“I am benched”, screamed a friend of my friend as he entered my room. No, he wasn’t any happy about it. In fact, it looked like he would do anything to get out of this situation.
2 months ago, this guy was shouting and screaming at the top of his voice, announcing that he has got a job in MNC and his life is on track.
So now, everyone in the room, including me were wondering what had happened in these 2months. We all knew that he was undergoing a rigorous training program in his company. He used to come home all smiles and stories to share.
“So what, if you are benched?” I asked, little harshly.
“Do you know what it is to sit on bench in a software company? It’s a shame to be on bench. Nobody respects you. There is nothing to do. You just forward emails, read the same forwards ‘n’ number of times, sit in cafeteria, gossip and come home. And tell you what? We never knew when we would get the project. My life is done man. They screwed my life. Imagine what would happen to my career. I will not be able to move into another company if I stay on bench for long. My friends are already planning to move now.” With this he put his head down and his shoulders slouched.
His words took me back by few years. I was not the brightest student with high IQ, but that didn’t mean I never tried to be one. I passed engineering from a reputed institute with an average first class; the campus placement was therefore out of question. Life outside college campus wasn’t easy. I attended many interviews, cleared few but failed to make it into the company. Well, the story wasn’t much different with my friends either. We rented a house far away from the city to reduce cost. Daily commute to the city, changing crowded buses, walking long distances, to attend an interview and finally failing to make it through, was talking its toll on our health and mind. On the other hand, meeting our daily and monthly expenses was another challenge.
We decided that it was not going to work out this way. We tried to figure out why; we were failing to make use of opportunities. A day’s brain storming session made it very clear. We didn’t know what we needed; moreover we didn’t care to think about what our probable employers expected from us. Of course we all wanted an engineering job to suite our qualifications but we lacked the skill sets required to accomplish those jobs.
We studied the market and narrowed down to few main departments and skill sets which the companies were asking for, apart from the soft skills and an engineering degree.
Each one of us decided to select the skill set or the specialization which he thought, he was comfortable and which interested him. Therefore, we promised ourselves to dedicate the next few months to acquire these skill sets and with this newly acquired weapon we would attack the jobs again. Of course we had many questions like,”What if the market changed by the time we finished these specialization courses? And so on.” But we also decided to not to think about plan B.
4 months down the line, 2 of them topped the batch in their respective institutes and the companies had queued up to hire them. They never looked back after this.
Meanwhile I had taken up the job in a company with 6 employees. I would spend my time learning the language required to develop the companies’ software. But I didn’t feel like working for charity money. Therefore, I would ask my colleagues to give me some piece of work so that I could help them. I would ask them to review my work. I would develop prototype and present it to them. So the continuous pestering and perseverance paid off, and my colleagues felt more confident to provide me the work. Whenever there wasn’t any work for me, I would accompany my boss who was also the managing director of the company, to client locations. I would learn about the product and the presentation skills. Gradually my boss was confident to allot me some of his work, so one day he asked me to go and present the product to the who’s who of State family and health welfare committee. The experience and exposure I got in this company was immaculate. Sure, I had to quit due to health factor caused due to hours spent travelling between office and home, and many other reasons. However, I am very thankful to that company of few.
I would then work as a Microsoft technical support officer (TSO they call it), serving North America and Canada region, over 6 months. Of course, it was a change in the department, but it was also a temporary move to accomplish my plan. Then plan was to get enough of money to pay for the specialization course which my friends had done long back but I had to push it forwards due to several reasons. Little did I know that my job as TSO would educate me so much that latter on in my career, when I had an opportunity to work with clients at onsite for 2 months, I would surpass all the expectations.
After 7 months as TSO, I did get the specialization course in testing and I too topped my batch in this institute. They offered me an opportunity to work for an MNC on a contract basis, for few months. I grabbed it without a word.
Leaving all my friends, relatives behind, with whom I have shared my sorrow and happiness every moment of this journey, was a tough ask. But when life throws its curves at you, sometimes you got to take those curves on your face and convert it to a smile. New city, new climate, new language, new people, new company and the same old me, rather same young me. When you are too focused on your goals, you don’t watch or crib about the magnitude of challenges on your way. You just tend to rise above it. Perhaps that’s what happened to me. 8 months down the line, after a successful project, I would be offered an opportunity to be a permanent employee of the company, which I did grab with all my limbs. A year later I was appreciated for my work with a promotion. My joy’s had not limit then. All the things I had done to be here since 4 long years would flash in front of my eyes.
I am sure many can relate their story to mine and there are far more stories of individuals who have surpassed unimaginable challenges and reached the height of success, which makes my achievement a minute one. So, you must be wondering, what is the point in narrating this?
I am not here just because of me. There were lots of people to help me and push me to achieve. I keep them all close to my heart. But take my word on this point. Nobody in anyone’s life will come all the way to help you out in the corporate world. All of them have their own work and goals. However, if you are ready to walk half way to meet them and extend your hand, then you will find many who will reach for you and help you to attain your goals. So, instead of cribbing about not having any god father, let’s make an effort to walk half way and extend our hands.
When you, are on bench, stop complaining that you have no body to help you out and you are helpless in this situation. Let’s learn to ask our superiors what they want from us? How could you be helpful to them? Talk to them. Discuss about the next job which is in pipeline. Gain knowledge on how you could be helpful to do this job. It could be something like, getting trained in the tool that is required to accomplish the job. Learning to track defects, writing MOM’s. However, small it might look, it really matters. Learn from your superiors. Discuss about their experiences. Ask them how you could be helpful. This way you will send a strong message across. People will know that you are not here to take home charity money. Tell them that you are not here for that and you would instead like to earn it. This attitude has helped me. A famous Chinese proverb goes, “one who asks may be a fool for five minutes. He who doesn’t is a fool for a life time.”
Don’t worry too much about future. Many allow themselves to be driven into the negative mind frame like, “how is this going to help me to gain me more salary? How can I become a manager in very short time? Where can I cut corners to grow? How could writing MOM take me to manager’s chair? Why should I be doing this? Believe me; many founders of the successful companies today had once started their job by laying foundation stone and cementing their basic concepts.
I am a strong believer of the Steve Jobs theory (founder of Apple computers). You cannot connect the dots in your life looking forward. You can connect them looking backwards. When I was working at Microsoft as TSO, little did I know how it would mould me to take up the challenges I would face while communicating with my clients. I had the opportunity to work with my clients in their office at onsite for a little over 2 months. It was the most challenging assignment till date both technically and non technically. All the education and experience I received as TSO was very helpful to accomplish this project. I didn’t know then, how a job as TSO could help me to achieve my goals, but I did it with my heart without regret and learnt from it. So looking back I can connect the dots. Whatever, we do, let’s do it with positive mind frame. Let’s understand that one day we would look back with pride; for what we had done yesterday is the reason for our happiness today. Today is yours. Let’s work on it.
Many colleagues on bench complain about, not being respected by their team mates or superiors. Let us think on this. If I spend my time forwarding emails, chatting to my friends over phone morning till evening, gossiping in cafeteria at rush hour even though I am well aware of the fact that many are holding plates in their hands looking for a place to sit and have lunch, how would I gain any respect? No one, except for few of the fellow like thinkers who would pull you down by their sad story of salary, hikes, appraisals, to add up to your misery.
Let’s, think about it. We get paid for those 8hrs of dedicated, sincere work. We get paid because we add value to the market. Let’s, think about how we could add value to the company. This way one would be respected for his/her effort. Else, if we just come, warm up the seat, spend companies’ resource and go home complaining about food, salary, superiors, then doesn’t that mean, a street vendor adds more value to the market than us? If we are not on a project lets work on developing our skill sets. Everybody has a weakness. Let’s accept it. Let’s work on reducing them. You could learn few things on time management, client interfacing skills and so on. You could be a part of a committee within the organization. The idea is to add value to the team and thereby your life as well.
At the same time it is the responsibility of the superiors to give back what they have received when they were fresher’s. Helping him or her overcome the challenges. Make them comfortable with the corporate culture. Many of them come directly from college to corporate life. It’s difficult to make this transition, so the superiors could help them with the day to day work in office and guide them. Of course, you might complain about a lot of work. But think on these lines. What if your superior stop’s listening to you? How do you feel?
As Subroto Bagchi, co founder of mind tree had said in this book, “Go kiss the World”. The menial person is important. Trying to please your boss is not beneficial in long run. On the other hand if you are considerate towards your juniors who are below you, greet them with a pat, a smile or nice words, you will be remembered for a life time.
And to all the junior colleagues, I would like to add from the same book. “The power to receive is far more important than the power to give. The act of receiving is far more significant in the overall scheme of things. One has to be blessed to receive. A good example is a family. Imagine parents of four children who raise them in a very comparable manner; yet the four children may grow up to be very different people in their own lives. One may become successful and rich but insular, one poor but willing to help, another leads a life of principle and another develops a flexible moral code and blames environment. The input from the parents’ remain the same, the output can be so vastly different. In the corporate world, a mentor who looks into 2 members of the team might share the same guidelines, but one would go ahead to become very successful but the other leads his life concentrating on not so important things. The power is then not in giving, it is in the extended hand that receives. What matters is the capability to catalyze what you have received.
I looked at my angry friend and said, “Yes bro. I was on bench too. But was on my own. No pay, no guidelines, no help, running around from one gate to another. You have the privilege to take time to improve your shortcomings at the companies’ expense. Count your blessings. Go kiss the world”
