Mystory@Meena Arora: How I made my career – Challenges and Successes

I was hailed as a prodigy for my linguistic proficiency be it English, Hindi or Sanskrit. But what is interesting is that it still never clicked to me or my family that I should build up on my strengths. So, totally ignoring something that came naturally to me, I landed up in Commerce. Pursuing Chartered Accountancy was not my cup of tea, so I made peace with enrolling myself in BBA. The obvious choice post that was MBA but being a part of a conservative family, my choices were limited to the colleges in Delhi only.

I can pompously say that I didn’t spend any money on CL and PTs of the world. Bought IMS study material; spent some time on that, took some help from my friends actively preparing for entrance examinations and appeared for SRCC GBO (Global Business Operations). Every Commerce student dreams of studying in SRCC. I did not have good enough percentage to crack BCom (Hons) there and I had to fulfill my wish of being called an SRCC alumnus with my admission in the two-year post-graduate diploma in GBO. The brand was great, the college was close to home, the course fee was nominal and I couldn’t be happier.

The twist in the tale came when despite bagging a placement in Standard Chartered, I landed up in Zee Business as a News Anchor and my stint with my hidden strengths got an interesting and worthwhile kick start. Having no media background, I initially felt totally out of place but very soon, became an integral part of the industry. Suddenly I was a part of the glamour brigade surrounded by makeup artists, camera crew and renowned journalists. I was interviewing the top management of the companies I always wanted to work with.

Though this was more of Hinglish journalism, I soon got a taste of English newswires also with my editorial jobs in Thomson Reuters and PTI. Almost a decade long journey from television to newswires to a formal corporate set up can truly be called a roller coaster ride. Whatever I learnt in TV helped me in newswires and the combined journalism experience made my journey in the content and digital marketing world balmier.

I have mostly been a non-believer in destiny but my career graph incidentally reflects that I was destined to be a part of content world and I am just not complaining! Happy to have landed here and truly believe that the journey has just begun and the best is yet to come!

One crucial thing that deserves a mention is that when I went family way, the break from career looked like a great idea considering continuous health issues. The arrival of my daughter tempted me to extend my break and I remained away from the job scene for over three years. While this worked wonders for my family life and I got some precious years with my girl but my career did not really take it that positively. The same did reflect in my pay packet when I joined back. But this is so true that at times you must lose something precious to gain something priceless. So again, it bothered me at times when I saw my batch mates doing better in their careers but then I truly found solace in the fact that I was with my kid when she needed me the most.

Coming back to my take on our career choices, I sincerely feel that if you have been fortunate enough to see through your interest areas in your formative years, then waste no time in nurturing them. They would take you miles ahead and there would be just no regrets.

About the Author:

I am an MBA from SRCC, currently enjoying my stint as Head-Content Services with a financial technology firm. In my free time, I love to pen my thoughts on fields of my interest that include travel, movies and food.