In my 9th standard we had to read this essay called Serendipity. This essay talked about the origin of the word (from Serendib) and how it was related to the fortuitous "discovery" of the island of Ceylon by some ancient western mariners.
Thinking back Serendipity keeps having an impact on my life - and I am sure, on others' as well.
I have been in the field of Market Research for now almost 20 years - and the incident that triggered my entry into MR can be attributed purely to Serendipity. And I am not alone in this - I have come across very few individuals who entered the MR profession as a deliberate and well thought through choice.
The Placement seasons were on at BIM, Trichy and from the notice board I understood that a Market Research agency called Marketing and Business Associates (MBA Pvt Ltd.) was coming to the campus for recruitment.
I had decided that I wanted to get into one of the leading MNC banks (my dad was a banker too) - and so did not even bother to attend the pre-placement talk.
I was woken up from my afternoon slumber by a class-mate who indicated that Prof. Arya, the charming and charismatic Director of BIM has specifically asked me to attend the interviews in the afternoon as he believed I was temperamentally best suited for a career in MR. In fact he had already put my name in for the 2.30 slot.
When Prof. Arya wishes something, it happens, so I quickly made it to the interview venue. Needless to say I had no clue of what the agency was all about as I had missed the pre-placement presentation.
I met a person called Mathew Paul who I understood was one of the Directors of MBA. My first meeting was uneventful as he gave me a "marketing brief" - I was expected to quickly write up a MR proposal and submit it to him that night for his evaluation. It was a brief on the alcohol category and featured the issue of evaluating the success of a new brand launch.
I wrote up a proposal - but not with any high hopes - and submitted it that evening.
The next day was the interview - anchored around my thoughts on the proposal. It was then that I fell under the charm of Mathew Paul. The way he dissected my approach, his interpretation of the key issues, and his sense of humour. I think somewhere we struck a chord because I was selected along with a couple of other class-mates. The salary offered was Rs 2800 per month (all inclusive) - and as this offer was significantly above the placement cut-off I had no option but to accept it - though until that time I had set my heart on joining a bank.
For me the consolation was the fact that I had got to like Mathew Paul in that short meeting - something about him - his irreverence, his sharpness or his charm - had convinced me that I was in for interesting times at MBA.
Thinking back Serendipity keeps having an impact on my life - and I am sure, on others' as well.
I have been in the field of Market Research for now almost 20 years - and the incident that triggered my entry into MR can be attributed purely to Serendipity. And I am not alone in this - I have come across very few individuals who entered the MR profession as a deliberate and well thought through choice.
The Placement seasons were on at BIM, Trichy and from the notice board I understood that a Market Research agency called Marketing and Business Associates (MBA Pvt Ltd.) was coming to the campus for recruitment.
I had decided that I wanted to get into one of the leading MNC banks (my dad was a banker too) - and so did not even bother to attend the pre-placement talk.
I was woken up from my afternoon slumber by a class-mate who indicated that Prof. Arya, the charming and charismatic Director of BIM has specifically asked me to attend the interviews in the afternoon as he believed I was temperamentally best suited for a career in MR. In fact he had already put my name in for the 2.30 slot.
When Prof. Arya wishes something, it happens, so I quickly made it to the interview venue. Needless to say I had no clue of what the agency was all about as I had missed the pre-placement presentation.
I met a person called Mathew Paul who I understood was one of the Directors of MBA. My first meeting was uneventful as he gave me a "marketing brief" - I was expected to quickly write up a MR proposal and submit it to him that night for his evaluation. It was a brief on the alcohol category and featured the issue of evaluating the success of a new brand launch.
I wrote up a proposal - but not with any high hopes - and submitted it that evening.
The next day was the interview - anchored around my thoughts on the proposal. It was then that I fell under the charm of Mathew Paul. The way he dissected my approach, his interpretation of the key issues, and his sense of humour. I think somewhere we struck a chord because I was selected along with a couple of other class-mates. The salary offered was Rs 2800 per month (all inclusive) - and as this offer was significantly above the placement cut-off I had no option but to accept it - though until that time I had set my heart on joining a bank.
For me the consolation was the fact that I had got to like Mathew Paul in that short meeting - something about him - his irreverence, his sharpness or his charm - had convinced me that I was in for interesting times at MBA.
No comments:
Post a Comment