I had recently turned 20, which according to me was a turning point of my life. No more teenage sagas, time to get more matured. So I asked myself, Shirin, what do you want to do now that you are considering yourself a tad more matured? The answer was almost immediate – I have to get independent. “Yeah, easier said than done mate” said so my inner self. I have always been a father’s girl, a mother’s friend, a baby’s sister and everything else. I wanted to get out of the box. So I decided on getting a job for myself. Dude I am 20. I shouldn’t need to ask my folks for pocket monies, do I? Here I was job hunting, and there an opportunity knocked on my doors.

It was a whirlwind of a romance and the next thing I know is that I am being hired at an efficient IT recruitment firm in my city. Frankly I had no idea what I was going to do amidst these experienced blokes sitting around me ticking away on their comps, never hesitating to pick up the phone, make a call and talk to a complete stranger like they have known him for ages!! So full of mixed emotions, apprehension, nervousness, excitement and adventure I started off into the world of Technical Recruitment.

The training part was pretty smooth. I got to learn things. And pretty things that too. Job posting, learning to use various portals, studying the requirement, trying to understand it to the fullest, trying to find suitable resources, making submissions; name it and I learnt it. All the more, kept an ear open for the fellow recruiters around as they made calls and talked to candidates. Learn learn learn was the agenda. Within three days of my joining, I was all set to make my first professional call.

Keeping aside all the hesitations, I made that call. Soon I was getting the hang of it. One call became ten. Ten became twenty. Shirin, girl going on full throttle! One whole week has passed. I had worked on 2 requirements which seemed like some irrelevant blabber at first but a thorough research made understanding them a bit easier. All I wanted to do was get into a good rhythm. Over the weekend, something unexpected had happened which was about to present itself on Monday.

I wonder why Garfield hates Mondays in particular. I kind of adore them. That’s when I had gone in to see that three of the candidates I had submitted for one of the skills – SAP FICO had been short listed for the first round of interview with our client. The results were starting to show. It was exhilarating. My senior who had trained me in the first place, helped me out with scheduling the interviews. The first round is usually a telephonic round where the HR person conducts a walk-in through the candidate’s resume. It was my duty to ensure that the concerned candidates take up the interview at the allotted time. Hence the first round was conducted.

Days passed, two out of the three candidates were shortlisted for the second round. That being a face to face one. Things started getting onto a serious note for them. For me it was the same task of scheduling the interviews, making sure the candidates show up at the client’s office punctually, a follow up after the interview. I really liked to follow up with my candidates; making sure that their interview went well. If not, giving a few soothing words. It made me feel a tad more human. Anyhow, another candidate was eliminated in the second round. Only one remained. I never gave a second thought as to what our (his and mine) fate might hold. I was having conversations with him almost every day. He seemed confident while getting through the various levels of interview. It must have been a stringent procedure for him. But hey, this is the professional world. You have to prove your worth at each and every stage.

On a Thursday morning, a week from then, I was going about the usual business. Making calls, collecting details. I had almost completed a month working there and yet I marveled at the things I could discover every new day. Right when I was on a call, someone tried to reach out to me. My colleague did me a favor and took the call. It was the third candidate. I could hear the one way conversation but couldn’t quite register it. As my friend was done with the call, she had a huge grin plastered on her face and was waiting for me to get over with my call. Even I was eager. I wrapped up my call and turned to her for the update.

I had made my first placement!! My candidate was through all the rounds of interview and he was hired by our client company. He was going to start within next week. It was a thrilling piece of news. I had never thought I could reach this point so soon. I was happy for the guy who got a new job. I was happy for myself too. The next day our boss e-mailed the team. The first line said “Shirin, welcome to the world of Recruitment”…….