Version 1

I have been born and raised in an army family. So I can not really relate to
geographical cultures that most Indians are familiar with, because I have been
raised all voer the country. However, being born and raised in the army helps you
acquire a different kind of culture, which derives its inspirations from the age-
old traditions of the Army.
As a kid, my real models were my father and his colleagues, so most of the culture
that I acquired was from them.
As a results, I was raised to be very cosmopolitan and secular. I was raised to
believe that the day starts at 5 AM and it isn't over till all your tasks are done.
I was told that talking to your friends and neighbors is more important than
watching television. I also learnt that it is always important to be a part of the
team, the success of an individual matters nothing if the whole team fails.
This culture has a lasting impact on my career. I started off as a Tech Support
Engineer in Cisco TAC, and the biggest strength that helped me succeed in that role
was the ability to communicate with people from various cultures from all across
the globe. I belive that the exposure I got from being raised in an army family
helped me relate to more cultures and find a working relationship with those
people.
Antoher thing about a tech support job is that it is very stressful. You have to
put in many hours of work and then go home and study even more to get better. That
amount of hard work usually makes people dull and kills their ambition. However, I
was raised ina culture where people believed that hard work is what differentiates
them from the rest of the people. They believe that some jobs are fundamentally
hard and that is why they are left to the best men of the country. I realized that
over the years of work, I was drawing inspiration from their hilosp

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Version 2.0

Your social circle and your career

My social culture has evolved along my career. When I moved to my first job, I left
behind all my friends from college, because me moved to different fields. As a
result, most of the firends that I made throughout my career were colleagues who
came closer and eventually became best of friends.
Looking back, I realize that those work-friends have played a very important role
in shaping my career. I found a lot of mentors during my work-life and they shaped
me into the professional that I am today. When I first moved to Bangalore, the
first people I met were ex-colleagues from my previous job. These people, in turn,
became my social circle in Bangalore. Since we were from the sam background, they
were able to relate to most of what I experienced. They were able to give me better
ideas on how to conduct certain parts of my job. In that sense, having ex-
colleagues really helped me in doing well at my job in Bangalore.
On the other hand, I must admit that if your social circle is completely comprised
of ex-colleagues and current work-firends, it really diminishes your horizon. You
end up talking about the same things most of the times. I realized this when I
joined this ePGPx course. When I got to talk to some of my batchmates from various
fields, I realized how little I knew about the world around me. In that sense, I
have to admin that one's social circle should be comprised of people who are
completely isolated from your sphere of work. This provides you a new perspective
to look at the world. It gives you an opportunity to look into a different point of
view, and learn from that.
Also, when you interact with someone who is not from the same field, you learn a
new art of conversation. You can't simply jump to a topic of common interest. You
first have to navigate through a maze of unrelated topics to arrive at something of
common interest. This is always an interesting activity that builds your ability to
connect with various people.
To conclude, I would say that your social circel should be acombination of people
that you know from work, and other people that you share common non-work related
activities with. This leads to a micture of good career insights and a refreshing
window into the outsside world.