Intern at AmEx-I dont know what I did this summers!!!

Two weeks more to go and here i am in office writing this piece. Well it all began on 7th april 2008.My first day in Amex.After boring induction ppts and guidelines about security and blah blah am called in my department.The guys seemed cool.. my OG and his senior the Diro. My first impression about them..well chilled out guys!!! That just set the mood of my intern.Infact thats the culture here...."Little work and more play"..its fundoo to have such a life when u r 30 and have accepted the terms and conditions of life.

Did i like the work or not..its not about whether its interesting or not they say...its about whether its important or not!!! point taken....bt how long can you sustain,what drives you-money,work life balance!! watever....as my diro told me the first day "Its only 10% of the learning that you will have from your project and for the rest 90% keep your eyes and ears open" well said again.

I took the advice literally and henceforth words juz started beating my ear drums helter and skelter. Ohhs and Aahs of gals meeting in office..."hey u look great in this dress"...."wow u have got idlis today"..."look at my wedding snaps"..the constant chit chats while working......man there are all the varities there.

The swashbuckling sophisticated, the smart guys, the doods, Mrs.India runners up(circa. 1976)...nd all.In the end it was mostly about Googling,shortcuts of excel,ctrl C,ctrl V,Ctrl Page up,Ctrl Page sown,Alt Tab,Alt D,Alt V nd on nd on. Good thing i got hands on excel,attended the Board meetings..infact dat was great..and Gyan sessions with my manager and Diro.Hats off to these Guys.

How can i forget to mention the hour and half long lunch breaks followed by another hour long Coffee breaks. The experience was a paid Summer vacations with brief spells of work and loads of vellapanti!!! The D day awaits when i'll present my googling and ctrl c.. ctrl v skills.But u missed it again...there's more to it than meets the eye.. A very apt remark by the diro" u get hired because you are smart,you get paid because you can tell stories and you are paid even better if you make other people around also tell stories"!! hmm..food for thought.

So it wont be a plane jane ppt bt it will have a story..a scoop ..filled with pretensions and claims of doing great work :) I guess my first brush with corporate life has taught me that there are three types of people in an office:

One who are happy with the work

One who are not happy

One who dont care

which one is you??