WHEN I REJECTED A BIG COMPANY
One of my very good friends once told me, ‘Kruti, when you reject a big company, is when you become big’. And I felt the power.
Many years ago, I had a dream. In my dream ‘I am working in a start up company, in one of the biggest cities of the world, and the world is recognizing my capabilities. I am trying to make this world a better place and with my contribution the start up is growing into one big company of the world.’
Today when I flash back into my past, I smile and I can say to myself I did it. Well technically I did the first half of my dream, the second half is yet to happen. But I feel content. And my heart leaps with happiness as I tell my friends and family my decision of rejecting an offer from Nissan Europe, one of the largely growing automotive company of 2016.
When I moved to France in 2015, to pursue my masters in Brand communication, I had been searching for an internship in a big company for a very long time. I came here with a goal that almost every Indian student comes with, which is to invest money in higher education, find a well paid job and recover the money invested, then save a lot of money to bring back to India and start a good life, or to finally settle abroad.
After struggling for 4 months and going through 100s of failed interviews, I finally had 2 offers to choose from. One was from Nissan and the other was from Kubity. I chose Kubity, the start up.
I currently work as a digital marketing intern at Kubity in Paris, where we develop apps and supported features for viewing 3D design models in Virtual Reality, where Virtual Reality is made more mobile and easy to carry in all devices, and where you can immerse with the regular things around you using the power of Virtual Reality.
I came from a pure communication and advertising background where I knew nothing about technology. The minute my techie friends would open their mouths, I would sit there making plans of running away. One could say, I was the least updated about new technology in life before and I always feared not understanding it. But something about Kubity and Virtual Reality fascinated me. My heart now wanted to follow the most recent technology findings and updates. I now have an opportunity to explore how brand communciation integrates with digital platforms and high technology. Basically, I now feel like less of a blonde (haha).
Thus, I somehow convinced myself that though Nissan could give me a name and some weight on my CV, by working in a tech start up I could be at par with the future of this world.
But most importantly, I realized that it’s not the designation you get at your job or your company who has the power to decide your profession.
Your profession comes from what you feel you are and hence what you want to be.
Perhaps, many of us struggle with what we want to be in life and thus we switch jobs and pursue different opportunities to finally get there.
But job satisfaction comes from autonomy, and autonomy at work defines how you shape your own key role and ultimately yourself. It’s not that we are confused about what we are or what we want from the job. Infact, we are very clear. What confuses us is the Job Title.
Now think of why people quit their job to start their own business or to join a start up. Because here, they get some freedom to shape their own designation, to shape their own role and not to work within the capacity of their skills, but to learn the skills of their choice.
And I would say the power of this autonomy has also shaped my decision making today.
Imagine, Wouldn’t the world be a better place if we all could come up with our own designations, own key tasks using the knowledge of our capabilities and with one common goal- which is to contribute towards the progress of our companies.
I feel priviledged today that though I work with Kubity, I am still autonomous and though I have a designation, I am what I want to be at work.
To check out the cool company that I work with, visit their website www.kubity.com or you could also download their app ‘Kubity’ on iOS or Android. Here are the links to help you with: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.kubity.player , https://itunes.apple.com/app/kubity/id1012366115
