Falling For The Enemy

Chapter 1: First Job

"So tell me about yourself, Lyla." The HR of Webster Media inquired over the screen of the laptop.

Having answered this question hundreds of times, Lyla spoke out of habitual framework, with practiced smile and pauses. "I have completed my Bachelor's Degree in psychology from Symbiosis College, Pune. Throughout my journey in Psychology, I learned about human mind and it's way of showcasing itself in enigmatic ways. This helped me learn about people I'm surrounded with and also improve myself in terms of interactions and behavior. Since, I've always been interested in the field of communication and my thirst to constantly engage in conversation with various kind of people, makes me interested in sales Job at Webster Media . I researched about this agency and came to know that I can have tremendous growth and learning experience if I work here."

Lyla didn't even have to try. All HR wanted to hear sugar-coated, masked words. They didn't care about your real personality and your interests. The moment it doesn't align with their company's values or goals, they won't think much of it.

"What are your hobbies?" The next day, another HR asked from another company and Lyla answered with the same robotic learned rhythm.

She gave many interviews since she has finally graduated and could help her father in monetary terms. Living alone in 2BHK flat with her old father, she had been trying to contribute as much as she could, whether it be house help or this time, in terms of earning enough to hire a maid.

She didn't have any dreams or aspirations to make it big in her career. In fact, she chose psychology out of whim and regretted pursuing it as she hated the idea of being a therapist or a psychologist. She found sales quite attractive, thinking it doesn't require much skills just good enough persuasion skills to sell the product or pitch a product.

Given her excellent charisma during interviews she had cracked various job offers, however, they didn't last very long.

The first job, as a sales intern, in a small startup turned out to be extremely horrible. The boss, who was also the manager, the founder, had the worst management skills and temper. When she came for the first day, all the tables were empty. Hoping soon it will be filled by employees soon, was surprised to hear that all employees had left the job and went to work for the ex-employee who opened exact same start up as this boss, just with better management and temper. At first she felt sympathy, however, it turned into pain when all kind of work were assigned to her including the job the HR , Marketer and personal assistant to the boss. By the time she came home, she was so tired that she couldn't even lift a finger. The overworking she could've endured but not the anger issues of her boss which was directed at her even when it wasn't her fault. Within a week, she left the job.

Soon, she found another job, here she made it a mission to ensure that the background of the company was clean so as to not end up in the same situation. During the interview round she impressed both the founder and the co-founder. At this real estate company, most employees were men in their mid-thirties. The break time was at your own convenience but should be only of one hour. Hence, she didn't have to interact with her colleagues at all.

However, during her initial days, she wasn't given any work. Others ensured her that it was same with them when they first joined. However after few weeks, she noticed that founder seemed to be annoyed of her presence for no reason. So, she started asking for work more actively. Hearing that she hasn't been working for two weeks, the founder unleashed the anger on all of his employees, asking them why they didnt train her. She found it a bit absurd because he never informed them about training at all.

When her training started, she made few mistakes while talking to the clients. The challenge was she was too formal. As she had an expertise on scripted charisma, the spontaneous nature of sales felt a bit hard to catch up on. Seeing that she was failing in interaction, one day the boss screamed her so much that she cried immediately and kept sniffing the whole day. This day marked the reason why she left the work. But before leaving, she proved herself. It so happened that few of the colleagues went on vacation so she and two others were the only people managing the calls. During that time, she handled clients so well for a week that her progress surprised the founder.

However, after a week, she handed the resignation letter and left. She was pissed that the founder tried to manipulate her into staying because she did an excellent jobs and contributed a lot to the business in a short span. She took it as her win and left the company with lots of resentment. She could have stayed if only he was patient.

Lyla was sleeping, cuddled with her pillow when she received a call from the HR she talked with yesterday. "We are happy to have your on-board. You can join by tomorrow itself."

"Oh. We have a few business to attend to. Can I join by next week?"

"It would've been great if you could show up tomorrow. But no worries. I'll send the offer letter this Sunday. You can join by next Monday then."

"Cool. Let's do that then."

She was filled with joy that she finally secured a job at a stable company. As happy she was, she was careful enough to not notice any peculiarities if it occurred.