Fresh out of Engineering College in 1992, I joined Engineers India Limited, Delhi as a Technical Management Trainee.
It was a relatively short stint, Delhi didn’t particularly suit me. I soon ended up in Bokaro with the Steel Authority of India Limited.
As Junior Manager (Operations) I was shift in-charge (Recovery Section) of the Coke Ovens & Bye Products Plant.
Herein, I was responsible for managing independently, a brigade consisting more than 50 employees engaged in the operations of the section of coke ovens & by-products plant, over rotating shifts.
It called for good man management skills, coordination with other operations in the shop as well as with centralized plant-wide maintenance agencies; hence involved a good deal of accountability.
I feel pleased to say that I am still on good terms with the people I worked with then.
But my professional life started much before that.
Even as a student at IIM Calcutta, I worked as a Teaching Assistant for courses on Business Policy, Econometrics, and Financial Accounting.
As a young boy in Intermediate School, my father was strict about me working even during the summer holidays. So while my friends could spend their days playing, I would cycle to work at a store selling steel utensils. It wasn’t interesting work and it definitely didn’t pay well. Often I would be tasked with doing menial work.
But that early experience instilled in me a sense of financial independence and taught me to value all kinds of work.
Even as a student at IIM Calcutta, I worked as a Teaching Assistant for courses on Business Policy, Econometrics, and Financial Accounting. This besides operating a small Printing shop from home. I was married by then and had to find ways to provide for my family while studying.
Those were tough years but they shaped my outlook on life.
