End of negotiation

Ideally, it should have been a big moment- I have just now accepted the NISG offer, eventually breaking the 15 month logjam, something I am trying to define as "Fulltime Volunteering@Home". The only thing that stands out of this deal is the negotiation I did with NISG. But do you want to know the exact reason for my negotiation?

It is because of a chap called Deepak Malhotra, professor in Harvard Business School, who taught us 'Negotiation'. After watching his 'negotiation for salary' Youtube video, I was too keen on applying the formulas. And, I choose the NISG offer even though I am unemployed currently, have no backup offer, desperately need a job and NISG already gave a rise of more than 30% on my last CTC.

With Junma and BD on the day of the first offer letter

NISG sent the first offer letter which I saw on the day of the NITI YP interview, which I gave a miss. I sent a reply, requesting for a rise up to 15-16 Lac from their 13, supported by six arguments. In the noon time, I received a call from Palak, their head HR. For 14 minutes, she tried all techniques- pleading, threatening, insulting, requesting, blackmailing. I was only remembering the Youtube video and weighing my words before uttering. She told, though rare, but she could not have been able to read my mind (Deepak Malhotra zindabaad). I told her- 'you move by an inch, I will move by a feet. For 14 lacs, I will instantly accept; anything less than that figure, I will take 24-hours to decide. I really want to join' etc. She promised to try for 13.5 max; I told please go ahead.

Soon after that, Pranjal Da called. He was asking me to accept on 13, otherwise, NISG will close the position. It seems NeGD HR got in touch with him. I didn't like the way he was getting involved. This was unexpected and I didn't know how to deal with Pranjal Da (now I think I could have used Pranjal Da in more effective ways).

Next morning, Pranjal Da again called me while I was traveling from Jorhat to home by bus. His voice was bit irritating/angry type. I showed my displeasure asking why he was getting so much involved. I don't think Pranjal Da gets that much salary; so, it was damn difficult for him too. In fact, that's why I was not able to become free with him. He told NeGD has agreed on 13.5 and if I don't agree, they will close the deal by 15th December.

I was really angry and frustrated with NISG for sharing the details with Pranjal Da. Soon after his call, Avani-HR called and I told her my displeasure for violating HR conduct (while eating lunch at Nagaon ASTC hotel). The Deepak Malhotra effect was slowly going and I didn't want to negotiate anymore. I agreed with 13.5.

Then Friday-Saturday-Sunday-Monday passed, and today they gave the final offer. I sent them the acceptance email too.

Though I am OK with my performance in the negotiation, I could have pulled more. But three things came into my ways-- Pranjal Da's involvement, no backup option for me, the dependency of NISG HR on NeGD HR for each decision.

I am not feeling anything which I thought I would while accepting a job offer. This is not exciting after a gap of 15 months. But I am not surprised. I have realized 'sudden happiness' is not for me. Things have to so 'usual' that I should destroy all the bits of the 'sudden' element.

Why am I not attending the NITI Aayog 2nd and Final round interview?

You can very well imagine the restlessness I am living with. Just now (12:00 PM, 8th December 2015) I have decided that I am not going Delhi. Here are the reasons for this decision in priority order:

1) If I don't make through the second round, or even if I get through but don't accept the Young Professional (which anyway, I am not going to accept) position, this will be a big negative point in case NITI Aayog decides to call me for OSD interview. The current scenario 'cleared first round, requested for postpone, and could not make to Delhi' is a better scenario, I believe.

Trying to take decision

2) After witnessing the first round and with no study since I got the invitation for the second round, my self confidence for facing the panel is at bottom. Had I got some time for study and absolutely sure about attending, the situation would have been different.

3) Money related stuff- no TA/DA for attending the interview; GHY- DEL tickets are already crossing Rs 7000/-. The salary is not great comparatively.

4) The 'almost certain' case of the NISG interview- I should be getting the offer within this week. Even if they decide to pay me 12 Lac, that would be better than NITI. Also work wise, Youth affairs role is far better and non-bureaucratic than NITI Aayog one.

5) The mental preparation/trauma associated with a Delhi trip, plus the expectation that built up automatically- I want to avoid all those. Also, maybe I want to fasten the decision making process of accepting the NISG position.

6) Just a few minutes back I called up Mr. Sriram Murty (signatory of my interview invitation letter)
. He told total 150 candidates are called and interview will be on 10th and 11th. There is no possibility of postponing as there is panel and obviously, panel members can't meet everyday.

Well, there are a few points that are questioning my decision:
a) If there is any way to connect the YP final shortlisted candidates with the OSD role, I will lose a golden opportunity, considering I get shortlisted after the second round.

b) There is lot of media observation on this recruitment; maybe the shortlisted candidates are treated as star. Also, as I am turning 32, this is my last chance to be YP.

c) Anything bad can happen to me; if NISG changes its mind, I will be screwed up from both sides.

d) I can very well afford the money for flight and lodging.  Giving excuse for money is just a bullshit reason- you bloody middle class !

Huh!, ok no more argument. I am driving to Jorhat tomorrow to compensate this.

Interview with NeGD CEO cum President - 30th November 2015

The interview with the CEO cum President of NeGD, Mr Anoop Kumar Agarwal was rather unexpected as he only interviews the principal consultant level hires. Though the HR informed that a Skype call would be just fine, I accommodated this conversation in my NITI Aayog YP interview visit. After lot of uncertainty, I got the final timing while I was traveling from Guwahati on 26th November 2015.

Spending time with Moina at Rock garden in Chandigarh

To be frank, I decided not to prepare anything as I lost hope in the whole affair. But my poor performance (about DiD) in the NITI Aayog YP interview forced me to go through the notes I prepared before attending the last NISG interview in October. I did this in Chandigarh, while spending time with my sister.

The interview timing was 2-30 PM. I started from Kailash's house at 12-45 PM and that turned out to be poor timing calculation. I needed to run to the Electronics Niketan from the JLN Stadium metro station to arrive at 2-25 PM. By the time, I was searching for a rest room for wearing my neck-tie and remove the sweat from forehead, I already got call from HR- where are you? Within a minute I was taken to the room in front of the CEO by a gentleman (not HR) who turned out to be an alumni of NIT Durgapur.

I utilized the waiting time in front of CEO's room to initiate a conversation with the fellow alumni (I later got his name from two sources, each saying different names). I also brought Pu Lalthlamuana into the conversation after knowing he is an ECE graduate of 1990. Luckily that worked. I can't emphasis how much beneficial was this little conversation. This is a learning for the future as well.

On entering the CEO's room, the alumni enthusiastically introduced me as a fellow alumni of NIT Durgapur. This lightened the mood of the room. The CEO asked when did I pass out etc.

First he saw my resume and then the job profile before stating that the role is newly created one and NeGD is thinking of going around 400 educational institutions of India to spread awareness of Digital India. Though initially the CEO wanted to know how much I had been briefed about the role, later he asked how I want to go ahead with the vision he just stated. This was completely 'bang on' my thoughts on three kinds of approaches for engaging youth with Digital India initiative.

Then he wanted to know what kind of work I am doing and whether I am ready now to come to nine-to-five job life. I explained the kind of projects I was doing voluntarily, why Youth and Technology are my passionate areas etc. He also noticed that I had a paper with Pranjal Kalita of NeGD, which I corrected saying this 'Pranjal' is a different one.

Then the president asked me about the volunteering portal of NeGD. I explained him the United Nations Online Volunteering model. He was listening to me carefully. This eventually brought us to the end of the conversation. He looked at my fellow alumni and said we can leave.

The enthusiastic alumni asked me outside whether I can join soon since I am not engaged anywhere. I said around 15 days from the date we fixed the offer. I said goodbye and left the place.

I was called by NISG HR then to discuss about the CTC structure (that was sudden for them without preparation). After making me wait for around 1.5 hours at NISG office, Pallavi (and also Beena) informed me that today they are not prepared to have the discussion. I made Pallavi listen to my arguments for my expectation of around 15 lacs per annum. She said she would try to maximize , but can't promise anything.

Now, it is almost confirmed that NISG would make me an offer. While coming back to Gurgaon by metro, I was asking myself- is this what I wanted after one year of full-time volunteering and after a post graduate degree from BSG? The answer was- NO. The next question was- do I have any option? The answer was negative again.

So, here goes a compromised deal- take up whatever you get and then keep trying to excel in the role by multiple ways. In the evening, I emailed Rasika not to send my resume for Public Policy manager (Google Inc) role as I have convinced myself about the compromised deal. I remember a year ago, I told myself I won't go to NISG again under any circumstances. And see, how life has brought a U-turn! Hence, great people say , 'never say never'.

But somehow I think 'story abhi baki hain'. I might not end up joining NISG- my sixth sense is still saying me. I don't know why ,  and how !

NITI Aayog YP interview- 27th November 2015

I have attended the interview three hours ago, now sitting at Kailash (Kailash Pokhrel- my friend from Janardanam days)'s rented room in Gurgaon and trying to pen down the experience of the interview that I never wanted to attend.

The last few days were terrible since I wrote my last blog-post. After the Prashant Kishore thingi, NISG took a crappy turn. One fine morning (after repeated followups), they informed me I should receive the email offer letter the next day. On the next day, they informed that NeGD CEO himself wants to interview me via Skype. This was quite unusual as he only interviews the Principal Consultant level people. In the meantime, I got the offer to attend YP interview at NITI Aayog.

I was reluctant. Firstly, the repeated experiences and most recently the NISG thing do prove the point that I am nowhere close to getting a job and the astrologer has been right all along. Secondly, NITI Aayog is not going to pay for the traveling and lodging cost. Thirdly, the scope of role of YP is likely to be very limited and the salary component is also very low. Hence, attending this interview is like coming for a purpose that I don't believe, spend own money, less chance of success and even after success no intention of tasting the fruit of success.

But I dodged all the logic I mentioned above, because it has been more than a year and I need to get a damn job. Also, OSD in NITI Aayog is like a dream job and I can get a sense of the organization if I be here for the YP. Also, I offered NISG HR a proposal for face-to-face interaction during my stay in Delhi.

So, here I come! I stayed at Kailash's place as I left my suit and shoe here last time. The interview was at 9-00 AM. Though I was apprehensive about being on time from my experience of NISG interview and Commonwealth Scholarship interview, I didn't take the chance. And, I was right this time.

Yojana Bhawan that houses NITI Aayog is quite close to the Patel Chowk metro station. On entering the first gate of the bhawan, the CISF personnel was 'Saikia'- I spoke in Assamese. There was flow of interview candidates and we were asked to sit in different specified rooms right at the main entrance point. On entering the conference room designated for myself, I saw around 25 people sitting with equal proportion of genders. I believe there were three panels, each consisting of three members. In my panel, I was the first candidate. Soon, they called the names of one girl (corporate lawyer from Mumbai) and myself and escorted us to a different room. There we waited for around 10 minutes before I was called to face the interview panel. As I was the first candidate, the panel members were fresh and eager. There were two gentlemen and one lady. I greeted good morning to all of them.

1) The middle man started - tell us about yourself
     I included parents' profession and information of sibling for the first time in my description.

2) The lady asked- you worked with Ministry of Information Technology- what kind of work you did.
     I explained them about SeMT and NeGP. It seemed they never heard about these terms.

3) The middle man asked after seeing my resume- you run three non-profits; what do they do?
     I took a pause as I didn't remember what are three names I included (ALWAYS CHECK RESUME YOU SUBMITTED). Nevertheless, I started with the library, talked about Xomidhan and ended with Xahitya. In Xomidhan, the third person (who came out to be the main guy later) asked about the business model. I told the expenses are very minimal.

4) The lady asked about the 360 degree performance review paper.
     I explained citing RFD (Result Framework Document) quite a few times. She got confused; she was asking how RFD will measure performance of ministers. I again explained. She did not know much about RFD and also she was not much aware of the 360 degree feedback model. I was searching ways how best I could make the lady understand. I realized I was not behaving in a calm and composed way. Somehow, I was getting tensed. This didn't happen in the NISG or Twitter interview.

5) Now, the third person started. From this point onward, the other two just became listeners. He asked whether I did many coding in Microsoft.
    I explained about ITSM and told that I was not involved in much coding exercise.

6) Then he asked what are the courses I attended in MPP
   Well, I was structuring my answer with political philosophy, but he asked me to get straight to the points. When I told Economics included both micro and macro, he showed displeasure on the course. While listening about Science for Public Policy, he seemed confused. I tried to explain , but he didn't give much attention and focused on the word evidence-based-policymaking.

7) Tell me different kind of evidence techniques.
    I cursed myself for not even opening the notes once before this interview. From my memory, I told about experimental and quasi-experimental methodologies. The interviewer was also seemed in hurry as if he was trying frame a question.

8) Give me one example of quasi-experimental technique
   Difference-in-Difference (DiD)

9) Explain me what it is
    Damn, I didn't remember anything. I took 'incentive to teachers' example and explained RCT. He was focused on DiD. I tried to explain something. He exposed me completely by very pointed question by comparing with RCT. He was asking again and again. I told I have not been able to explain properly. He told I had failed miserably in explaining. I tried again and cursed myself for not opening the notes even once. This is the problem of reluctant activities. I am sorry.

10) The third person was indeed a learned man. He explained the whole concept to me, introduced causal effect too. I admitted my fault, I was red faced.

11) Luckily the third person continued- tell about your paper on Role of Social Media in government.
    I was bringing Shillong traffic police into the scene; he intervened and asked me to make the answer general. Why government should use Social media. I gave him four points -- to make government accessible to citizens, to get feedback and  involve the citizens in decision-making process, to spot a trend of usage over period of time and finally to build a circle of like minded individuals. (I could have talked about cutting cost and save time- now I think).

12) He was telling there are timing issue. Instead of taking opinion of thousand of people on a policy, he can simply call the experts.
    I told that is violating the essence of participatory government and what Modi is doing via MyGov portal. He didn't seem much convinced. I also told that the above four reasons will be applicable at different phases of policy making and resources can be distributed over time.

13) Suppose I am the Communication Officer of NITI Aayog and need to form the Social Media team- how many persons should I recommend?
    I told there should be two teams- one for regular updated from different departments and the other for specific policy/project when a department wants to take feedback from the citizens and spot a trend.

14) The third person had nothing to ask. He asked the other two whether they have anything to ask. After a long time, I looked at the faces of the other two members- they were completely at a loss at our conversation. Naturally, they informed I can leave.

By 9-41 AM, I was free. I took a round of the building searching the rooms of Bibek Debroy and other members. I found their rooms and became happy. I also spent around 15 minutes in the library. First time, I saw a library inside a government ministry in India. I was trying to understand the mood of the place- a very typical government setup. I didn't like much (except the library). I was feeling guilty for not able to answer the DiD thing. In fact, this guilt gradually rises to such extent that I punished myself by not going to Parliament Street to see the parliament; instead I came home, cooked food and now writing this blog spot.

Expectation: nothing much. If Digital Indian turns out to be positive, I will not go for YP. If Digital Indian turns out negative and I don't get shortlisted for YP as well, my self-confidence would touch the rock bottom. Also, in case I get called for OSD, I need to prepare like hell. Anyway, good bye for now. I am feeling relieved (from the guilt conscious) after writing this.

Low time - 17th November 2015

For last 4-5 days I have been feeling very low, mentally too down, no energy, hope or aspiration. I was trying to analyse:

1) The Prashant Kishor effect as I wrote in my last post. It seems Tarun Gogoi reached out to him as well. However, report says IPAC was working fairly independent of Citizens Alliance; but I missed a chance and there is no point of searching 'feel good' points.

Taken at Dudhnoi at a political rally, but captures my mood for this post

2) I have built high hope on the NISG interview. Two weeks have passed and I have not heard back. I was surprised to find the advertisement of consultant-volunteer coordinator position in the NISG website, which was supposed to be a sub-task of the role I applied. My narrative has become- "I completed one year of volunteering, now time to search jobs, waiting result for an interview with Digital India". I am not sure how I would react if this result comes negative.

3) The family issues- we need to complete the half-constructed house, Dada has not been able to manage finance and borrowed money from me, Bou is in hospital, Dada is also not well, Moina is still in transition state, I am in hung state, Maa have frequent health issues and not comfortable to live alone anymore and so on. Overall, some kind of negative and non-aspiring atmosphere at home.

I would be tremendously happy if I got the OSD- NITI Aayog position, Dada transfers back home or within 100 KM range, Moina starts working, we completed the house construction...ok, leave them!

Zubeen fans have organized 'Zubeen Festival'- I believe this is the pinnacle how much people can love you. 

Was the decision of not joining CFBI a mistake?

Bihar assembly poll result is out today. Nitish kumar won, by partnering with RJD and Congress. The main strategist behind this campaign was Prashant Kishore. Yes, the same man from CAG of Modi's campaign. He formed a group called Indian Political Action Committee (IPAC) who sits in the house in front of Nitish's office in Patna. The reason Prashant broke away from Modi camp was evident if I look him from an external consultant point of view, with respect to the party cadres. 

Media report says Prashant, in addition to IPAC, managed to give a government contract to a Noida based company called Citizens Alliance for 'Badh Chala Bihar' campaign. This group came on government money and worked for JDU (Sushil Modi even complained about this publicly). My searches resulted the shocking fact- Citizens Alliance is actually the CFBI; in other words, the private limited company version of CFBI. Hence, thinking wildly, I could have been in Patna witnessing and working on the ground for the most dramatic election post the Delhi election.

I missed it! The reasons I did not join CFBI just after the offer letter- I had to negotiate for salary and the Twitter discussion was going on. Then after visiting the the CFBI office in Noida Sector 62, I could not take a decision as Twitter took longer time and Glassdoor reviews for CFBI were pathetic. After Twitter rejection, there was a thought; but I solely based on the Glassdoor review and decided not to open the CFBI thread. 

In this whole period (from Deceber '14 to July'15), I didn't have the slightest clue about side switching of Prashant Kishore and conversion of CFBI to Citizens Alliance. I made a fool out of myself.

I am trying to console myself by various means why the decision was not a mistake, but the moot point is that I missed an opportunity which I could have easily used in Assam 2016 election as well. Between, media report says Prashant has an Assamese wife.

NISG Interview Experience - 28th October 2015

So after two rounds of telephonic interview (one HR and one technical) NISG called me for the final round in Delhi. I had been dead against going back to the same organization. But couple of reasons forced me doing this- the role is non-technical where you need a Social Science background, the role is in Delhi, Digital India is one of the most talked after initiatives of the Modi government and this role is at the epicenter of Digital India PMU, volunteering period has crossed 1 year and finally, the realization that my career has not reached that point (assuming it exists) where you will just get a job wherever & whenever you apply.

At ISKON-Delhi with Ashok Da

So, I went Delhi, stayed at Ashok da (from Baikunthapur)'s place with six other flatmates and reached the NeGD office at Electronics Niketan on 28th October'15 morning at 9-00AM. I was the first one to reach there and exchanging smiles with the other NeGD employees (Sudipto, Brahmananda, Deepinder, Pranjal Da, Ishan etc). Eventually, the other candidates came and I took the responsibility to give a first smile and initiate a conversation. There were total four candidates for the interview round and I was called last to the interview panel.

The panel had five members including a HR head. They didn't introduce themselves, so I could not recognize. One of the panelist was Mr. Sunil Sharma whom I sent email after Ishan's suggestion. He was in charge for asking maximum questions. Here goes the chronology:

1. So, Manjit, tell us something about yourself.
2. Why do you think you should be hired for this position?
3. Why should Indian youth join Digital India? I told about approaches where ‘WHAT” component is important, means what Digital India wants to achieve from Indian youth. They told they can’t tell me their plan of WHAT and I need to tell them. Then I started explaining my three approaches for engaging youth-from Digital India side, from Youth policy side and from an Indian youth perspective. But just when I told the first, he interrupted.
4. What are the things for which youth will come and join Digital India. Then he asked, suppose I am going to lecture in front of an audience, say at AMITY university, what will I say? I answered some thing, but that was not they wanted to hear.
5. Then there were a few conversation, not exactly question-answer type. I was trying to figure out what actually they wanted to hear from me. Only two panelists were asking questions and they were not asking any strategic questions, meaning they were not much open for new ideas from my side.
6. Then one panelist dropped a bombshell- I was referring so much about policy and other stuff, and he got worried, told me- Manjit you have done so many things- Microsoft, Oxford, McKinsey; so don’t you think you are over qualified for the job—your salary, your scope of work might not match your expectation. I answered this job is based on two important areas of my interest- technology and youth. Also, bit of policy work might be necessary, JD is interesting. So, at this point of time, I am game for this position.
7. From almost that moment, I started driving the the discussion on the panel.
8. I told about my volunteering experience in last one year. They told Digital India wanna do something of that sort and asked my suggestion. I told them my UNV experience and how we  can do that, also bit of policy modification. The interviewers found my answer very good.
9. On guy who has not spoken so far, asked do I have team work experience –he seemed so nervous while asking the question that in my answer, I mentioned twice that his question was very practical.
10. Then all done, I said bye, got up from the chair and started walking out.
11. Then one panelist asked about my expected salary, they have limitations etc. The moment I mentioned 15-16 Lacs per annum they showed nervousness (same with Pranjal da after the interview outside NeGD building),I got worried!
12. I too felt nervous looking at them. The HR lady was speaking for the first time. I took their permission for explaining the reasons why I think my quoted figure is well researched. My three points were - I missed two years of increment at NISG because of my late joining and early leaving , my figure is well researched within NeGD policy and other consultant's salary, I did higher study and one year of volunteering in between. I did not forget to mention the point that by referring back to my old NISG salary they will discourage my volunteering spirit, which is exactly  what Digital India is trying to promote among Indian youth.
13. Then there was discussion on salary for around 4-5 min. The HR lady was asking whether I am open for negotiation, any ceiling for negotiation, blah blah. My position was- I have stated my logic, if you can counter my logic with argument, of course, I am open for negotiation.
14. Th discussion was going no where; I re-stated that I am open for negotiation and that ended the discussion.
15. I came out, asked about my travel reimbursement from the beautiful Shunali and left.
16. Outside I had 45 min discussion with Pranjal Da and heard about his neutral opinion on working with NeGD.
17. In the evening, Pranjal Da called me telling its almost positive. But he was asking me to keep my salary expectation at 13 Lac level. He was constantly advising me on that figure, which I found weird;I guess he was asked to communicate with me. 

I spent the evening at Akshardham temple with Ankur (Haryana) and remained in Delhi for next three days meeting Rita baidew, Pradip da, Kailash , Ritu and Kavita. On the way back I met Mr. Manab Chakraborty (IIM Kashipur) and Kamnashis, IPS. Overall, it was a good trip.

I have left my formal shoe and suit with Kailash. Am I signaling certainty?