Of People, Purpose Of People, Purpose and Prosperity

From the steel city of Jamshedpur to the cutting-edge world of Juniper Networks, Ambarish Roy, Talent Acquisition Leader, has mastered the art of talent acquisition. His journey is a story of passion meeting purpose, so much so that he says with quiet conviction, “I was born to do this”. Step into the mind of Ambarish, to discover what drives his enduring love for his work

Corporate Citizen: Tell us a bit about yourself.

Ambarish Roy: I was born and raised in Jamshedpur, Jharkhand where I did my schooling as well. Further, I completed my engineering from Siddharth Institute of Engineering & Technology (SIET), Koraput, Odisha. Over the years, I’ve realised that I’m a people-first professional who believes in empowering others. Being in talent acquisition makes me the right fit for what I truly enjoy doing. I’ve built my leadership around my core philosophies of authenticity, trust and clarity. I strongly believe that recruitment isn’t just about filling roles, it’s about connecting with purpose, almost like building an extended family. At heart, I’m someone who genuinely loves what I do, and that gives my life a purpose. This passion helps me build long lasting relationships and allows me to help and empower people around me.

CC: How do you think Jamshedpur, your home town has moulded you into a better person?

It’s often said that every Jamshedpuriya carries a certain stability, a quiet humility that runs deep. We’re taught early on to live a simple life, without pretension, and to work hard enough to touch the stars. Simple living, high thinking isn’t just a saying for us, it’s a way of life. I believe that philosophy finds its way into everything I do.

CC: Your fondness for theatre—what are your learnings from it, and how do you see it influencing your work?

I’ve always admired Bollywood actors like Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Pankaj Tripathi. They are the artists who have mastered the craft through theatre and carry its raw honesty into everything they do. This has made me believe that theatre gives you the real plot, not just on stage, but in life. Those who do theatre get a rare chance to explore and discover themselves. They are the lucky ones to get a storyline of who they can become. That thought has inspired me to be as raw and real as I can be.

Because of that, I’ve grown into a no-nonsense person, both at work and at home. My straightforwardness helps me set boundaries, giving me the clarity and openness I need. Much like a good play, my work has become crisp and purposeful where every project leads to a meaningful outcome. The team I work with reflects that same energy. We keep things simple, direct and focused, without ever losing sight of what truly matters.

I strongly believe that recruitment isn’t just about filling roles, it’s about connecting with purpose, almost like building an extended family. At heart, I’m someone who genu inely loves what I do, and that gives my life a purpose

— Ambarish Roy

CC: Loyalty is paramount for you—you’ve been with Juniper for two decades now, which is quite a feat. What has kept you so loyal?

Juniper isn’t a regular 9 to 5 job. The company has an incredible DNA where being employee centric and people-first runs in its blood. That’s what keeps employees fresh, upbeat and motivated. Juniper’s values and vision inspire everyone to achieve both personal and company goals.

When I joined Juniper, we were a 500-member team. Today, we’re a family of over 5,000 people, showing a steady 10–12 per cent growth every year. Honestly, this is an incredible feat. But, what truly sets us apart is that we don’t just push people to work, we want them to enjoy what they do and have fun along the way.

For instance, to match the cricket fever of the country, we host the Juniper Premier League. It keeps employees on their feet, literally and figuratively. This initiative brings the whole company together, encouraging camaraderie and teamwork. While it boosts morale and motivation, it also enhances cross-functional bonding. Employees take up leadership roles with pride and often tell us that such activities help reduce stress and burnout. They look forward to this league every year. Giving them a chance to make memories, network, bond and strengthen, their sense of community, all while contributing to their work-life balance and overall well-being.

Oneness and inclusivity There’s a lot more in the offing. We understand that Juniper is our employee's home, away from home, their second family. Once a year, we pay our respect to their first family by inviting them to the office. It’s a large-scale event that celebrates oneness, unity and inclusivity.

Furthermore, there’s no rigid log-in or log-out culture at Juniper. What matters is how well you are connecting with your colleagues and the sense of belonging you build.

For me, while we are a networking company, we’re also the backbone of the world’s networks. Whether you’re in one of the busiest airports or top universities in the world, chances are, you’re in a Juniper network. We power the backbone of global connectivity. As an AI-driven, cloud-ready data centre networking company, we build secure, intelligent networks for the world.

At the heart the company is still our employees—they indeed are the backbone of Juniper. The company has always been built around its employees, and in a culture like that, it’s hard to imagine being anywhere else. Over the years, I’ve grown with this company, not just in my role, but in my understanding of what it means to lead with empathy and purpose. I’ve seen how vision becomes reality when people are placed at its centre. And perhaps it’s that shared sense of belonging, combined with my own belief in loyalty, that’s kept me rooted here all these years. Over the years, we’ve grown into one big family. And, when you feel that sense of belonging, why would anyone want to leave.

"Let me bust a myth here - TA is often mistaken for simply filling a position as quickly as possible. But not many realise that it’s a work of art. TA is about hiring a candidate who is honest, knowledgeable, consistent, humble, helpful, loyal and much more"

CC: One corporate advice that changed your life?

Early on in my career, I was pushed to take on challenges and, not shying away from them made my life much more meaningful. You don’t need to lead a mundane life where you simply complete a set of hirings and call it a day.

Every challenge, every negativity, every bit of pressure is nothing but an opportunity to grow, to shine, and to experience the unexplored. I absolutely love challenging question like, “How can you actually solve the unsolved?” That’s one piece of advice that has truly stayed with me, and I’ve continued to take on such challenges, time and again throughout my career.

CC: For someone who doesn’t know what talent acquisition (TA) is, can you enlighten them?

Hiring has always been, and will always be, a crucial aspect of any organisation. Talent Acquisition is all about acquiring the right talent, someone who can take the company forward or help achieve its business goals.

Let me bust a myth here—TA is often mistaken for simply filling a position as quickly as possible. But, not many realise that it’s a work of art. TA is about hiring a candidate who is honest, knowledgeable, consistent, humble, helpful, loyal, and much more. It’s also about creating the perfect fit for your team.

In essence, we hire people who can work with both humans and machines to solve business problems, and that problem could be anything.

If a candidate says that he/she has completed a project in X number of hours, days or months, that’s fine. But, that’s not the essence of true talent. In my honest opinion, a real talent is someone who can share an experience, a situation, where they’ve either faltered or done well. And, through that story you understand their behaviour, mindset and growth, as a person. That’s what we try to uncover in our approach to TA.

CC: One of the biggest skills that a TA leader hones is listening. And incidentally, it seems to be your mantra too. Why do you think this skill is so important?

I truly believe in the adage that to listen well is as powerful a means of communication and influence as to talk well. For me, listening is a powerful skill, both at home and at work.

In any profession, even in sales, you can sell a product only when you truly understand the customer’s needs. The same applies to TA. Today, with AI being everywhere, it’s essential to retain the human touch. To uphold that human connection and the essence of TA, one must genuinely listen to what the candidate says through their CV, in the interview, and later about their experiences, challenges or concerns.

For example, if you’re hiring a developer and you neither understand the technology nor listen carefully to what the candidate is saying, you can’t make the right hiring decision. Listening is at the heart of every role. A candidate might list ten things on their CV, but if they can’t explain them well, and as a leader, you don’t listen or interpret carefully, you’ll miss on the right match. That’s one of the most crucial aspects of TA.

In short, hearing is paramount. Unless you’re a good listener, you can’t truly understand the person you’re hiring.

CC: If not for TA, what would you be doing right now?

I’m a computer engineer by qualification. So, if not TA, I’d probably be coding or would have been in product management. I love the idea of building things. A product manager’s role fascinates me—balancing what the customer wants and what the developer builds. It’s just like TA — connecting people, bridging gaps, and delivering value. Like cooking, even if you have the freshest tomatoes and the sharpest knives, if the final dish doesn’t appeal to the customer, it’s not worth much. Product managers ensure that balance, and I find that very similar to hiring.

"Over the years, I’ve grown with this company, not just in my role, but in my understanding of what it means to lead with empathy and purpose. I’ve seen how vision becomes reality when people are placed at its centre "

CC: Tell us about a time when you felt like giving up but managed to stay calm and overcome the challenge.

Over the years, I have faced several challenges, both personal and professional. What I have learnt is that tough times don’t last, but tough people do. One such challenge came early in my career when I was building a platform development team from scratch for my organisation. The team was struggling to fill critical roles, deadlines were extremely tight, managers were frustrated, and despite our efforts, candidates were either dropping out or declining our offers. No matter what we tried, things simply weren’t moving. It felt like I was standing before Mount Everest.

But, then a whiff of thought struck me-to pause, relax, calm my mind, and take a deep breath. As I centred myself, I began to gain clarity. I realised the problem wasn’t that we couldn’t attract candidates, it was that we weren’t able to engage them.

I drafted a crisp and precise plan by developing cross-functional touch points, increasing business and leadership connects, and strengthening the overall candidate experience. Within a month, things turned around. We successfully built the team, and the leaders who were initially sceptical became our strongest allies.

Challenges aren’t roadblocks, they are messages. Understand them to gain the clarity and to overcome them. And the smartest way to deal with any challenge is simple — pause, reflect, act and conquer.

CC: Many people talk about diversity in hiring. What do you make of it?

Diversity begins with hiring the right candidate, and it is often the natural outcome of a culture that encourages innovation. While inclusion unfolds after hiring, it sits at the very heart of any diversity and inclusion effort. At its core, this process is about ensuring that everyone has the space to speak, and more importantly, to be heard and valued.

This responsibility ultimately rests with leaders. A true leader listens to the quietest voices in the room and embraces differences with intention. Inclusive leaders create inclusive outcomes. But, hiring is only the start, what follows is the real journey that is fostering inclusion, training, retaining talent, conducting performance reviews, offering promotions and compensation decisions, and giving meaningful feedback. It is a continuous, evolving process. For this to work, managers and leaders must be trained to be unbiased and to uphold these practices consistently.

To me, the strength of a diverse room is not measured by how many different people are in it, but by whether everyone is treated with equal dignity, and whether they feel free to speak, contribute and lead.

CC: There’s a lot of talk about AI being used responsibly in hiring. How do you think AI is changing the way we recruit and create a better candidate experience?

AI is everywhere around us, and rather than shrugging it off, it is wiser to embrace it responsibly. This is exactly what we have done in our hiring process. For us, the candidate experience remains paramount and non negotiable. Integrating AI has been a genuine boon, accelerating hiring while preserving the quality of our decisions.

Used thoughtfully and efficiently, AI has transformed screening, shortlisting, sourcing, scheduling, and a host of repetitive tasks into a seamless operation. What once demanded hours now feels almost effortless. Yet in the midst of this shift, we have not forgotten the value of human judgment and human connection. Engagement and decision-making still rely on people, they always will.

AI is enhancing candidate engagement by making it more personalised and far quicker. The best recruiters today are not replacing themselves with technology, they are making AI a strategic partner to deliver a smarter, faster, and more thoughtful candidate experience.

CC: How do you think Gen Z is changing workplace expectations, and how is Juniper preparing for that shift?

To a large extent, Gen Z is rewriting the rules of work, identity and belonging. This generation opts for flexibility, freedom, and purpose as opposed to hierarchy or titles. They expect quick feedback, value transparency, and speak up without hesitation when something matters to them. Their fluency with technology is not just an advantage, it is a strategic asset for any organisation. What’s particularly interesting is their preference for informal, open conversations over traditional one on-one meetings. Transparency is not just a protocol, but a means of earning their trust

At Juniper, we embrace this shift. Growth is determined by capability, skills and contribution, rather than tenure. In the past, our CEO has even led reverse mentorship initiatives,learning directly from interns and new graduates. We also support flexible work hours and a hybrid work-from-office model, reflecting the values this generation holds most dear.

CC: What has this profession taught you?

It has taught me more about human psychology, empathy and business alignment than any book ever could. This work has shown me how people think, what they fear, what drives them and what they hope for. It has taught me patience and perspective, and it has reminded me that every candidate carries a story that deserves to be heard.

Most of all, it has taught me how to balance the urgency of business with the responsibility of making a good hire, someone who not only brings skill but also fits the culture. Finding that balance is not easy, but it is where the real learning lies.

CC: What do you like to read?

I read more motivational and inspirational books. Attitude Is Everything by Jeff Keller, is a must-read for all MBA students. I recently finished Same as Ever by Morgan Housel, a great one. I’m fascinated by books that explore the aura of people and the mindset behind success.

CC: And when you’re not working, what do you like to do?

I read, I work out, and I lift weights. I’m a gym freak. After Covid, I weighed 90 kgs. That was my wake-up call. I started structured resistance training and a clean diet, and eventually got six-pack abs. I even documented my journey on Instagram, sharing each stage, what worked, what didn’t. Like a behavioural interview for fitness.

CC: What’s the philosophy you live by?

As I often say, ethics matter, discipline matters, and being true to yourself and to the world around you matters the most. My philosophy is simple - live life one day at a time. Be present, embrace the moment. I even have a tattoo that reminds me of it every day called Carpe Diem, I hold it close to my heart.

RAPID-FIRE WITH AMBARISH

• One word that defines your leadership? Servant leadership—I believe in serving my people, interacting with them, understanding them, and moving forward together.
• When HR says “We’ll get back to you”, what does that actually mean?For me, it truly means we’ll get back to you. I don’t believe in ghosting candidates. Communication must be honest.
• One answer from a candidate that’s a complete deal-breaker for you? Dishonesty
• A hiring trend that should disappear? Speed over substance—we should stop hiring for numbers and start hiring for value and business impact.
• One habit that changed your life?Being authentic and sticking to my ethics.
• Biggest myth about talent acquisition? You can hire the best talent fast and cheap. That’s not possible.
• Three tips for freshers before their first interview?Be curious, be a lifelong learner, and be confident.
• If your Zoom interview lasts three hours, what’s your go-to snack?Diet Coke.
• If your career were a Netflix series, what would it be titled?The Intern. It captures my spirit of always learning, always evolving.