Strange are the ways of life!

There was a reason why I wanted to do my MBA. Yes, TOI reports on astronomical sums being paid to 25 year ol somethings was one,the other was my experience with a consulting firm called A when I was working for L&T. I was part of the client team and A was there to reengineer our business process.

I was very excited to be chosen in the client team and even more excited to interact with those 25 year old demi-gods from the IIMs and XLRIs of the world.They came in with fancy laptops (yeah 3 yrs back getting a laptop was a dream of every engineer in L&T), they made fancier PPTs and gave seemingly profound insights into our business.They worked furiously on excel sheets and devoured data like hungry dogs.Their graphs and charts were works of art . They made some amazing changes to our existing process by adding ten new processes and they got paid by the hour (Rs3000per hour for a fresh MBA grad).In short I was spellbound!I decided MBA it is and Consulting it is for me!

I got recruited by A through campus placements. I was super thrilled!I was told I would be a part of the supposed backend global team and I would be called an Analyst. Though disappointed I still bravely took up the offer, thinking about the measly client interaction I had being a Marketing engineer in L&T.The folks from A convinced me it was a well thought of decision to put me in the backend team with my domain expertise .Then comes my day of induction and 13 of us bundled up in a room made for 5 people. I dont see a projector, I dont even see a laptop in that room. A confused HR moves around frantically asking if anyone has come to, well ,induct us into the organization. Suddenly 7 of us are taken into a different room. HR pops head again says "You guys are part of the front end domestic business".Just like that I was thrown from their 'well planned decision'of putting me in a back end job to a front end job.So much for a company which preaches about organizational management to 350 of the fortune 500!!! I have experienced royalty as a new joinee in L&T as well as P&G (internship) so this came as a rude shock. I calmed my self saying might have been an unplanned induction program things will get better. Three hours over noone came in and then we had a hurried induction made on a very old laptop. We are then informed that after the induction we have to fend for ourselves.The office cannot accomodate more than 70 people so we need to pre book our seats.I again calmed myself down saying it was just a phase ,I would be on a project soon and things would change.

Three months done.. I still dont have a fixed seat ( ok that's a part and parcel of consulting), cannot make fancy ppts and my fingers do no work magic excel sheets, I have not received a single welcome mail from my service line head ( He is busy getting projects for me) and surprisingly I am still not staffed on a project ,I don't have a boss to report my boredom to and there is no way to know if work is coming in the near future..! I am a useless resource and it is reaffirmed every fortnight as I fill in my time sheet with unassigned hours... unassigned hours in consulting = falling into a deep bottomless pit!

I'm in the very organization that drove me to do my MBA ... and am left wondering whether the organization values the MBA :) ...Strange are the ways of life!