My First Day on the job was at an Innovation Workshop

As a teenager, I always wanted to earn, and become independent. I wanted to work and make my parents feel proud. At that point in time, money took precedence over other factors, like passion, interests and talents. My first job was at an MNC as a customer support executive. Initially, I just loved my job completely. It paid me well, and exposed me to the corporate culture, where I grew my personality very well.

However, there was something that kept telling me, “This is not the place for you”. It took me time to understand what it meant. After 2 years, it dawned on me that it was writing that I longed for the most. It was writing that gave me happiness. It was writing that was beckoning me.

Without much thought, and keeping in mind all the risks involved, I decided to jump into content writing. I would be a fresher again, but that was ok. I would start from scratch, but I would love my work.

And, that’s when I got an opportunity to work as a writer at Zaang Entertainment Pvt Ltd, a company that conducts corporate events and workshops under the brand name CEO Hangout. And fortunately, I happened to begin my journey with one such event.

My first day at work was not at the office, but at the Hilton Hotel. How cool is that!

Sitting in the lobby of the hotel, waiting for my “boss”, I kept imagining how my day would be. Will I be able to establish a good first impression? Will I be able to do justice to this new job? Will my peers like me? How will the day be?

My mental diaries were brought to a halt by the man himself, my “boss” for my rest of the journey with CEO Hangout, and my mentor for this cool new job, Mr. Vinil Ramdev. The very first vibes that he gave me were so welcoming, that half of my nervousness had vanished. “Consider this as an induction. You don’t have to do much today. Just take a look at what our team does. Welcome onboard,” he said.

The event was a workshop on Innovation for business leaders of over 15 companies across Bangalore. The speaker at the event was the famous innovation evangelist, Pavan Soni. I was introduced to the staff who welcomed me with the same warmth. I assisted them with registrations of the guests and a few other formalities at the event.

Also, I got the opportunity to attend the workshop with the other guests and participate like everybody else. Now this was not something that I was prepared for.

The workshop began with an introduction on why innovation is important and what it means. It went on with interactive games and activities that enabled better understanding of the various concepts of the module.

I am no entrepreneur, but the workshop taught me many valuable things about innovation. The interaction with business leaders was a great opportunity in itself and I thoroughly enjoyed every bit of the event.

We called it a day at around 6:00pm. Now was the time for some feedback from my mentor. I was looking forward to it. I was glad that I had not received any harsh comments, except the fact that he had noticed my nervousness and advised me to be more confident and poised. He also described that this was just the beginning and I had to learn and take up multiple roles, apart from that of a content writer.

It is very exciting to be a part of a firm that encourages you to perform multiple, challenging roles, and not just work monotonously. It was something that I had missed at my previous organization. All in all, my first day at Zaang and CEO Hangout was far beyond my expectations, very welcoming, very warm and I learn't a lot about myself and my abilities.