO likes the way you answer him and your peers always measure you on how many times you wish, greet and ask "How are you" in a day! It was also an art to accept the loads of accolades that come your way for a small help or a big campaign. It was a true, true learning experience to work in middle east early in the career. It was also a great experience to have managed either department and four vendors in my career in the Bank.

I had a very experienced head of the department, from who I learnt a lot of campaign management, ways to deal with senior management, polished and corporate behaviour but also had my share of dark days, which I would like to put under the header - learning experience and not ponder much.

I would filter the good and the bad and use both lessons in future when I get to deal or work in ME again!

It was a bizarre journey in the first one-year...the second year was a real cake-walk...and I was beginning to settle down, when the India-bug bit me! And the venom spread slowly through my veins and it got into me that my next destination is HOME-INDIA. Where I need not survive on ID cards...where am considered to be the citizen and not an expat, where my privileges are the same as my colleague. And India was getting branded as the "Home Back Destinations" for talented and ambitious young breed.....And consider and still consider myself to be talented and ambitious, decided to move lock-stock and barrel to India. Job hunting started as it was clear that I will not move back on holiday and later look for a job. Job sites, calls to agents, telephonic interviews, negotiations and finally two options in hand - Infrastructure company and an IT company in Technopark Trivandrum...Bangalore and Trivandrum....Team lead and Team lead role.....same CTC......but the benefit of working in Trivandrum was missing in Bangalore and so it was Trivadrum.

Joined the organisation as the Team Lead , though I was told I would be joining the Corporate Communications team. Thought it was OK as still there was MarComm which was the main channel of communications, along with branding and strategy....went off well for six-months and then came the organisational restructuring....now, now don't ask why or what was the need....to a common eye, it might seem unnecessary but for a company on the growth highway, reorganisation is the essential to get on to the superhighway to become a lead player in next three years (who foresaw recession in the beginning of 2008!).

Meanwhile I made a presentation on the campus branding strategy to our CEO. And it was the turning point in my career....the U-turn....and sensing I can add value to a new-team called Business Success Enablers in HR, he advised me to move to HR and asked me to meet the Global Head of HR . I was not sure if I should take the plunge. I debated, deliberated, sat on the decisions, called into rounds of discussion with HR and my mentors in the organisation and finally got convinced that HR is a need-to-have department while Corporate Communications is a good-to-have department. Though I still defer on the statement on Corp. Comm...

And my journey in HR began in mid-2008. Been a true roller-coaster ride. Failed to understand the yes-boss concept would get me anywhere and everywhere I wanted to go. Failed to understand that the new team constituted with HR Operations resources will do only operations and not any strategic or business related case studies as they failed to grasp the concept.

Having said that, I should also add the strong points of the new role. I am getting an excellent insight to the employee relations in an organisations, what goes behind the scene, how are policies made, who takes decisions on change management, who should be asked what and also where all does the organisation go wrong in assessing an impact of a policy or new initiative on the employees and how to rectify it. All this is so much of rich knowledge, so much of direct exposure to real-time issues it is overwhelming! And i do not regret my decision or the advises that came my way to pick up HR! Armed with this knowledge, I can definitely do a much better job when it comes to Internal Communications in any organisation! Everybody who wants to lead, should spend at least 18 months in HR to understand the pulse of the company!

Meanwhile, I want to get back to Corp. Comm. and will definitely get back THERE. Make no mistake! That is my trade. That is the skill I have mastered. I need not let go of my career goal to head a corporate communications department by the time I touch the 10th year in my career! I shall go on...and get there! :) (Intentionally did not add the company names, as this is not my resume and I don't think it is ethical to mention names of organisations I worked or is working for when I am expressing my personal comments!).

And to get there, I need to arm myself with one more core degree...either a MA in Marketing Comm., or a Executive MBA in Marketing or a second Masters in Communications. I would love to do it in UK but not before ruling out all possibilities in India...as this is my home...this is the soil I belong to...Let me now publish this post and get going to check on the admissions for EMBA in India.... Wish me luck...I need loads and loads of it! :)