Anoma Damle, student of a city college, succeeded in bagging not one but two coveted placements and decided to opt for Subex, but not before she made mistakes in an earlier placement process. Work to make interactions fruitful, and be prepared to change your approach if it fails, says Anoma Damle...
Failures are not setbacks but challenges, is what Anoma Damle believes. Amending her approach when it did not take off well with her placement with HCL, her changed approach made her the first student from a city college to strike it with two campus placements. This Delhi-based student who did her MBA at a local college was picked up by Idea Cellular as well as by Subex. While she was selected as a telecom consultant in the first, she preferred the second, for the Corporate Relations team.
Anoma did her schooling from Amity International School, Delhi, and also took part in the Model United Nations conference during school days and won the award of ‘best delegate’. She was also the president of ISTE (Indian Society of Technical Education) during her engineering course.
Corporate Citizen caught up with her to find out about her journey in academics and her new venture in the corporate world.
“My placement process was a complete roller coaster ride. My journey with Subex did not start on the day of the process, but even much before. It all started when Dr Dimple Saini, our Corporate Relations director, asked me to coordinate with Subex’s Chief People Officer Mohan Sitharam who was visiting our college for the first time, during my tenure as an MBA student here.
It was under the guidance and constant support of Dimple ma’am that I had started preparing in a way that interactions turn out to be fruitful. And finally, the interaction did prove a success, as Subex visited our campus for hiring. I remember the day I had gone to receive Mohan Sitharam from the hotel to the college for his lecture. On his way to the college he asked me, what was that one thing I did really well apart from my MBA. ‘I like to participate in debates and I can convey things well,’ was my reply. ‘Can you see the honeycomb there on the road? Say something about it in a way that I feel convinced,’ was Sitharam’s query. And I had replied, ‘Sir all our lives we have been wishing for books and teachings from gurus to know the important lessons of life, but if we look closely, nature teaches us everything. Bees work together as a team their entire life to collect the sweet nectar, teaching us that it’s teamwork that pays at the end, and also no honey comb is built in a day. We must have patience as we put our effort, as it will pay off one day.’ ‘I really like the way you made the pitch,’ he had said. And when Subex came for the campus process I was really confident due to my earlier interaction and knew exactly what the organisation wanted and thus nailed it on the final day.”
When I had faced rejection the first time, my self-confidence went low, and the fear of rejection loomed large. But the very next day I mustered up courage and wrote down on paper what mistakes I had made. I started working even harder for the next process”
“I would be dishonest if I said I didn’t have any. When I had faced rejection the first time, from HCL, my self confidence went low, and the fear of rejection loomed large. But the very next day I mustered up courage and wrote down on paper what mistakes I had made. I started working even harder for the next process and in no time at all I cracked Idea Cellular, and exactly a week after that I got my second offer from Subex. Everybody will have fear during placement. The important thing to remember is to always make your fear work for you and not against you.”
“I make sure I prepare for whatever is required and plan to take up challenges and work as a team, which will make a big difference.”
“I credit my success first to my parents who have put in effort to nurture me. Also since my both my parents were working, it was my grandfather (Shivcharan) who never missed even a single parent teacher meeting or the competitions I participated in, be it my debates, symposia or sports events in my entire academic career. He has been my backbone and I must not miss mentioning the efforts and sacrifice he made for me. My teachers, especially Bala Sir, my corporate relations director Dr Dimple Saini and my friends Ankita, Arindam, Surbhi, Munmoon and Nandini who never left me alone during my tough times.”
“My father (D B Damle) is a doctor by profession and is also the Director of IGNOU (Indira Gandhi National Open University), while my mother (Pragya) works with the Delhi Police and is right now taking care of the domestic violence cell for women. Aalvee Damle, my younger sister, is currently at NIFT and pursuing her designing, and brother, Samyak is appearing for his XII board exams this year.”
By Joe Williams
