Let new adventures begin

I’ve worked in multiple Private sector organizations during the past 14+ years of my professional career, having played numerous roles from Technical to Managerial ones, also in differently sized organizations. On one side, it contributed in shaping my areas of knowledge and enhancing the collective understanding on groups of accompanying processes across the white-collar domain. While on the other, it slowly led me to resonate deep inside, more so recently, the Biblical feeling ‘I have seen all the things that are done under the sun’. Determined to consciously break the mundane and restore meaning, I chanced upon a job opportunity to work in Public sector with a leading Government of India program. It felt Good.

During the interview, with an intimidating Interviewer to Interviewee ratio of 7:1, I enthusiastically emphasized on my offering of a ‘fresh brain’ towards the program, with an aim to further highlight my credentials (albeit hesitatingly, of course!). Eventually, the stakeholder group sitting on the other side of the table saw merit in my proposition and offered me the Managerial role.

Honestly, I joined with anxiety.

In line with popular perception, I was expecting an aged project team comprising folks with IAS background, an office culture marked with ample re-delegation of ownership across departments – manifested via benevolent rotation of files, a relaxed delivery schedule mostly involving monitoring and control of related Fixed Price/T&M contracts, limited office facilities in comparison to the infrastructure an MNC provides, etc. Having never worked with a Public sector body before, my mind was filled with curiosity towards the ways-of-working at my new employer.

It has just been a few weeks since joining, and to be frank, the experience so far has been quite contrary to the initial expectation.

To begin with, I’ve been placed in their Headquarter office which is located in the heart of Delhi. This prominent location is sufficient to rival and exceed even the premium office spaces within Cyber City of Gurgaon, a suburb of Delhi, where I earlier used to commute to. A huge National Flag is hoisted right across the road to the front of the office building, evoking a patriotic feeling within of doing my professional bit for my country.

At office, the peers and the team(s) comprise a mix of young and senior executives, across both sexes, drawn in from the wide array of Government Ministries, accumulating to a collocated repertoire of rich expertise.

As per what I’ve seen so far, however, things do move at a slower pace; but, there’s a fundamental reason to it.

Given the work is always in the public eye, it needs comprehensive vetting from multiple perspectives; to ensure it still stands its case tomorrow, when looked retrospectively. In effect, the activities are quite systematic with exhaustive documentation.

There’s a lot of digitization happening across Government functions lately to provide the required agility in functioning via ease of access.

It is never easy doing procurement of products and/or services for large programs and managing them effectively as well; as it requires an amalgamation of profound technical know-how together with an astute administrative mind. I’m learning my part from the multiple ongoing contracts, currently at various stages of their lifecycle; thereby keeping my hands full (and possibly overflowing!).

In hindsight, I feel I’ve made the right decision.

This feeling is aptly expressed by the English proverb: “Just when the caterpillar thought her life was over, she became a butterfly.”