The best kickstart to my career!

By Vaibhav Gangwar, Sales-North India

Almost universally, the first step for MBA graduates fresh into the job market is to run after a big MNC. Unbeknownst to them, there lies a vast sea of infinitely more exciting and well-paying jobs in the flourishing startup arena, especially in those which have met and surpassed all growth expectations. I am one of those fortunate few, who landed such a job, at OfBusiness.

It was a nervous start. Being surrounded by people your own age, who have already climbed ten steps up the success ladder, the self-doubts are bound to rise. ‘Will you ever be able to match up? Do I have it in myself? How did they even get there?’ are all questions a startup environment will give you the answers for.

In an MNC, getting a simple task done involves multiple teams and several individuals. There are organizational hierarchies, protocols and procedures, verticals and power distances. But when it comes to a startup environment, getting a thing done means getting your hands dirty. When you strive to go big, you find yourself taking up tasks usually handled by whole teams in MNCs, all on your own. This is true more so when it comes to sales, wherein to get a thing done for your client, your interactions go cross-vertical, and by the time you are done, you know the A to Z of how things are run in the entirety of your organization. A startup environment makes you the jack of all trades, and a master of most of them, pushing you into learning and growth every single day.

In a startup, you are not just another cog in the big machine, you ARE the machine.

Being around all these people working on complex problems for hours and days together, you are automatically inspired, motivated by your own team so much so that failing does not seem like an option anymore. And after an initial nervous start, I realized the full extent of my potential when I decided to move from Operations, into Sales. There has, honestly, been no looking back since then.

A year at OfBusiness feels like five elsewhere, in terms of experience and learning. I have grown immensely as an employee of the company, and also at a personal level.

Within 12 months, this born-and-brought-up-in-Delhi guy has now extensively travelled to Gujarat, Chattisgarh, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Odisha, Rajasthan, and Madhya Pradesh, as part of official work at OfBusiness. I got to witness how the regional diversity of our business and the peculiarities of the social, political, and economic situations of the particular region affect our business decisions and policies. The PESTLE Analysis from your first year MBA Marketing class finally begins to make sense. I have gained mammoth levels of experience, have grown multifold in confidence, and am now all set to handle the gigantic responsibility bestowed upon me, of spearheading sales in Rajasthan, Gujarat, and Madhyapradesh, along with my team.

Since the day I joined, my area of experience has not just been limited to Operations, but also Finance, Marketing, Strategy, and Customer Relations as well. This all-round growth has been only possible because of the work culture in OfBusiness, where people don’t restrict you, but rather, encourage and support you to grow more and more. Beyond any boundaries of teams and verticals, you will always find people who are more than happy to share their knowledge and wisdom with you, making your going easier and your learning experience enriched.

I firmly believe that these 12 months were just the beginning of much greater things to come. And I am eagerly looking forward to meeting them all heads on.