A Run

IIM is the latest buzzword that you will normally come across in applications from India. To those who don’t know what IIM is all about: it represents the “Indian IT Male” and not the prestigious Indian Institutes of Management. If you fall this category, then you need to ensure additional efforts to persuade the admissions committee that you are different and not another typical IIM. Extracurricular activities, unusual growth curve in your team, social involvement, etc can certainly differentiate you; so start engaging with such activities right now, if you haven't already.

I am no different from a typical IIM. In my applications, I had talked about my ability to bond with strangers and build a network of trust fully utilising my enthusiastic outlook. Honestly, almost every activity that I engaged with, had coupled an element of fun and I demonstrated in my apps that this passion and high-spirit greatly enhanced my learning and working environments, with numerous examples to support.

Managing information and time was no easy task for database administrators and in particular, having come from a non-traditional background, I found that it was a huge challenge to work on multiple IT projects simultaneously and gain credibility among my team mates at Oracle, who had at least two additional years of experience than I did. But my experiences from college and enthusiastic personality helped me offset all fear and execute critical tasks successfully. I have learned to use the fun-factor as a successful tool at my workplace to build outstanding associations. I also have a history of having infused a number of fun-related activities to the work environment such as celebrating birthdays, organizing team-outings, Caroms/Chess tournaments, etc. I believe that the "enthuse" has ensured high energy across the team, building personal relationships within professional environments. The credibility earned me additional responsibilities such as team’s resource planning, workload management and tasks allocation. I had also structured and documented many critical tasks, helping the team avoid ‘reinventing the wheel’ and save time. I now serve as the point of contact for such activities and I train many of my senior colleagues in that aspect. Despite being the junior most in the team, I had played significant roles in the recruitment process and introduced several innovations. All these successes helped me achieve "Exceeding Expectations" rating at the Oracle’s employee performance review and have been recognised for demonstrating excellent information management skills.

I tried to differentiate myself with this "Enthuse" trait!