My first two months in Mu-Sigma

So far so good, was my response to everyone from the moment I put my foot in Bangalore. Questions ranging from how is the Office? how is Bangalore? how is your accommodation? got the same answer "So far so good". And I must say that that "so far so good" phrase has been changed to "I am quite enjoying it". The day I came here I was very much tensed to face the new world ahead me. Mu-Sigma was very gracious enough to give me accommodation in a luxurious Ginger Hotel for my 1st 15 days of stay in Bangalore. A new place and no one to depend upon and add to that me being shy didn't find me any new friends on the first day. The next day I had to reach Mu-Sigma at 8 in the morning. Office fortunately was very near to Ginger Hotel. The formalities started and continued for a couple of days. Short journey shorter, I will explain it in a few bullet points.

Mu-Sigma Office in Bangalore

• MSU

The concept of MSU (Mu-Sigma University) is really very fascinating and interesting too. Mu-Sigma boasts of having extensive trainers to train their freshers . These trainers were freshers too few months or years back, means what they are teaching is what they are learning. It may happen that if you are working in Mu-Sigma, a year down the line you may be told to teach MS Excel to freshers. MSU covers subjects like working in SAS software, MS Excel, Statistics and SQL for over a period of month. I must say that this is very short a duration for all these subjects to complete but this is how Mu-Sigma works! MSU focusses mainly on mock project which we were needed to do during our MSU training. The effort I put in this project was hundred times the effort I put in my final year project in the University. The training ends with an evaluation test of each subject and presenting the mock project to the MSU principals and the mentors.

• Workplace

Mu Sigma never sleeps. The light in Mu Sigma never switches off, the door doesn't closes, there's always someone or the other in the office whether its 2 AM or 11PM, Thursday or Sunday, national holiday or international holiday. I feel to be lucky when i get to hear from my colleagues that they have crossed midnight working in the office, while my recorded leaving time is 10.45 PM so far. People stay late during their training period when they are learning new things or when they have deliverable to make. Business for Mu Sigma is growing, lots of work is coming in, 100s are being recruited every month hence the pressure is also building up to match up with the expectations. As far as I am concerned I am quite liking the work. It goes with my attitude, with no interest in programming I thought Mu Sigma would be a place for me but surprisingly we have to write SAS codes here also with concepts of OOPs in it. Seniors are friendly and quite helpful in attitude. People here are from different background so conflicts in nature also prevail but not so open. I hate to hear that "F" word every now and then. It seems that Mu Sigma has some patent for it. Other than that English is the communicative language. Overall the workplace is enjoyable.

Work Station in one of the bays

• Fun Friday

I eagerly wait for Friday to come. TGIF and the next day starts weekend and with it comes some rest. What rest? If I sit and calculate the amount of sleep I have during my weekdays is far greater than what I have during weekends. Friday is the day when every vertical (we have diff verticals like Technology, Retail, Pharma, Insurance, Airlines, etc.) have some allotted time to have fun. Fun includes games like Dumb charade, Treasure hunt, Pictionary, etc. Apart from general fun Friday-games, we have birthdays occurring every now and then, cake cutting is a must then. Mu Sigma premiere league (MPL), Mu-Talk, kaun banega Entreprenuer? fashion show, stand up comedy, table tennis, carrom, gym, white paper contest, Quiz, etc. are other notable events occurring every now and then. Sometimes it looks like we are back to college.

• Recruitment

With Sequoia Capital investing $25m in the company and the amount of work coming in, the HR team of Mu Sigma is living a tree cutter's life. 100s are recruited every month. IITs, NITs, BITs,  VITs and all the brainy colleges are targeted and what are they giving? Its meager 3.3 lakhs per annum (3.3 is not so less actually). If salary is taken into consideration then probably many will think Mu Sigma is not a place you should look for. But I would say that the amount training they give and the amount of experience you will gatherer in just a few months will help you to catapult yourself to a better position than what you are thinking now. I remember the day Mu Sigma  came to my college to recruit us, I was already recruited by Cognizant. The day started with a very haphazard manner, giving aptitude test which consisted of logical reasoning, picture puzzle, elementary maths, little English, etc. I was always confidence of my apti but the thing I feared was my technical knowledge, but fortunately there was no technical questions in the test neither in the interview. With over 110 students sitting in the test I was sure I would be called for the GD. The inevitable came sooner than expected, within 2 hours of test I came under prepared running with tie in my hand and tying the knot on the way. We were divided in 4 groups, each were given a topic based on the current situations of India or society. I had to speak on "Kolkata metro vs Delhi metro", others were to speak on "Live in relationship", "India and 1st world countries", etc. I think in that short duration speaking 4-5 sentences is more than enough. Among 15 selected from GD 7 were finally selected  to join the company. From the questions they asked in the interview, I can say that they wanted to know how good we have a manager in us, How can we manage different situation? What will be our approach to a given business problem? In a given bad situation what will we do as team member or a manager? they also gave me few puzzles to solve, which fortunately I knew it beforehand, just had to use my grey cells to remember it on that moment.

Mu Sigma was always a different company the moment I heard about it. different kind of package for different years, one and half hour long pre-placement talk, distributing watches to recruited ones, inviting us to dinner party to have our doubts cleared in Kennelworth hotel (near Park Street) and now providing cab rides to employees after 9.30 PM, reimbursing dinner upto Rs.100 after 8.30 PM, Providing Rs.500 to every employee for a treat on completion of a project. Overall I feel satisfied in choosing Mu Sigma over Cognizant even though the latter was giving me an option to stay back home. I miss my home very much, miss my friends and my beloved ones. But I sincerely believe that in life If you want to gain something you need not lose something but you need to manage something. Life always demands you to work hard at some point of time, so why not as a fresher. I don't want to compromise with my life so a little sacrifice is welcome. Deep down I still have in me to work for myself and I will start some day soon. For my younger brothers and sister I would say that think and choose yourself, don't go with others suggestions (not even mine). It was my choice and my interest purely. You may be interested in Networking, Java, coding and programming then for you this is not the place. If in case you have anything extra to ask for you can always reach out to me at haidertanzeel003@gmail.com or facebook

Regards

Edit (Oct 2012) - You might also want to read this My first year in Mu Sigma

Edit (Sep 2015) - I decided to move on to a different pastures to try out different flavors of life. I submitted my resignation in Mu Sigma and took up a new job in Hyderabad Thank you and good bye Mu Sigma

7 reasons why India won the World Cup 2011...

1. Tie matches: While captaining the team, if MS Dhoni tied a match against any opposition during the group stages, He won that tournament. Check out the list.

         i) WC T20: tied against Pakistan, won final against Pakistan.

         ii) IPL: tied against KXI Punjab, won final against Mumbai Indians.

        iii) Champions league Twenty 20: tied against Victorian Bushrangers, won final against Warriors.

       iv) In this World Cup India have already tied against England, so it came early in tournament that India will be going on to win the Cup.

2. The last time India won the Cup was in 1983. If we look at the numerals 83, it add up to (8+3)=11. So it was coming on 2011.

3. The magic of Dhoni. His jersey number is (00)7. What else can you ask for?

4. Series of Victory against the champions. India defeated West Indies in the last group match, then defeated Australia in the quaters, then Pakistan in the Semi Final, they were all the winner of World Cup in 79, 87, 92 in succession (India won in 83 so it is not taken into consideration). So as the series would like to continue, the next in the line of defeated should be Sri lanka (champions in 1996) and lo they were already in the final.

5. India defeated 'S'hakeb's Bangladesh, 'S'ammy's West Indies, 'S'trauss's England (almost), 'S'hahid's Pakistan and so how could 'S'angkara's Sri Lanka be spared.

6. The UV rays of India ably led by Yuvraj Singh. He is a match winner if he scored a 50. Every series he played well, India won. This cannot be an exception. His fielding along with that of Raina and Kohli saved many runs and as a result many matches.

7. Last but not the least, Rajnikanth was present at the stadium. If he supports a team , how can that team gets defeated. Even Aamir Khan was present there too. As one poetically summed up: Honi ko Anhoni kar de, Anhoni ko Honi. Ek jagah jab jama ho teeno, Ghajini, Rajni aur Dhoni.

I wrote in my 'CV', field of intereste and activities--*fitness freak and gyming.

Well this was not taken sportingly by my friends. I became a talking point, they used to laugh at my lean body. They used to say that ha! see this boy , no physique but written gyming as his field of interested and his activities in the CV. It was not that I had fitness issues or I was very thin, but the problem was that being always to gym and still not being able to maintain and match up the standards of gym and nice toned physique. I was always regular to gym or at-least been exercising from day to day, I was conscious about my health and body parts specially my tummy ( i hate people with huge belly, hate their careless attitude even more). All this was happening with me when I am into my final year and already crossed 21 years of age. I envy all those boys younger to me and having nice body whom they can show to anyone at any place and at any time. I too cherish a long time dream of having nice toned athletic body. So I decided to go gyming two years back. Went there , exercised was happy at my growth, stopped, dropped, again started but was never consistent so no growth at all, just height and maintained body ( i mean no dis-shaped physique at all). As I was taunted for my CV affair I decided to get back to 'GYM'. My University (BESUS) boast of having a good gym with all the necessary equipments to meet good standards and to my great advantage its just near my Hostel (Wolfendan Hall), so no reason of getting lazy.

my university gym looks similar to this.

I geared up and committed to myself "no coming back until I achieve my dream" and I promise myself as well to not to stop even after achieving my dream. So I have been gyming since last week I can only say to myself and everybody out there that "IT HURTS". And i assure myself "No gain without pain". So happy gyming................... will post a pic of my body shape soon.....( prayers needed)

After 3 months of hard work, this is what i build. I guess more mass needed!!!!(pic taken on 16th Dec 2011)

7th Mid Semester exam....

Oh no its back again. Examsssssssss, they are here. 21 years have passed and yet it has not left me (us) and may be will never do in future. So why worry. Ab tak toh bahut saare exam de chuke, kafi ladaiyaan ladi , kafi ko giraya, kafi dukh jhele , ab kahe ka darr. Hope this too goes on well. Just one week , just one and it will be over too.
All the best friends....

The Wednesday (15th sept)!!!!

What a memorable day it was....
I left my hostel room at 10 am. praying to GOD to make my day a memorable one and believe me it really was. Never in my life did I experienced something like this. Let me describe it one by one. We decided to reach Haldiram's (VIP rd.) by bus (mini bus-jadavpur to airport) and from there take an auto to Inox city center2. The route was simple and easy but unfortunately the mentioned bus was not moving (maybe strike on their own). Doesn't matter....I am that kind of person who if decided something will stick by it until it is fulfilled. There and then I decided to go to city center 2 but through different route, but this backfired me. After changing 4 buses we reached our destination but it took us hour precious 3 hrs. I was getting the feeling of memorable day!!!!
Anyways everything went on smoothly after then. We also had lunch there (nice!). When I returned to my Hostel (Wolfenden Hall) my other friends had already decided to go to Zamzam for a dinner (we were to leave by 6.30). As I was already tired I said no. But my mind changed as soon as I entered my room. I announced I too would go.
My GOD what an announcement it was. At that time I didn't know what would happen next. At Zamzam (khiderpore) which is 20 min. away from our campus (in taxi) we had our dinner free from all the cares and worries (mind it we had our exams beginning in 3-4 days time). There some two of us from the group told they will be going to watch Dabaang. It was just they two, then something magical came from my mouth and it mesmerized everyone. I asked let us go and watch Resident Evil 4.

 Everyone was stunned as if a snake bit them. Oh no ! what did I do, did I do something wrong. "No! it is the best movie to watch now, new release and that too in 3D" somebody declared. I was happy and everyone else too. But what we didn't really care was the time the movie will take to finish and by the time we will reach our Hostel it will be past midnight (never before in my life did I do something like this). IMAX was the best suited option for us.
 Many of my friends never had an opportunity to see Mani Square before, so it was fun to roam around the Mall showing them different brands and making them dream. Anyways the movie was worth a watch. By GOD's grace we came back at around 12.45 am safe and sound, the journey back was fantastic covering a distance of more than 20 kms in simply 30 mins. (at day time it would have taken our one and half hour). The day was really memorable. Thank You GOD!