Monday, August 27, 2007

Induction Program - An Experience

Its been a week since I started working with a young IT Consulting and Solutions company.

I am still spellbound over the effect of a single week at work (not really work!) on my lifestyle. The laid back life I was living over the last two months finally has come to an end. No more sleeping, movies and hanging out. I had a similar feeling during those Engineering days... the migration from the one month vacation to a new semester. But, the migration this time is completely different and is more of a learning experience.

The reason for this is the chilled out and fresher friendly work environment at my organization and the investment, time and the personal attention it puts in to develop us newbies. The highlight of this week was the Induction and Development Program the company had organized for us at Sinhagad Fort near Pune , by a professional outfit named High Places Management Pvt. Ltd. , based at Pune.

These chaps conduct management development programs for various organizations, small and big, for freshers as well as for senior management.

The Induction Program started off with presentations by people with various roles and experience at the company, in Mumbai. Thereafter, on Friday Afternoon we, a batch of twenty one embarked on our journey to the Fort. We already had got various opportunities to get to know each other, but this was the best time to understand my colleagues. The guest house on the top of the fort is a kind of a dormitory, with one huge room each for the guys and the girls.

The weather was just awesome, with clouds hovering around and greenery. Everything just looked surreal. The Induction program consisted of various team games , open forums, trekking, a presentation by the company and discussion of experiences conducted after every activity. The whole thing was very well thought out, designed, planned and managed by the outdoor organization. It was completely relevant and met its goals, focussing on Experiential Learning. (Learning through Action)


The objective of the entire program was to help us understand each other, learn to interact and work with differently minded people and to introduce us to corporate life, a transition from college life. We learnt various lessons, a few of them being time management, being practical, getting work done in spite of different approaches and clashes and try to make the most out of each other's potential, leading to tangible results. The idea is that individual performances and contributions add up and achieve big results.

I've a special mention for one of the directors the outdoor outfit, Mr. Milind Kirtane. A middle aged person, who graduated from IIT Chennai and after working for 8 years, left the comforts of a cushy corporate job for something more adventurous and fulfilling. Since then he has a great experience outdoors. Its been a pleasure to listen to his experiences and philosophy towards life.

The fear and the apprehensions I had about life at work almost vanished after this program. It might be temporary, but it provided a great impetus nonetheless. My understanding of this world, people and the company has taken a step up. I believe that, finally its all in the mind and my mind is ready to enter the corporate world. Well, Almost!!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

haha, welcome to the working man's life.
PS: I'm glad to be out of it;)

Shru said...

wonderful!hope even we have such an eventful induction program!

Rishabh said...

brilliantly put... its always fun readin an adventure freak's blog...
y din i have such an induction prog...sob sob sob