Living the ‘learn and stand tall’ motto
- Jayan Varghese
- Oct 4, 2013
- 2 min read
Jitendra – 16th batch – 91-81239-10177
‘A man is but a product of his thoughts. What he thinks, he becomes.’ – Mahatma Gandhi.
Jitendra is from a lesser known town in Orissa. He is one of two sons of a small-time businessman. The family had suffered heavy losses in business when Jitendra was just finishing his basic education. Even when there were no losses, the family had a monthly income of around Rs. 10000.It was with a struggle that Jitendra completed an ITI certification (diploma) course. His mother is a home-maker and his elder brother now has some small business in his home town. Back when Jitendra was studying, his brother had no job and was unable to support the family financially.
Like many other youngsters from his home-town, Jitendra came to Bangalore in search of greener pastures. This was around 2007-’08, when there was a significant recession in many industries. The search took him to Chennai for a few months, and then back to Bangalore again. This was when a friend of Jitendra’s told him about Unnati. Jitendra joined the 16th batch, and had no doubts in opting for the BPO vocation. His interest was in finding a BPO job.
The top three things that Jitendra personally learnt at Unnati are:
Communication: He says he could not even answer with confidence when someone asked in English what his name was.
How to survive honestly in this world
That one should always, always be helpful to others. And this is not just financially.
Once he completed the course, Jitendra was placed at Omega, a BPO firm, and due to the recession, started at a monthly salary of Rs. 6000. He worked there for three years, but had to go back to Orissa on a family emergency. When he returned from Orissa, he found a similar BPO job at Acer, which is where he works even today. Jitendra now has an annual salary of Rs.1,80,000, which is a 150% growth from where he started.
Jitendra’s job involves handling international calls. He faces the end customer, and has to communicate only in English. My conversation with him was only in English, and he spoke very well. From a person who could not say his name with confidence when questioned in English, to a person who handles international calls in a call centre for a US-based customer, Jitendra’s growth has been phenomenal!
Jitendra says the one thing he will mention about Unnati to anyone is that one can ‘learn and stand tall’, if one goes through the Unnati training! He believes that Unnati really stands by their motto, and enables students also to stand by it. He always dreamt of confidently speaking in English, and genuinely believes in giving back to society. Jitendra has learnt a lot about medical billing (in US insurance terms) on-the-job. He has also learnt well about BPO operations overall. He mentions that he has offered to share his experiences with future BPO batch students at Unnati! We are very happy about Jitendra’s growth, and wish him the very best in life!!
Contribution by Sukanya Kuppuswamy ( volunteer )
This success story was covered by Cityplus magazine in its anniversary edition in the following link