The time period for this post starts from June 2006 and covers November 2006, the month in which I had to make a tough decision regarding my future career – on one hand, there was a great opportunity that was available rarely and on the other hand, there was a beginning towards achieving a goal in future education. Will talk more about this dilemma in the latter part of this post.
In June 2006, life had by then settled in the IT industry and Syntel in particular. Our schedule was more or less fixed with regular office-home travel and weekdays filled with conference calls, emails, etc. Weekends were about resting at home and going out with friends to play football, cricket, watch movies, etc.
FD was working hard and I could see it by the long hours he was putting in. Some days, FD worked for full nights too and left early morning at 6 am. I was going quite well with my project too and often finished the work at hand without staying full night at office. So, that was an experience that I kind of missed out – of staying back in office for the entire night with colleagues and at certain moments, freaking out too.
HIRST project prepared me adequately and appropriately to learn more about the system in place and how each part contributed to the whole. I was beginning to take control and master the system. I knew it was a daunting task but I was up for it. The project was expected to complete somewhere in June or July and we were busy wrapping up things.
VSP’s support from onshore was constantly available in psychological terms. She was working double surely that we were in a comfortable position and in a cordial relation with the clients.
A new team member who later on became a good friend came into my life, his name being HP in the blog. He was working on another project whose team was located in Unit 96 (where we had our training – right next to my training classroom). He used to travel by the Dadar bus and I used to catch up with him when I went by the same bus. He is a totally fun guy to be with – cracks a lot of PJs and can be lively when it comes to pulling legs of someone. He is technically intelligent and has command over the programming parts and technical skills. He likes to keep himself updated and constantly learns new ways of doing things. I’m still in touch with the guy and we are friends till date.
Now came the surprise for FD and me which SG threw suddenly at us – he called us in his cubicle one fine day. We both thought it had to do with some regular work and probably we had to report it to him. But then he opened a new avenue for us by saying that he was going to apply to the HR department for our Visas for going onsite. It struck us like lightning – we never expected this to come so soon. I mean, it was barely 6 months that we were on the project. It is unbelievable to hear that you are getting such a great opportunity to enhance your career at such an early stage. Onsite is something like Mecca or Vaishnodevi for guys like us who have joined few months back. And here was a chance to go for it – achieve something big in life.
While this news broke in front of us, after the initial euphoria came the dilemma for me when I got back my train of thoughts back in line. I had applied for giving CAT 06 examination for getting admission to Post Graduate Program in Master of Business Administration (MBA) either from IIMs or CAT score considering colleges. My mindset was towards studying for CAT 06 exam and get a good enough score to earn a GD/PI call from the colleges that I apply for. Ever since I graduated as a Computer Engineer, I wanted to go for a MBA – something which crossed my mind since school days.
There was an aptitude test conducted in school (when I was in 9th standard) for helping us know our suitable career fields. The result for me (in the year 1998 when I took this test) came and I got 2 career fields as being suitable for me:
1. Engineering
2. Management
I had already completed my BE and now I wanted to do MBA to fulfill this dream.
So, here was a dilemma – whether I should go onsite or stay back in India to do MBA. This dilemma haunted me right from that day in June 2006 until November 2006 when I finally made a choice and decided not to look back and regret.
I communicated with SG about my dilemma and here started an interesting phenomenon which I may call ‘mind games’ but I will never consider these ‘mind games’ in a negative sense as SG and me had our own stake into it, which is perfectly valid to protect.
SG, being my boss and the project manager, was right in his approach as he insisted that I go for the onshore option. Today, I can say that had I been in his place, I would have done the same – that is, retain a valuable resource. SG was doing his MBA Part Time from a reputed Institute in Mumbai. I caught this point and told him that if he was doing MBA, then why shouldn’t I do a MBA too? Each point led to another point and we both had a friendly yet thought provoking discussion over the next 6 months whenever we engaged in this discussion of going onsite. Today, when I look back, I‘d say that these discussions are part and parcel of your work experience and it is always good to communicate openly with your boss and share your thoughts.
About the application for Business Visa (as it is called B1 Visa), which was made by SG for FD and me in June 2006, it did not go much further as the people in the ODC (if I remember the name right) department told that in order to be eligible for going onsite, we both were lacking enough number of months of experience.
At that time, the norm for going onsite was:
1. For candidate having educational qualification as either Computer Engineering or IT Engineering, you had to work for a minimum for 1 year
2. For candidate having educational qualification as any other than Computer Engineering or IT Engineering, you had to work for a minimum for 1.5 years or in some cases 2 years
FD and I had not yet completed the minimum 1 year needed. So, there was no question of applying for our visa before October 2006. But SG kept trying during that period, due to some circumstances and the response from the ODC was the same.
I was preparing for CAT 06 as much as I could but my work schedule didn’t allow me to spend much time for studying. Many CAT candidates study regularly for 4-6 hours while I was getting barely 1 hour regularly to study. The discussions with SG were going on during this period. So, there was a build-up of more difficulty with each passing day on which choice I should go for.
Finally when we completed 1 year in Syntel (still not 1 year on the project or in the team), SG applied for my visa. FD had opted out as he decided to go for further studies in USA and had applied to many universities out there. I was happy for him. About myself, I was still undecided on whether I should go onsite or not.
One day, SG told me that I needed to increase my work experience artificially so that my total work experience along with the one in this team would sum up to 1 year. So, I arranged for the same by procuring a work experience certificate. I knew that this was not legal but I still went for it as I felt I deserved an onsite call because of my hard work and that my lack of adequate work experience should not be a hindrance to it as I believed in myself that I was capable enough to handle the onsite work. I backed myself to perform well if the visa was granted.
So, that was my decision – to go for the onsite option, however I gave CAT 06 just as timepass (it was on November 19 2006). That day, I went to the CAT 06 exam without any anxiety in my mind as by that time, everything was solved.
The visa was granted – I had gone to the US Consulate for the visa interview 2 weeks before CAT 06 exam. The interview went well and I was confident in answering the queries. I went through the entire, long process of deputation at Syntel which was filled up with paperwork of all kinds, petitions, forms, applications, etc. Till date, I have maintained a file of all those documents and records which I filed for the visa.
The visa which I got stamped for was a L1 Blanket visa (it is an intra-company employee transfer and a work permit) and the duration of the visa was for 4 years (that is, until November 2009). It was the first L1 Blanket visa in recent times in our team as B1 was more popular then. I guess VSP had a L1 Blanket visa when she went onsite. It wasn’t even 10 months on the team that I had completed and here I was – ready to go onsite with a L1 visa stamped.
CAT 06 was on November 19 2006 and my flight to Phoenix, Arizona, USA was right on the next day that is November 20 2006. So, naturally with everything taken care of for going onsite by the day I gave CAT 06 exam, I was tension-free and went into the exam with a peaceful mind – thinking it was a practice exam.
I had made a choice to forego MBA for the time being and decided to go onsite, get some really valuable experience on my Resume. SG had influenced my decision but I never complain of it – it was in our best interest at that time. I decided that I will not look back on this decision in life and regret it. Life is full of such moments where we will have to sacrifice one path and take up the second path. Life is a great teacher and taking difficult decisions is part of it. I learnt it through the first dilemma that I had during this time period of my life.
I end the post now having recollected as much as I could. The next post will cover my travel to USA and the initial days out there where I made new friends, learnt new skills – professional and personal (this is really going to be one hell of a post for me to write considering I have so much in my mind to write about it).
If you feel that I’ve missed out on anything in this post, kindly provide your feedback and I’ll make sure I’ll write it in my next post.
Signing off now. See ya, friends!
