A Thing About India

Live India with every heartbeat.

Live it and Love it. But only when you are Open for India.

These lessons I learnt throughout my 1 year of living and working in India.

On July 25th 2010 I landed at Mumbai airport at 3am hoping there would be somebody to pick me up.

I still remember that night with every tiny detail: loud crowds of short men,women and children staring at an Asian girl looking confused and frightened with her one luggage suit and a backpack. I remember the smell which Mumbai had welcomed me with : the same smell I sensed in summer 2008 in Delhi on my first arrival to India. I remember how I kept on asking locals to help me make a call to AIESEC Mumbai guys and find out where the taxi driver was. I remember that 6 hours later I met one of my future best friends, Ola, who has been so generous and helpful! I just could not understand why she had been so helpful to a stranger - just another intern in India. She would lend me money (I forgot to exchange US Dollars to Indian Rupees in the Mumbai airport), give all her Mumbai maps, encourage to take her cell phone and make necessary calls (in our first weeks of Mumbai madness). I remember I met with Dina on the same day and she had been a great guide and friend sharing hew viewpoints on India, the internship experience and Mumbai as such. I remember my fears, my tears, old and new friends, discoveries, small achievements I'd been proud of, monsoons (Oh My God! Mumbai!), love and hatred...

My inner body and mind remember every single beat of my Hyderabadi life. Meeting so many close friends at AIESEC International Congress 2010, regular travels, cultural cooking evenings, parties, latino dances, my guitar lessons and Toastmaster classes, my awesome colleagues and a big job dissatisfaction, strong support and encouragement of my Kondapur family - Carlos, Areli, Fadel(ina), Kasia, Veronica, ACE family... Lots of things ...

I remember and appreciate the times I had in working with amazing passionate and creative minds in the Global Support Team in AIESEC. We have walked with the team a beautiful leadership path, we have lived our lives being in so many places at the same time: Moldova, Denmark, Turkey, Serbia, Slovakia, Cambodia, Bulgaria, India. The talks we had carry a lot of vital essence: do we really impact ourselves and our organisation? How do we create impact? What is a change and how to manage it?

Change management has been the key thought and action in India so far. I changed Hyderabad for Chennai, I changed Hyderabadi friends for Chennai folks, I changed charming Nizam city for enchanting beaches of the Bay of Bengal and hills of Tamil Nadu, I changed enlightening Kondapur family for a "silent" Canopy family, I changed my first project- Competency Development- to come to Training and HR Deployment and continue working with Competency Development area.

I changed a lot of things and places within one year but I have not changed one core thing yet: Love and Passion for a Great Living.

Closing my first year in India and opening another chapter I am celebrating my FIRST ( or ONE? ) YEAR in India with new friends and I am happy I can be a part of their lives.

I am also asking myself a simple question after this amazingly !ncredible year -

How much is too much?

Quoting

Activating Leadership

We lead by example and inspire leadership through our activities. We take full responsibility for developing the youth leadership potential of our members.

Demonstrating Integrity

We are consistent and transparent in our decisions and actions. We fulfil our commitments and conduct ourselves in a way that is true to our ideals.

Living Diversity

We seek to learn from the different ways of life and opinions represented in our multicultural environment. We respect and actively encourage the contribution of every individual.

Enjoying Participation

We create a dynamic environment created by active and enthusiastic participation of individuals. We enjoy being involved in AIESEC.

Striving for Excellence

We aim to deliver the highest quality performance in everything we do. Through creativity and innovation we seek to continuously improve.

Acting Sustainably

We act in a way that is sustainable for our organisation and society. Our decisions take into account the needs of future generations.

These are our AIESEC values. This is a sort of philosophy we live daily once we get to know AIESEC and it stays in our hearts, in our minds. This is what I have believed in since I joined AIESEC in 2007 in Almaty, Kazakhstan. I have gone through a beautiful profound life experience, made lots of strong friendships with young in mind and brave in heart people from all world regions, travelled to a few countries and lived for less than a year in Latvia. Logically, I decided to continue my AIESEC career aiming higher, I was looking for a professional upgrade, I was looking for challenges, I was looking for another exciting year in my life. You know why? Reasons are multiple. One reason is my beloved one: I want to be a cool grandmother. Yes, yes, the coolest grandmother ever that my grandchildren could have. Future projections.

Now, dreaming is great. My dear friends, dare to dream. Dare and make your dreams come true. It is a wonderful feeling.

However, we are now in present. Therefore, let me talk about what is happening NOW and HERE.

Owing to an international leadership experience back in AIESEC Latvia and in Kazakhstan, I have coordinated a national exchange programme. During our year in Latvia our team made a breakthrough: 40 talented young people caught the right opportunity and experienced Latvian culture as well as brought their innovative approaches in solving vitally importnat issues to the societies of Turkey, Kazakhstan, Bulgaria, Armenia, the Netherlands, Italy, Ukraine, Malaysia, Moldova, Peru, Colombia. This is our main product- AIESEC Experience. This is what we promise to our stakeholders and this what we should deliver. The better the service , the higher customer satisfaction we receive. Right? Or I am wrong?

My long term AIESEC experience showed to me that nothing is impossible. Nothing. You have a goal, you have resources- you will achieve it. You will taste success in the end. Definitely. Do not tell me you cannot make it happen. You just did not try hard enough to make it happen. You do not need to try hard. Play smart and results will come ultimately. Have some patience and have a positive attitude. Easy.

Right, it is easy. However, a disappointing fact ALL AIESEC interns face DAILY here with AIESEC India say it is not that easy.

My point here is simple: AIESEC India "leads" a totally different AIESEC philosophy. Odd AIESEC way.

Reception culture. After painful conversations with many young students that came to India for short term development internships from all over the world to improve illiteracy in outskirts of India or to drive Anti-HIV campaigns, etc I see tears and fears in their eyes. I see uncertainty and non confidence in themselves. After they landed in airports they are not picked up. They are not provided with accommodation at least for the beginning. Or if they are provided with accommodation, then this place may have a room, an AC, and a bathroom. It is an ideal case. I am encountering with these situations daily, in Mumbai and in Hyderabad. I question here the following: if you cannot manage fifty ( 50 ) interns on average in a quarter why do you keep bringing people here?

Legal issues. Management internship with TCS that I am in as well as most of my friends here requires a longer staying in India. Thus, it involves a legal registration of foreigners. While my staying in Mumbai, my friends and I had to CHASE AIESEC Exchange responsible members to assisst us in legal registration. After two weeks of a long procedure we got the stamps and we started working in the company. My question here is - you know your pipeline of incoming interns, you can project how many passports need to be registered, you know what promise you give to your stakeholders. Why do you complicate the processes?

New economy. Labour mobility is widespread nowadays. Though it concerns some governments, labour mobility's core is as old as the world: our ancestors migrated to have a better life, and current world population flows due to the same reasons. State of the art technologies give a room to practise a new economy : business can be done virtually and you do not necessarily need to be present physically in the office. Seems that AIESEC India is very progressive in these terms. Once an intern arrived, AIESEC India members forget about him/her. No or low interaction with him/her, no welcome parties, no cultural activities that build awareness about India, that break people's stereotypes. An intern just adds another number in an Excel sheet. I question a member from AIESEC in India: what reception have you received in another country during your internship ( if you had one ) ? Or what reception would you like to receive once you decide to go for minimum 2 months internship to any part of the world?

People. Eventually, we deal with young people in AIESEC India. An average age of an AIESECer in Western Europe is around 23-25. Our members in AIESEC Latvia and Kazakhstan are 20-25 years old. An executive member of AIESEC Mumbai, India is 17. When you are 17, you most probably care about education, social life, Facebook. A mate of mine has witnessed it in Mumbai: an intern arrived, and a reception coordinator was chatting with him in Facebook. Yes, it is a down to earth example. But we talk about people and their lives. We talk about EXPERIENCES - we just talk and we do not make any right actions.

It is very crucial- at least for my friends and me - to prevent these situations with future interns. A giant work must be done. First, it should be understood by every member of AIESEC India, and it shall be solved by executive members of National Board of AIESEC India. Show your leadership by managing your Numerical Desires in a right way.

I am extremely disappointed I know the answers. I feel ashamed when I see interns' tears and I cannot help. They love India but they hate AIESEC here.

My purpose of this post is not to destroy image of AIESEC in general or AIESEC India in particular. My aim is to give a voice of another numerical result, or a voice of an intern and ASK every single person from AIESEC India - what are you doing to improve your reality? How do you plan to manage your membership and impact young people's lives? What are those stories that we tell ? How will they determine the way we live?

Elite Recruiter

One of the moments I really enjoy in AIESEC is interacting with AIESEC people.

Well, I love people in general :)

Today I read one interesting article 18 Ways You Know You Are an Elite Recruiter, and would like to make some parallels with AIESEC eXPerience. They may not be so serious; I aim at presenting to you the best moments of being in AIESEC and developing HR field.

So here we go: 1st statement is from the article and 2nd statement is personal sharing.

You know you are an “elite recruiter” if . . .

1.You get referrals from candidates you turn down for a position. - You meet applicants for your positions later at some joint projects, and you work with them together for another common goal. And you do not remember that you turned them down before. As a result, you make friends with them fast and keep these relations for a long time.

2. Your hiring managers ask you who they “should hire” … and listen to your advice - We coach our members on what people we need in our organisation. Right people in the right place for the right job!

3. Candidates seek your input on preparing for the interview with the hiring manager. - Knowledge management and coaching are our tools.

4. Your candidates seek your council on deciding between competing offers, knowing that you aren’t just trying to fill your own position, but truly want what’s best for them. - Competency Model helps us to identify what people are needed for a role as well as members themselves decide whether they would like to take up a role in a project or go on exchange.

5. You keep track of all the people you have hired, and keep up an ongoing relationship with 90% of them - Member Tracking Tool as one of the examples of our tracking system. Social life is at a quite good level maintained by those who wish so. Believe me, it happens not only during conferences :)

6. You track your performance (quality, efficiency, responsiveness/delivery) on a quarterly basis - Performance management is another example to track ourselves, be more ambitious and reach the stars!

7. You quantify the ROI of your services to your key stakeholders - It is one of the values we respect and follow: Demonstrating Integrity - walk the talk.

8. You have clearly written quarterly performance improvement goals - Review and Analysis quarterly.

9. You spend time each week helping those less fortunate find employment, craft a better resume, prepare for an interview, etc - Team days locally, nationally, globally are a part of our business culture. Member Education Cycle includes various educational activities to prepare our members to become change agents possessing specific behaviours and competencies.

10. You invest at least 15 minutes to an hour developing a written — hour by hour — daily plan of action that you deploy before each day. The most successful recruiters are religious planners - Planning is 80% of your success. The one who is successful may stick to the 80/20 rule (or 20/80 :) it works differently, right? ;)

11. You stick to a schedule where during certain times of the day you are simply making calls and don’t allow for outside distractions - Making calls is sometimes a success for our members, and sometimes can become a fiasco. But drop-in visitors are permanent features of AIESEC life :)

12. You have received gifts from candidates/hiring managers for “changing their life” for the better - In AIESEC we call it "Sugar Cubes"- we leave a note after conferences are over, and it's powerful!

13. Your hiring managers ask for your assistance in creating the job description, and you’re able to guide them in a consultative way to determine what needs to be accomplished, instead of a list of intangibles - Typically, it is one of the duties in Talent Management manager job description.

14. Your hiring managers ask for your assistance in creating interview guides which will help them discover the candidate’s true capabilities - Read #13 statement pls :)

15. Your candidates turn into “centers of influence”: those people who are well-connected and to whom you can always turn for help on difficult searches - That's your professional network: locally, nationally, internationally.

16. Your outside clients see you as an expert on what’s going on in the marketplace and even in their industry - That's why the companies that understand AIESEC product partner with us on a long term basis. Each party benefits a lot and enjoys mutual cooperation.

17. You get referrals without even asking - All you need is to drop a mail to people who know you well and can endorse you.

18. People who seek your assistance have heard about you from more than one person - True. Especially when they add you in Facebook, you have a slight idea how you may know them. Apparently, you may have 1-5-34-76 common friends. Network.

2 .be in Brugge

Who has ever fallen in love at first sight?

Not with a woman or man

but with a city, scenery, food, etc?

Today I opened a new bottle full of bubbling LOVE sparks. Its name is Brugge, a medieval fairy tale city in the western Belgium.

Brugge cannot be described- you must see it! It is cozy, astonishing, lively, touristic, helpful, friendly, middle crowded, diverse and it is my LOVE!

Delicious waffles with chocolate flavour, cherry flavoured Belgian beer on the bank of the river together with Central America guys, chilly wind messing up my hair and my soul is enormously content, happy and relaxed.

One of my best days this year was today in Brugge!
Merci!