How I got into Human Resources?

Now that I think about it, every choice I’ve made since school has been more about elimination—as in, “I definitely don’t want to do that!”—than affirmation, like “Yess, I really want to do this.”I had seen my sister, 100x more intelligent and hardworking than me, lose her mind having to juggle between coaching and school trying to crack IIT. I didn’t even pause to question whether I had any interest in engineering—it was a straight-up, “Nope, not doing THAT!”

So then, what was left? Well, commerce it was. And to be honest, it wasn't half bad. I quite enjoyed Accountancy and Business Studies; we hadn't studied these subjects before at all, and I was genuinely enjoying it so much, I ended up being one of the class toppers. I worked hard and got myself into a big college in a big university to earn a B.Com Honours degree.

Those three years were absolute chill. Way too chill - to the point I lost interest in the subjects, and when I tried to really understand a topic, I wasn't sure I wanted to know and understand so much about cost accounting. It just always felt like I am pretty sure some machines or some other people will always be able to do this stuff better than me, because I could see I lacked the one big thing, CURIOSITY.

So, what to do then? Give CAT, of course! But something about that didn't feel right either. I was too lost to really benefit from an MBA. So I just continued down this path and eventually got picked up by one of the biggest audit firms for assurance audit. I was quite happy at first - campus placements, the big labels, the slight swag. But I had no idea what I was walking into. Audit was overwhelming, the work was clerical and there were deadlines and pressure every single day. No ‘hey I am feeling a little sick today so I guess I’ll just do this tomorrow’ No, none of that. Day after day, go to office at 8, skip lunch because every task comes with a budgeted time that goes into the torture that was time sheets, every day was a day of the “busy season” only to go back home at 10-11 PM all grumpy. And repeat. Here’s a fun but tragic story: my company provided a cab service to take us to the office, which was just 15 minutes from my place. Towards the end, I would skip the cab ( the fair of which had already been deducted from my peanut of a salary, mind you) and take the metro so I had more “awake” time where I wasn't working, and a time that was for me, my thoughts and my music.

I was desperate to quit. The only problem was I wasn't quite sure what to move to if not this. And so, I did what most of us do when we’re lost: prepare for CAT. (No attac, only truths) :) I was so exhausted from my last job, I decided to take a gap year. A year, just to come back to life, improve my health, meet real people, read, and also ofcourse prepare for CAT. It was during this year, that I came upon Cal Newport’s Be So Good They Can’t Ignore You. You know how sometimes you pick up just the right book at just the right time? This was that book for me. I realised that instead of being miserable in search of that perfect passion, I could pick up work where there’s scope for adding meaningful impact and, in turn, create my passion that aligns with the values I personally care about.

The whole time I was at my last company, I always wondered How is this allowed? Who do we blame? Can I blame someone, or is it just how the system is? And is there a reason why the system is the way it is? People told me that culture is the responsibility of HR. Talk to them. But honestly, it really didn't look like it's their responsibility, not because they weren't doing their job, but because there was a clear mismatch on what's expected of them and the authority and autonomy given to them to actually do it.

I knew this is where I want to go. I took up a job as a contractor in a startup as an HR Generalist. As the first person in the HR team, I built the HR department from scratch. Having no formal education or training, I learned how to be resourceful, build on my existing knowledge, talk to people, and follow blogs of ethical leaders. I took up everything HR, from sourcing to recruitment to operations, and got the work done. This landed me my next job, where I worked as part of the Talent-Operations team, helping create and optimize the talent systems in place for a global organization. I help extract and present data to the broader talent team and business to help them draw insights, identify concern areas and then work on them. Few months into the job, I was beginning to get trained for the task of salary benchmarking for promotions due. For this, we took inputs from hiring managers of employees, and I noticed their oblivion to ensuring fair pay amongst their team. This was not because they needed more intention but because their competing priorities took over, and they never really had the time. It was a big moment for me to realize how important it is for a dedicated talent team to exist and for there to be HR Business partners whose primary job is to ensure employee well-being. A lot of my work was clerical on many days, and that bugged me when I looked at it from my “finding passion” lens, but I have grown to appreciate the attention to detail needed in these tasks as it all adds to an excellent employee experience, something as minor as feeding the wrong DOB prevents an employee from claiming his insurance and causing them stress. Another time, while discussing a case of employee burnout, I found myself equipped to understand the symptoms and even suggest some useful remedies, but I realized that without understanding the root cause of the employee’s burnout sourcing from the business operation, my solutions would probably be incomplete.

Me @ IIM Shillong Convocation

This realisation made me realise that to be a good problem solver in any capacity in a business, I need to understand the business. Fortunately, I cracked CAT, went to a big B-School, studied business, and now am more ready than ever to help create a better working world (the irony iykyk). :D