I was working with a big pharmaceutical company as an Executive Business

Analyst in the PMO. I used to assess vendors and solutions fit for the RnD unit.
My presentation on why we should be adopting a certain IT solution for the RnD
unit was appreciated vendors and my company alike. During this time,
impressed with the way I work, a vendor offered me a job in their company as a
Project Consultant. It came at an opportune moment. I was excited, I was looking
for a change, the package was good, profile was great and there was travel
involved. What more could one want.
Coming from a non-pharma background, I worked extra hard to understand the
concepts and principles of pharma RnD. I was interacting with scientists, PhDs
and Vice presidents. From having no knowledge to recommending the right
solution took immense dedication and zeal to learn.
One should lift oneself by ones own efforts, and should not degrade oneself; for
ones own self is ones friend, and ones own self is ones enemy-Bhagwad Gita
I come from a non-pharmaceutical background. I have worked with one of the
biggest pharma companies and currently with one of the biggest IT solution
provider in the enotebook space for the life science and pharmaceutical domain.
I was interacting with scientists, PhDs and Vice presidents. From having no
knowledge of the domain to recommending the right solutions, took immense
dedication and zeal to learn. My current job was offered to me by a vendor from
my previous organisation as they were impressed with the way I worked. The
offer had come at an opportune moment. I was looking for a change, the
package was good, profile was great and there was travel involved. What more
could one want?
I was confident to outperform. My role involved working with pre sales team to
demo the solution and lead the project team as a PM and an application expert.
The team was very small, and hence a lot of multitasking. Challenges:
1. I had to set up a home office. A big change and most of the colleagues were
from different countries.
2. Except for few recorded training videos and occasional QnA with a colleague,
no formal training was provided on the application I was supposed to work with.
3. I was made the PM of a large project within 2 months of joining.
Not knowing the application in-depth made it worst. I questioned myself several
times if this was the right choice. Between handling the timelines and
understanding the application, my boss was unhappy and my sales manager
wanted me out. With such limited help around, I was questioned about my
dedication. I then told my boss to give me one month, to succeed or I shall hand
over my resignation. I went over the training videos everyday repeatedly, read
on networking and hardware-a new concept, pestered colleagues, time zone no
bar, to help with my doubts. I worked 60 hours every week to deliver the
application. I took twice the normal time but delivered a quality product. My
manager introduces me as a Solution Expert.

In the face of adversity its only your sheer determination and dedication that
counts. Today when I lead my project team, when I lead the presales team , it
just resonates that if you believe, you always will.
Essay 2:
When I started my career my first job, I was limited to a bunch of freshly
graduated colleagues. In my second job, I was exposed to a very different group
of people, all of them senior to me wit respect to age, position and knowledge.
My current job has given me the opportunity to work with a diverse set of people
from different countries.
My colleagues belong to different countries spread all over the world. If I have to
understand about the database I speak with my counterparts from Belarus, if I
have to understand more about the product, I call in the product manager from
Netherlands. I usually have late night online meeting with my colleagues from
Italy and France. Every colleague that I interact comes from a totally different
background. I have been lucky to work on international projects, if not as a
project manager, but as a team member. Every project from a different country
brings along with its own charm and challenges. For instance, its easier to say
no to a customer from the US if our product does not deliver a certain feature,
and it is well received by them. But it is not easy to say no to a customer from
India , because for them, an IT application can do even before an idea is
conceived.
But one defining moment came during my recent visit to a country called
Slovenia. A small central European country .I was invited to give a 3 day training
to a customer residing there. They insisted I come, since I had already given a
similar training to their parent company.
Day 1 : I started introducing myself, the application which I was going to train
them on. The group consisted of 12 persons. Each of them was with the same
company from the past 10 years. Each of them had no prior know knowledge on
the application. We started with slides and explanation.
Day 2: we started from where we left the previous day.
Day 3: The last leg of the training, and it would end with a test, where the cut off
was 50%.
I was surprise, that not one person scored less than 80%. I all my experience of
training people, I had not cme across with such dedication over training.
I then learnt that the team was given instrucrion that the time that the trainer
spent was the most valuable. It was out of respect for the trainer who travelled
from different continent, the group has to dedicate all 3 days to just learning the
concepts. There was no added incentive for the group.

All of them stayed back, worked extra hours to go through what was taught that
day, practice even at home. It was difficult to come by such dedication and more
so a respect for another perons time.