Meet Naini Jain, a young, dynamic student who completed her post-graduation, specialising in the HR stream, from a leading management college in India and is successfully placed with the TCS Group
Today, Naini Jain is successfully placed in the department of Human Resources, Talent Acquisition- India East Team with Tata Consultancy Services (TCS).
Naini did have her share of struggle to get placed with a leading corporate house. But like it’s said – All’s well that ends well. Let’s hear her story.
Reminisces Naini, “Afraid, like all were about getting placed, I began to sit for almost all the companies that fit my profile and specialisation. Seeing all your friends and colleagues getting placed and you are still struggling for it, was the hardest feeling ever. Not being placed for long was something that did bother me always but my teachers, friends and colleagues always said - you may be the last one but you will get the best of all.”
After a lots of prayers and preparations, when TCS entered the campus, after two months of the start of the placement season, Naini wasn’t really prepared.
“Unlike other companies, TCS is known for the filters it puts in on its processes with new and innovative selection parameters. This time it were 60 percent throughout, no backlogs, no gaps between educational degrees, starting the candidate should be open to any location and so on. There was an HR Assessment round, an online test. Later, at the assessment centre, there was a one full-day activity where different team building exercises, decision making activities were carried out, which also included extempore, case study, debates and do on. Each candidate was being evaluated on an individual and group basis. By the end of the day, all those who were selected for next round were sent an email for the final interview round in TCS premises and I was lucky to be one of them,” says Naini.
It was a mixed bag of emotions for Naini with too much of clutter in her head, positive and negative thoughts on whether she would crack it or not.
“I recall, that night was one of the biggest nights ever for me with all sorts of negative and positive thoughts around… but then I decided to be just myself and go ahead with all my confidence and keep the faith. I was scheduled to be the last candidate. The interviews started and all the candidates were being interviewed for minimum 45 minutes and this added more to my fear. It was 6.45 pm. I went in for my interview while the rest of the bunch were waiting for the results. My interview went on for 15 minutes and it was a general one. Somehow when the results were about to come, I felt that I am not going to be selected but then something changed. When my name was announced at the end, I could not believe that I had cracked it,” she recalls.
“The exposure was immense. Be it through books or lectures, I had it all here. Along with studies, there came the extra co-curricular activities, where I was an active participant. I was a part of almost every event, seminar, convocation, HR meets and the cultural fest”
And... when one of the panelists told her, ‘You were not our last choice, Naini,’ she was all the more thrilled.
Naini completely enjoyed herself at the campus. “That fear of getting lost amongst those 800 student managers to the excitement of being a part of this new world where every problem was an opportunity that gave me a reason to just move forward taking along my family, friends and people around me and never look back. A debt I can never pay back to my college,” she says.
She owes it to her college, her faculty. “The exposure was immense. Be it through books or lectures, I had it all here. Along with studies, there came the extra co-curricular activities, where I was an active participant. I was a part of almost every event, seminar, farewell, convocation, HR meets and the cultural fest,” adds Naini.
The first and foremost challenge that knocked her doors was to be part of the Central Coordination Team for the college cultural fest, which involved a lot of hard work, planning, controlling, coordination and so on. This not only doubled her confidence but also added a lot of management skills.
“With that came another addition to my resume, i.e. the corporate relations team. Being a part of such a team taught me a how to be patient, how to work for others and help them with their goals. It taught me how to work as a team, in short, it worked as a mock drill to face the corporate world,” she notes.
While the college schedule was way too hectic, it was totally worth it as it completely groomed the students. The internship program of two months also taught Naini a lot. She worked as an intern with Huhtamaki PPL (The Paper Products Ltd in Thane, Mumbai), where she conducted research and completed her project report on how a corporate HR division works.
Naini completed her education from Kota, Rajasthan. She did her senior secondary and higher secondary studies from Modern Senior Secondary School in Kota. Later on, she went to the pink city, Jaipur, to pursue her graduation in Commerce (B.Com honours) in Human Resource Management from the International College for Girls.
After her graduation, she wanted to work as a Human Resource professional but was still not ready to step into the corporate world. Hence, she decided to pursue her post-graduation in the HR stream.
Nain’is father, Ajit Kumar Luhadia works as an Associate Director in the State Education Board of Rajasthan. Her mother, their pillar of strength, Rajkumari Jain is a homemaker who makes sure the family has the best of everything in this world. Naini’s younger brother, the pampered one, Maneet Jain is studying in the XIIth standard and simultaneously preparing for his IIT-JEE. Naini’s hero is her father who stands beside her, in both good and bad times. He has helped her take her own decisions. All in all, it’s a small and loving family who always stand by each other through thick and thin.
Naini is into travelling, dancing and culinary activities. “It’s been really long that I stepped out of my comfort zone, my home, to this amazing world where there’s a surprise waiting for you, every moment, to empower yourself with lots of learning and adventure. I l remember being the most notorious one in school, the backbencher who would bother my teachers and then had the courage to accept my mistake, thereby making me responsible and accountable for my deeds. I firmly believe, no matter where you land up that one baggage you carry with you is just being yourself and let that world around you accept you the way you are,” she smiles.
By Mahalakshmi Hariharan
