L@Te$T Le@rn!ngs !!!

What two weeks man!!!!!! Want to know y??? Well they were my training weeks; I joined in May and had my training now. I joined a month before the official joining, reason I have already mentioned in my previous post :) If we look from my prospective I didn’t need this FIELD training at all, but our system is designed as such that whatever we think we don’t need will be asked by them to Do.
What was the training all about?
My arena of work: Research executive who is responsible for technically doing in-depth interviews and Focus GD with the target groups of the client for their product development and new launches.
Field Training: A training module where I have to go in field, to corporates and households and take appointments for the interviews and ask them to fill questionnaires…..
Now do these RELATE????
- I guess they do, for my profile; I ask the field office and people to make recruitments (find correct respondents) for the interviews that will be done by us - the researchers.
- If I am at level 4 and they are at level 3, then I should know how the work is done at level 3.
Exactly, I have to work for level 3 in the field training. Okie, taken, but do I need to do at their conditions, SORRY boss I won’t.
The aim of training should be to teach you the way difficult things are done. But the irony is that the field personnel never took it that way. Their aim was to make us feel that see how difficult is the job “ WE DO” and you have to admit it by saying it “ how u guys handle this?”.
But I don’t agree to this, everyone’s job is difficult at their own level, it’s the way u take it and do it but that does not mean that u make it illogical just to make others feel the level of difficulty. To make their lives terrible by asking them to find someone who uses a credit card, he should be minimally educated, a salesperson etc. They wanted us to feel the pain of travelling and wandering in search of respondents.
We did that as well, but their basics and intentions were wrong. They should have asked us to do difficult job in a planned way but not to make a simple job difficult unnecessarily by adding their frustration that they have with researchers.
During classroom sessions we were told that qualitative researchers are not liked by the field personnel…. May I ask why?
- Because they are asked to do their job, to recruit according to the client requirement???
Well that is what your job is, isn’t it???? And if you can’t do that as well then you don’t have the right to be there.
You talk about the difficulty level; you can take a researcher’s job and see how easy it is??? You’ll come to know how you have to fulfill all the clients requirements by not evening uttering their needs in front of respondents, here we are atleast specifying you their requirements, and Boss if you were as good as US, then you would have been their at our place and not here. I am not making an outrageous statement here, nor do I want to, the only thing I mean to say is that everybody’s job is as difficult and tricky as the other but you don’t have to make it dirty to prove it to others.
In all we were not treated well, they showed us the wrong attitude, their frustrations, their irrational behavior, their supercilious statements and their sarcastic looks and smile. But still they could not rule us!!!!
We worked and learned that was essential and required, we went to field taking appointments and got them as well. The first week was taken by us as a SPORT, but it became crooked when they objected with we using their conference room, and we taking lunch and such miniscule things, gosh what a level, that pissed us all, coz that was the room we were asked to use, n lunch was from the canteen. They made some unacceptable comments and then we decided, to do things Our Way. The training was about to get over, only a day left, thank god it became dirty in the end :)
Actually can’t blame them for their mentality, they know that they can be bossy with us this time around and they are feeling proud of it. But this could be done with a lot more sophistication. Anyways you always learn better the hard ways. Lets see what’s there for the last day in store for us, will they get more crappy or will they just use some harsh statements to end or the least expected will end it happily :)
My Learnings : stepwise
- Be calm in the initial days; get a feel of what the other person wants from you.
- Try to do it in the best possible ways till the work is logical and inspirational ( now here logical is not only from our prospective but from the project and study prospective)
- Don’t let the work get on your nerves and force u to react in an undesirable manner.
- Be cool and try to make them understand that they can’t force us to do crap.
- If still they are stubborn don’t give a damn and enjoy what you are doing.
By the way I took a very basic level interview (questionnaire filling types) with the group head of one of the biggest financial company and I enjoyed it. She was pretty decent enough to have the patient to keep answering the repetitive questions and telling me in the end,” I don’t know how and why I said YES to this appointment, I usually don’t entertain these kinds of surveys”. Now that is where I prove myself. Anything else required Mr. Field Controller. Do hell with anything else what matters is the fact that We can do your job in a better way but u can’t even think of trying your hand on ours. Am I getting mean? To be frank I don’t care. All I can say is that people will not remember you for what you are or what you’ve done, but they will remember you for what u have made them FEEL.
I m actually looking forward for tomorrow’s day happenings ;)
By the way I am watching Pearl harbor, my all time favorite, and may be that is the reason I was so very motivated all through my post :)

Njoy!!!!!

R@!n & P@!N

Today I am at office sitting dull n feeling grumpy. Don’t know, not feeling too great. May be it’s the weather effect. So I thought of scribbling down some thoughts

It’s raining like cats n dogs here in Mumbai n I am actually having a scary feeling when I came to know that it will stay like this till October. its painful yaar. Gosh its stinky n dirty n irritating if it rains 24 * 7 and you can’t enjoy it coz you need to cross those dirty areas trying to make a way only if you are good enough at the MATRIX STUNTS – by NEO, coz while crossing the roads in between those BEST buses and Auto walas in a hurry to touch the finish line (that is only visible to them n is for them) makes you run for your life.
But still it’s not your school anymore, you need to reach office on time whether its raining or not raining, whether you want to or not, but I guess its part n parcel of the phases of life that comes and go. You need to adapt.

Work life is so different. Me enjoying the kind of change it brought to my life n schedule. The way of planning things has drastically changed. Running for our own needs all alone and making an effective plan for every penny you spent to keep track of things, Man it’s different. Now Dad “a banker provided to every child by God” is no longer our instant cashier or ATM. But it feels good to be independent monetarily and to manage our own resources. Its feel great when you’ve been addressed as MAM from different people at different levels, when you’ve been asked for your distinctive opinion and when your opinion matters.

I attended a SUPER GROUP on Saturday at a five star hotel called Renaissance. It was a good experience. I notice that it’s not that easy to have a creative bent of mind. Supergroup is a kind of discussion where the participants are asked to be creative about designing a concept of the product under discussion and there is fun, khana peena and friendly atmosphere. The participants or super groupers as professionally called are people from various walks of life who are creative. Met some big shots ;) It was a mix an match of people from different arenas, one was an enthusiastic old age housewife aunty, who was good enough to give explanations for all the queries raised and other was 23 yr old female who was been congratulated for her first job. Some one was as handsome as Farhan Akhtar and other one was as funny as a clown who keeps on rolling on the floor and missing his beer.
We discussed their transformation phases in life, there view on different perspectives that will help our clients to analyze their point of view which will help them further in their research. So a concealed way of letting your opinions help your product being designed.
Now this is Creative and qualitative.


This was Saturday, and now a day gone by, so not at all a feeling of weekend will sweep in. Sunday a day should be renamed as Loafday where you feel like lazing around and nothing else. We wet for a movie SARKAR RAJ… dnt know about others but I find it resistable Atleast it’s once a watch. To be frank I don’t like people who go into the nitty gritties and logics of every scene in the movie, come on it’s for your entertainment and fantasies, don’t try to be a detailist you can discuss it, but to be upset with it is like ehhhhhhhh….
So all three of us, Mr nagar, Suicide n me went to Mcdonald and then were loitering around for some while. The clouds were shouting on us, ‘ pls pls go home so that I can pour as much as we want’, so as soon as all three of us reached Home it started raining like crazy n all our shopping plans went in danger. But yup we were safe.

Then nothing we were lazing around made some poha n soup n was YUMMY!!!!!! Fought and then wahi sab TP. So over all it was an eventful day.

Today morning it was raining badlyyyyyy n we got out early to be on the safer side but in vain, we still could not reach early as the trains got late, rain Hang over ;) I guess. people calling left right n centre asking about our well being, coz news channels are there to make it THE MONSOON STORM, a hype. " Mumbai drenched " but guys it always do, haan but the media is highly active now :) more than required.

Nweys reached office on time, but was busy only for two hrs, n ab vallieee, waitin for the right resources to do my work :)

Chalo yaar, got to continue with something , yeh office hai :)
cya