1 suitcase, packed so as
to not exceed the 15 KG airline baggage limit, a handbag stuffed to the
brim with nick-nacks, albeit expertly to
not weigh more than 7kg (thanks to the oppressive airline restrictions again)
and I set off on a journey called Management Training. Little
did I know that in the subsequent 10 months I would have lived out of that
suitcase in 8 cities, traveled to some 12 more, slept in 20 hotels, across 2
continents, met hundreds of people I will probably never encounter again, made
friends in the strangest corners of the world, be it Africa or suburban
Karnataka, shunned the cocoon of a comfortable and protected upbringing, become
a human calculator and gained some real street smarts as a direct consequence
of parading the mean market streets from morning to evening.
Management Training is akin
to a boot camp which will hurl you into a world of unknown people, strange
places and unforeseeable circumstances which will char you, scar you, empower
you and deflower you of your innocence, if you actually managed to retain any
till after the MBA!
Like a rolling Stone…
"How does it feel, how does it feel?
To be on your own
Like a complete unknown, like a rolling stone"…
For freshers like I once
was, the initial few days of this period can be rather unnerving. You are
constantly in a state of flux, the moment you start settling down in one place
and getting a sense of your whereabouts, you are bundled off to the next
location for the next stint to start over, again! Being constantly uprooted,
completely out of your comfort zone and left to your own devices makes you
adapt, in ways you never knew you were capable of. Suddenly you find yourself becoming responsible. You look for accommodation, alone. Scavenge for food and supplies, alone. Look at plausible means of entertainment that can be enjoyed alone- you go to restaurants, movies and shopping, all alone. You strive to establish s social system of sorts when you are miles away from family and friends and know nobody in the places you would have the misfortune of
residing in during MT period. I found the realization that if some misfortune befell me there would be no one to come to my aid extremely unsettling initially.This lead me to establish genuine friendships with the many people- the ones I cohabited with, hotel staff, autowallas who ferried me to and fro in small towns, cab drivers and my fellow team members. I realized during this time
that humans really are social animals, being able to connect with another
person at a genuine emotional level lends stability and security to our existence,
all alone you cannot tread the winding roads of the world. I made friends with people across 3 countries, people I am still in touch with despite management
training days being long over.
Adventure is out there…
The day I accepted my
PPO I had a foreboding that I was stepping into a world very different from the
one I had inhabited for the first quarter of my life, Little did I know that I
was immersing myself into a sea of crazy adventures, testosterone, aggression, crazy happenings and idiosyncratic characters who never failed to amuse.
If you harbor a spirit
of adventure and curiosity and don’t get rattled too easily then a structured
FMCG management training program is the best platform to propel you into the big bad world. Which other profession will take you across the length and
width of the country, across mountains and oceans, into deep jungles,impoverished hinterlands and Naxal areas without being shackled by the fetters of
responsibility? (while all MTs feel that they are making a real difference to
the territory they have been temporarily assigned to we all know who actually
controls the reigns, no offence MTs, I lived with the same illusion once :P).
This
is a period that will give you enough tales to tell about being stranded in
some village in the hinterlands of south India due to the local public bus
braking down, to almost being hit by a stray bullet in interior Madhya Pradesh, being in accidents, braking your limbs to staying in shady hotels which either doubled up as love nests or mafia hideouts. Your repository of ‘been there done that’ tales will swell if you come out of Management Training alive, don't worry meek one, we all do. You will certainly not come out of MT period unscathed but these scars will give you an illusion of being an invincible bad-ass for the rest of your life! You get to witness reality; interact with, observe and live like the locals in towns and small villages, travel to places you wouldn't have otherwise ventured into,
learn how socio-economic factors affect business and the lives of people.
This experience is as real as it gets. Live it, absorb it. As Charles Dickens
would have advised Explore, Dream, Discover, for management training is the
best time to do so.
It is only during the
management training that you climb the corporate ladder at the speed of light
and rise 5-6 levels in a matter of mere 10 months! Never again will any of us
see such rapid elevations in ranks in the corporate world so bask in the glory of spectacular overnight promotions while it lasts! My
career trajectory in these 10 months looked something like this:
From a mere
salesman in North India to becoming the field officer in Chandigarh, to travelling for miles on rickety public buses and
venturing into the hinterlands of South India as first a rural salesman and then an area sales executive , to sales development in East
India, followed by a brief sojourn which had me venturing into those corners of
Africa that no ordinary tourist would ever be privy to, donning the ASM hat and
learning the tricks of the trade in West India to finally being shoved out of
my cocoon to carry the ASM baton in Upcountry Telangana!
Brothers-in-arms...
During Management
Training you will constantly be uprooted and catapulted from place
to place. Your non MBA friends and family will certainly have no inkling of
the constant phase of upheaval your life would be in as you are forced to
withdraw from civilization as you know it and start a life in the rough, rustic
world of sales. This will bring you close to your fellow FMCG management
trainee compatriots and will bind you together for life. These people will not
only be your professional confidants but you would pour your heart out to them
and they would become some of your best advisers when it comes to love, life
and all else that bothers our heads and hearts (while the quality of advice will be highly questionable but as people in sales they would certainly sound
convincing when dishing it out to you!).
Rumor has it...
As a management trainee
myself, and as someone who has ample management trainee friends from other
companies I can tell you that these novices are the best source for office
gossip. If you want to know any inside goof on organizational changes, upcoming
projects, gossip on your bosses, location changes, transfers, people's personal
and professional lives, office romances or anything else under the sun
like which machine makes the best coffee or hot chocolate in HO, then you
should befriend a management trainee. The MTs know-it-all. MTs thrive spectacularly on speculation- each would have his or her theories about
the next stint locations, the final posting location and each person’s theory
would be accompanied by sound arguments, for defending one’s case vehemently is
pretty much what we learnt in our two years of MBA.
Unsolicited advice, for it is my birthright to offer some!
My only advice for all MTs and would-be MTs is to make the most of this period, be willing to learn and unlearn, adapt, try and live like the locals in the godforesaken places you will be sent to, push your boundaries but also take a firm stand if things make you uncomfortable (specially for girls), travel and explore the places you are sent to and you will be amazed by the things you uncover, work, prove your mettle, learn to empathize with the different people you will meet, question but most of all enjoy, for this is that one phase of FMCG life which will be over in a jiffy and before you know it you would be blindly chasing targets oblivious to everything else out there.
