Chapter 7 : 23rd May 2018

One year later,23rd May 2018

I didn’t know how much time passed in my life. There are few things in my life that were changed but, in many others, nothing changed.

My designation and projects got changed, whereas managers didn’t.

Few of my colleagues left the company, 10 to 15 of my juniors moved to various onsite location such as US, UK, Canada, Australia, Netherland, Indonesia, Singapore, Mexico, but I am still working in Trivandrum, even my seat has not changed.

The status of my WhatsApp, office communicator got changed to “Stop dreaming about H1B Visa” since my H1B initiation didn’t happen this year as well.

Most of my colleagues and friends who came from onsite for vacation used to bring a variety of foreign chocolates to the offshore team, but I never tasted a single bit of it due to the promise which I made to myself a year ago.

Lot of my friends were blessed with babies, but I remained a chronic bachelor.

The work pressure, house rent, EMI, Credit Card bill, vegetable prices gradually increasing day by day. Even my weight got increased by 15 kg due to lack of exercise and sleep whereas my salary remains the same.

I acted in a few short films but none of the movies got released due to budget problem.

My dad lost more than 15 lakhs in his business. No banks were willing to give me a loan based on my salary.

I wanted to discuss on my career path with my managers Ricky and Mohan. Meanwhile I had sent an email to my HR few months before stating that

“Hi Amaranth,

I have few clarifications which are listed below, it would be great if you could clarify it at the earliest.

1. I joined Green Solution Private Limited on 12th August 2010. In April 2011 appraisal, I did not get hike since I joined the organization on August 2010. I have not got the hike for almost 3 years in my experience of 7 years with Green Solution. I believe my next hike will be reflected on Sept 2018. Will you consider all the factors (experience in years, current salary, grade in last 3 years etc.) or only the grade of year 2017?

2. I have been promoted to B1 from A3 on October 2017. I did not find any change in my salary structure. Will it be also reflected on Sept 2018?

3. What are the criteria followed for processing H1B Visa 2018? Is it like H1B 2017 (based on performance, last five years performance, Designation)?

All iz well,

John Peter”

I got a reply from him that they would be counting only last 3 years performance, Hike percentage varies for Band & Grade and everything would be reflected on your joining date. They had not got the go ahead for 2018 visa processing considering the scenario in US and would let me know when there will been an update.

Luckily Mohan called me to the conference call to discuss something important. Both of us went inside the discussion room. He told that he had a discussion with HR regarding my salary hike. Earlier it was 8% and now it got changed to 12% due to his pressure on them.

“Thanks. Now normalization happened to freshers or experience less than 5 years. If their salary got revised to 4.6 lakh per annum from 2.4 lakh per annum. Will the normalization happen to my Band as well.?”

“Normally it should happen for B band as well. They have not finalized yet. I would be updating you if anything is confirmed.”

I said “Thanks” and left the room. As soon as I unlocked my desktop, I opened the excel sheet and did a calculation based on my hike percentage, number of years I worked for the same salary. I found that I would be getting an hike of 1230 rs per month and I need to wait 4 months more to see this hike in my salary slip. If I am unable to give more money to my dad monthly, either he would have to die or I have to die for getting since my death insurance coverage is 10 lakhs from the company.

Again my mind changed to switch company or to find team where I have chances to fly UK or any other location other than US. I updated my resume and uploaded in naukri.com. I also started brushing up for the interview questions.

A week later, 30th May 2018

I got few calls from various company after posting my profile in Naukri. Especially from Infosys company, I had calls from three different HR who called me thrice in a day to know my experience, preferred location, salary package etc. They would say “We will let you know. Thanks”. An HR from Mind Tree Technologies called me and said that they need Automation Tester and invited me to attend an interview on next day at Hotel Keys, Trivandrum. I told her that I am a Manual tester not an automation tester but have knowledges in automation. She told that it would be fine since they had opening for Manual Tester as well. I told her that I would be there.

Ricky called me to the same conference room where Mohan and I had a discussion a week before.

“John, I wanted to discuss an important thing with you. Currently Jai from onsite location is planning to come India for one-month vacation. During that time, you are supposed to interact with the client there for a month. I suggested your name since you are expert in the application.”

Oh my God! I was so excited. It was a big surprise for me. Finally, they are going to process business visa for me instead of H1B. At-least I would be travelling to US and would be there for a month. Forget about tomorrow’s interview. Let’s Rock and Dance. I need to say thanks to this person. I felt bad that I have scolded him badly in my mind for several times. All these were running around my mind, but I kept my face blank or zero expression hiding all my happiness in my face even after hearing business Visa.

Ricky continued “Are you willing to work in night shift so that you can work with the clients from offshore location?”

After hearing this, all my excitement shattered into pieces. I came back to reality from US in my dreamland. It was not a pleasant but a shocking news to me.

“It’s ok. I will work”

“Thanks a lot. One day you will reach a higher position.”

I am hearing this dialogue from him for the 27th time in the last 3 years.

Time to attend interview tomorrow!