To fifteen...and beyond

Photo by kaleb tapp on Unsplash

I started working because I had to start working - there was no great ambition, or dream to follow. Neither did I know how my career would shape up. I had literally seen an ad in the newspaper (I belong to that generation), decided to apply because it said ‘manager’ (I was that naive) and went for the interview because all they wanted was a graduate (I had just obtained that degree). I got the job - it was a ten-hours-a-day, six-days-a-week job, with a salary well under ten thousand rupees, and I was ecstatic because with that money, even after I paid for my travel to and from the office, and recharged my phone for a month, I would still be able to hand over some money to my mother (that, I think was my only aim in life at the time). 

Family pushed me to take up MBA while I was working, and I sulked and grumbled then because it was tiring and irritating to study while working (and totally worth it, but do not tell my family that). 

My tryst with communications began with my first job, which had nothing to do with my role and everything to do with my interest in new media, as it was called then. It was probably love at first sight between communications and me, but the confused being that I was, I did not really realise it.

For the first two years of my career, I really just chased money (quite stupidly, may I add, because I was literally earning peanuts). I did not enjoy what I was doing. But luckily, I was still in a space to experiment (I probably still am - it’s a mindset, isn’t it?). So I chose to whine about it at a house party and someone (spoiler: who was going to change the direction of my career) who just wanted me to stop whining asked me what I was on about. I confessed that I didn’t like my job, and she asked me what I could do. To which I remember saying (only), “I write. I can write.”

It was either the brevity of that answer, or the confidence (or so I like to think), or just a stroke of good luck that, on that note, began my journey with communications as a profession. That was 2010. And I have stuck to communications ever since - working with women leaders in the PRI, to deafness in children, to real estate, to children’s rights, to financial freedom for women, and to the financial sector that I am in right now - and I intend to never let go. 

I complete fifteen years of work life today. It's not a lot of time compared to many people I know, but for me, it's been a hell of a ride. From being clueless about what I want to do in life, to finding my way and falling in love with my profession, I’ve been through it all. I’ve met brave children and inspirational people from all genders, changemakers, and talented professionals, and made friends with colleagues who’ve taught me a lot, and worked with some of the best leaders. Not to say that it was all hunky dory all the time - there were instances where I was underpaid, overworked, stressed, manipulated, and had to work with people I never want to meet in my life again. 

But through all of these experiences, I learnt some of the best lessons in life - from understanding how to deal with different kinds of people to asserting my opinion where I knew I was right (despite my position in the company, because good companies listen to everyone’s voices), to accepting others’ perspectives where I knew I wasn’t, to enjoying brainstorming sessions with crazily talented people,  and learning the value of smart work. I learnt how important it is to keep learning, understand trends, and observe and earn people. It's been a good journey and there really isn’t much I would change in it. 

People still ask me what exactly does a communications person do? Do they ‘make things look pretty,’ ‘write a post,’ ‘make a design,’ ‘put the logo on the ppt,’ ‘tell people how to write emails,’ ‘teach a language,’ ‘make videos,’ or format documents’ - and trust me, all of us communications professionals know how to avoid these questions, or just make the conversation stop right there (because, really, in the age of people being on their phones all the time it is that much more exasperating), but sometimes, I choose not to.

Sometimes, I choose to say that a communications professional is the one that tells the world, in the way that the world will understand, what exactly it is that YOU do, and why exactly you do it ... that without communications, you may be doing a lot of work, but the people that need to know about it, won’t. We are your missing puzzle piece (well, more often than not!)

To date, I do a bit of this and a bit of that, and a lot of writing - the crux of my work experience as a communications professional has been that I am the proverbial jack of all trades. But I look at my career with a different lens (is that a surprise?) - I believe what I have been doing all through my professional life is creating a need for communications where it was supposed to be non-existent, and then give the role a dimension, a direction, and a space to grow. 

That, I think, is the least that I can do for a stream that earns me my bread, and is simultaneously something I really really love.