When one of my life beliefs turned out to be true

In the journey of finding my now lost life purpose, I have been doing a lot of rewind and play of my life. Revisiting beautiful memories, trying to decipher incidents that have shaped my being, all in search of what makes me, ME. I have always had strong beliefs and viewpoints about things, one of those who is either in the black zone or the white. Guess, living with these critical life beliefs have helped:

1. Whatever happens, happens for the best (even the shit that I face, it’s needed)
2. What’s written for me, will be mine (and No one, read NO ONE can take that away)
3. Actions speak louder than words (Do, Do, Do and not Speak, Speak, Speak)
4. Where there’s a Will, there’s a Way (If you truly want it, you will get it!)

Ever since I have established these life rules for myself, I have had incidents that have proven each of them correct, making my resolve to hold on to these even more stronger.

Here’s one proving life rule number 2:

Campus placement is an exciting time for any B school graduate. The nerves, anxiety and stress takes out the best of our characters. My college, though one of the most illustrious one in the country, especially for its HR course, didn’t boast of a great campus placement record. We relied mostly on our esteemed alumni, who would, out of sheer empathy, keep coming back every year to pick students. The success rate of our students in corporate world has been good, so we knew we had the talent, but still we didn’t really invest much in attracting top employers to our campus. Hence, only a handful of good brands visited us annually. One of them was Bharti Airtel.

Airtel was not only the biggest brand that visited us, it was also the highest pay master. Getting a job there was a dream for every student.

Except me.

The hype that surrounded getting placed at Airtel, kept throwing me off. It was like being in an extremely competitive environment where you had to desperately prove your worth to get selected. I didn’t like being in that space. Little did I know, at that nascent stage of my corporate life, that that ruthless competition is exactly what made the corporate world, which I so eagerly wanted to join.

Airtel focussed a lot on diversity, especially for HR roles and hence we girls had a slight edge over boys in the selection process. It also preferred picking students with good academic record, which again ruled out a few other students. So, the competition for the top spot was really among the top layer- me being one of them.

It was a Day 0 company and the whole campus was going crazy deciphering the kind of students Airtel had picked in the past, the questions that are typically asked, the number of rounds, who and what of the panel etc.

The more the euphoria increased, the more I withdrew. Such was my angst against the whole bubble around it, that I didn’t give my name for its selection process. Yes, I refused to sit in the most coveted company our campus had. Among the many people who said I was being stupid, was my husband, that time my classmate and the batch representative for placements. After a lot of arguments and discussions, wherein I had made it absolutely clear that I didn’t want to sit in a company for which there was so much stress, he quietly sent in my name, without informing me.

When the first shortlist came, and my name was announced, he smiled and I frowned. On the same day, ICICI bank was also coming. Just because of the less hype around it, I was more interested in it. I didn’t have the guts to walk up to the teachers and ask them to explain to Airtel why a student wanted to back out, and hence, fuming on my batch representative, I proceeded with Airtel’s selection process. My interviews at both Airtel and ICICI were one after the other, and I felt I did well in both, believing that my ICICI interaction went better than Airtel.

Airtel picked me for its HR team. ICICI didn’t. I cracked the first corporate interview I ever gave for the company where I wasn’t sending my name!

The 7 years that I spent in Airtel were amazing and there was never a day where I regretted being its member. I was meant to be there, and as i say, what’s meant to be mine, will be mine, and no one, including my own self, can stop me from having it!

By the way, there’s also a fifth life purpose that I do follow, but never say loudly, it makes complete sense to listen to your Husband!

Photo by Ethan Robertson on Unsplash