Its been 3 years 2 months and 6 days at Ashok Leyland, India's second largest commercial vehicle manufacturing firm and on the 6th of August 2010 my profesional career at Ashok Leyland came to an end. Foof ! thats was quite a long time at this fantastic organization. AL as it is unofficially known has given me a solid foundation to kick start my professional career.
From now on no more getting up at 5:00 in the morning, no more pacing up the road to board the bus at 6:30 am and no more healthy breakfast at the AL canteen. Oh my God ! things are turning around so quickly. It looks like I just joined AL as a GET (Graduate Engineer Trainee) some time back but coming back to reality I have come a long way. Got promoted to the post of Deputy Manager, worked on some important bus projects and handled additional responsibilities.
Work life at Ashok Leyland was really cool, the working hours being 7:45 to 16:00 hrs. It was entirely up to you to stay back after 16:00 hrs and only on rare occasions would office work force you to stay very late. The work life balance at Ashok Leyland is one of the best in the industry and I must admit that whole heartedly.
My seat in my office was the corner seat and what an amazing view of the greenery can one see from outside the window. The job at AL is one of the dream jobs for every aspiring engineer wanting to work in the auto industry. I was associated with the Vehicle Electrical group at AL's product development centre. This group was a small group with about ten people when I joined, but as more and more electronic features were being incorporated in the vehicle the group strength kept on increasing because there were new projects to work on and more manpower was needed. My group strength is close to thirty now.
I will always be proud that I was associated with AL and I have no qualms is returning to this wonderful organization sometime in the furture. GETs are given special treatment and are nurtured to be the next leaders in the organization. But unfortunately many of them leave at the end of their bond period, mostly to pursue their higher studies. I too am going to The Netherlands to pursue my higher studies in Sustainable Energy Technology.
Mr Ghose or DG as we call him is a very cool boss and amazing fellow. He has chided me, applauded me, nurtured me during my stay at AL. Being my first boss I'll never forget him. The to & fro trip to Alwar will be etched in memeory for ever. I learned a lot from my on duty travel trips and got meet amazing people and see amazing places. My GET friends at AL, oops the number has come down to five from ten,will always remain close to my heart.
At the end of the day it was a choice between financial security and growth. The pay at AL was too good to leave the organization but it was my decision to pursue my higher studies. I could have done this part time but there is no fun in doing a part time study. One cannot do justice to work and study in this case, atleast this my opinion. Well, I hope I have made the right decision and look forward to bigger and better things in the future.
I can say I have forged some very stong bonds with this great organization and its people.
Hi vikrant...that was nice :) I m guhan and i m pursuing my final year in B.E electrical and electronics at SSN engineering college , Chennai. I've been selected as a "GET" in Ashok Leyland through campus recruitment. People say that electronics engineers have limited scope in automobile industries, but they dont support it with good reasons. As u've worked in AL for 3 years i think i can get a genuine opinion about what are the prospects of electronics engineers in AL :) kindly reply me at 'guhanv1989@gmail.com' when time permits :) wishing u all the best for ur higher studies :)
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