Nruthya Kesavan of Exotel: Her first job, and in 6 months she is acing it!
Nruthya joined Exotel soon after her post-graduation and has been with the company for six months. Too soon to be nominated as the Awesome Startup Employee, is it not? Well, she must be doing the right things. As I discovered the Co-founders of Exotel, Shivakumar Ganesan and Ishwar Sridharan, have quite a few good things to say about her awesomeness.
"When she started, she had the naivete of a fresher, and that changed rapidly with exposure. She can now handle the most difficult client with aplomb," says Ishwar. Shivkumar adds, "At the time of the interview, Nruthya seemed like a street smart person. She was confident, had a good hold on the language and is self-motivated. To top that now she has managed to learn all about a technology and telecom centric product very fast. In fact, her ability to grasp new things quickly has taken me by surprise."
The founders agree that in a short time she has built an amazing rapport with the customers and has helped the company understand how important it is to always put the customer first.
Shivkumar says, “Nruthya exhibits curiosity, self motivation and application. This is a killer combination for a startup. As a company, we expect to move fast and so we look for self motivated people. She is not from an internet or telecom background, so an eagerness to learn new things was important. Armed with these two, she applies her mind in giving solutions to customers and the product team. Everyone loves it."
Because of her awesome contribution, she won the Exotel Ninja Award for the Best Employee this year. Nruthya considers it as her most memorable moment, and says there were other deserving people, and being considered in the same league makes it even more special.
Being from a non-tech background she had her doubts about handling the critical role she was assigned and is glad that the founders had the faith in her to do the task well. Now that does not happen always! Cheers to the startup universe!
According to Ishwar, she was quick to learn that her strengths were planning and execution, and is now a vital part of Exotel's face that clients see. As a startup employee, she has the ability to keep her chin up when things aren't going right, a really admirable quality.
Shivkumar says, “A calling customer almost always is frustrated and thinks Exotel is at fault. They want the account manager to be patient and solve their problem. Nruthya exhibits patience and intelligence almost every single time she interacts with the customer.” He further adds, “I sit in the same room as her and many of her customer calls (that I overhear) bring a smile.”
Nruthya feels that she has been able to learn a lot because of her co-workers as they are amazing people to work with. They have been very supportive and it is this quality that makes Exotel a great place to work. Ask about the work culture at Exotel and she exclaims, “the system works in such a manner that we can just pack our bags and take off for a few days!”
This is possibly how she has managed to travel and see a fair bit of India. “Hampi though fairly close, is a place I have not visited. I love places with historical value and monuments. There is so much to see, learn and absorb.” Since she loves travelling there is a fair bit of photography that she manages to indulge in during her travels. A destination beyond Indian shores she wants to visit is Spain because of its great architectural value.
She shares a great bond with the founders.
They are amazing and I am learning a lot from them. Every day at work is fun. I am passionate about the work I do so there are no challenges, only more and more learning every day.
Since she stays with her parents she feels there is no question of work life balance. She gets ample time for herself and her family.
As an animal lover, she has a pet dog she adores and often rescues animals and finds them shelters too. A little unknown fact about her is that had she not fallen in love with the startup world, she would have been a lawyer.
It is evident from Nruthya’s voice that she is thoroughly enjoying herself doing what she is doing. She says,
Startups are a great place to be in.
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