Chicken Tikka for the soul

At Baba India Restaurant (only 8 of us here)

Friday nights are always eventful. The bootcamp is yet to change that!! Last Friday around 12 of us went to an Indian Restaurant in Blue Ash. This place was pretty small and very crowded.. Maybe its size made it look like it was packed. Anyways,we had to wait for about 20 mins to get a table, rather 2 tables and we were made to sit in groups of 4 and 8. After all the waiting and whining, we ordered our food.. My non-Indian friends found the food a little spicy but the overall experience was nice. I am yet to ask them to try Indian again.. Not sure what their reply will be ;)

Crunching numbers

Picture source: dilbert.com

This Wednesday each of the teams had to present their Financial Pitch to the CIOs of Citigroup. We had to get their ‘approval’ for investment and need I say that it was a tough sell! We had to prepare the Project Charter, Process maps and the Cost Benefit Analysis. So each one of us had been toiling and breaking our heads to get things done for more than a week. One good thing about the pitches was that it gave us a feeling of how the real corporate financial approvals are done. They asked us a lot of questions and gave us amazing feedback. Although it was sometimes a little blatant, it was for our better understanding of the corporate world.

Let me move on to the fun part, we had a “Presentation skills” workshop on Monday and Tuesday. We were made to speak on impromptu topics individually and the whole thing was taped for us to learn and correct our not-so-nice body language. Then we had to prepare a short presentation with the financials on a product that we think could be used differently from its usual, existing purpose. I chose ‘band-aid’ and my product was ‘band-aid umbrellas’. We then had to present it to a panel of 12 and get their approval for funding. I was so happy when mine was the first to be approved. Out of the whole bunch, only two of us got approval.A sign of how things will be in the corporate world!

A different day

At the call center

Yesterday was very different from all the things we have done so far. We went to the Citi Data Center in Florence. Kentucky, which is one of the call centers that Citi has. It was very exciting to see the people who answer my and other customer’s calls. They have an amazing building, gym and a dining area for the employees. Something new which I have got to know about Citigroup is that they actually give back to the society. They try to bring awareness in schools in the Ohio/Kentucky area about the importance of education and also at work. For instance, the employees at the call centers get an 80% tuition reimbursement! Although people in most other companies only get upto $5000 in tuition reimbursement per year…We had an amazing Q&A session and the people there were so friendly. Even the President of the center joined us for lunch and took part in the Q&A.

We had a Project Management Quiz and with all the time I had I could only do 8 lessons during the 30 min ride back to the hotel. I did pretty well in the quiz and was done with work by 4.00 pm.. Erin, one of my friends, cooked some amazing dinner for the 5 of us. Her dessert was just out of the world. After that we watched the movie Ocean’s 13. I liked the movie. Although it had some of the elements from Ocean’s 11, it wasn’t bad at all when compared to O-12. We have already started working on the financials for the case study and it is getting very hectic.. Hopefully over the weekend we will be done with atleast 60% of our presentation which is due this coming Wednesday.. It is a new experience for everyone of us and we are putting in our best to get things done!

Eponential increase!

Right after our noon walks

Since the beginning of this week Erin, Sanketi and I have been taking 5-10 min walks after lunch. After 4 hours of lectures and a heavy lunch, this walk helps us stay awake for the rest of the day. We have been at the office for about 9 hours everyday and have meetings once we get back to the hotel. Basically we have been working for about 12 hours minimum each day..

The past 4 days, we have had workshops and training sessions on Project Management, Finance and various other tools to analyze and mitigate risks. Until recently I was under the impression that project management is fairly less intense when compared to code development and that one needs good communication skills to get the job done.. But after attending the training sessions, I have learnt that project management is the most difficult role in project development. You are held responsible for anything and everything since you are the owner of the project..

We have been given a case study on a real-time ongoing project at Citigroup. We are supposed to come up with a TG4 pitch by next week.. i.e. figure out the project requirements, risk analysis and financial projections for the next 5 years in order to convince the management to invest $Billions in this project. There are a total of 8 teams working on this. Its a very competitive work environment and like our instructor says we are trying to complete “An unachievable task with an immovable deadline”. We have a total of 5 weeks to finish the project along with code development, testing and deployment. We are already in Week 1 and are nowhere near completing 1/5^th of the project!

When the TLPs of 2006 batch told me that the Bootcamp is torturously hectic, I thought they were exaggerating.. Now I am beginning to realize how hectic the next 4 weeks are going to be.

Time flies !

Picture source: grantland.net

We are split into teams of five each. The teams were announced yesterday in the morning and we had team assignments the same afternoon! We had to do a 90 second commercial about our team.. It was all fun stuff.. My team was “Citi United”.. We came up with a kind of professional commercial and I really liked our slogan “Putting the puzzles together”.. Will definitely post a picture of our logo tomorrow!

Today was no different than yesterday.. A lot of learning and team exercises. Things are getting pretty tight and somehow I already feel like 24 hours a day is not enough.

A good dose of Baseball

At the Ball Park

Yesterday a few of my TLP buddies and I went to watch the Cincinnati Reds game at the American Ball Park in downtown Cincinnati. The Reds were playing the Cleveland Indians. This was my first ball game and I was so excited.

I loved everything about the game - the cheering, the excitement, the crowd and of course the beer - just kidding ;) We had a great time. Unfortunately,the Indians won the game.There was this guy sitting in front of us who was so drunk that he only was shouting and dancing throughout the game.. ..We actually enjoyed his acts more than the game since the Reds were playing so bad!

Next week is going to be grueling, lots of training and other stuff!

Friday Fun!

Friday started off on an interesting note. The Directors and Managers in the program made the rotation pitches. We got to know about the positions and the job descriptions from the Managers and Project Leaders. They explained our roles in each of the projects. I haven’t heard of an IT job where you get to choose the project you want to work on....Am so glad am in one in which one can :)

There are around 90 projects for us to choose from.One amazing thing about most of the projects is the flexibility. Most of them were ok with us working remotely. For each of the positions they provide us training us areas we may not be familiar with like investment banking, loans etc.. before we start work on the project.

Picture source: imdb.com

The presentations got over by 3.00 pm. I then went and signed my apartment lease.. Adam helped me to find this apartment. One thing about this class of TLPs is that they are all very friendly and are willing to help each other. It is difficult to find such people. The TLPs of 2006 are also very helpful. They are more than willing to answer our questions and Tiffany has done a wonderful job of helping us network effectively.

Getting back to Friday night, Erin, Sanketi, Falo and I went to dinner to this place called “Through the Garden”. It was a very nice place and had a country atmosphere. Then we went to watch Pirates of the Caribbean: At world’s end. The movie was tortuously long and got over at 1.00 am…So if you plan on watching the movie make sure that you have a light meal.. else you might find yourself snoring half way through the movie! ;)

Uniqueness of Citi

Today was a really big day for all the TLPs. The CIOs talked to us about the organizational structure of Citigroup and their expectations from the TLPs . Mark Torkos, the CIO of North America Consumer Group gave an amazing presentation. His talk was very inspirational and very informative. He told us that we should never be hesitant to ask questions and that he is expecting the TLPs to bring fresh ideas to the table. He has been with Citigroup for about 7 months and has already made a very big impact on the functioning of the company. Then we had presentations from CIOs of various other groups..

During break time

I was amazed at the amount of involvement that all the leaders at Citigroup have with this program. All of them answered our questions and kept telling us not be overwhelmed by the size of this organization. Each one of them told us that they expect us to take on the role of leaders and that we are going to be one of the key contributors to the growth of Citigroup.

Outside Parker's - Laura, me, Erin & Sanketi

After an interesting day of getting to know the CIOs, all of us went to “Parker’s Blue Ash Grill” for dinner with Mark Torkos. A coach bus was arranged for us and a private room was reserved for dinner.

Inside the bus - on our way back to the hotel

After dinner Mark talked to us and told us something which I will never forget.. When he was young, his father gave him a piece of advice. He said if you do a project which is sinking, you can definitely make it better but if you do something which is already very good you can only make it worse! Mark gave us his advice that we should be who we are and never put up a front. It is better to be honest and have integrity than be dishonest and a people pleaser. I believe that sometimes we have to please people to get things done but it should never become a habit. It is important in life to make a mark for yourself and gain respect for who you are!!

My first day at Citi

Citigroup office at Blue Ash, OH

Today was my Day 1 in Corporate America!

We had to be at the office by 7.45 am and had shuttles that picked us up at the hotel. The office building is amazing.. I was very impressed by the security system and the very look of the building. To enter the building, we had an eye scanning system (not retina).. The system just checked for the picture of your eye against its database. I am yet to understand how this works!!

We had our orientation sessions, security stuff and of course “ice breaking” sessions. One novel idea for our ice breaking sessions was that each one us had to make a “Shield” . We had to write about the things we thought we were good at, things we wanted to get better at, our aspirations, our qualities, our successes etc..

Dinner at Dave & Busters

Most of the day was orientation and a welcome from the Citigroup Management. After work all of us got back to the hotel and went to “Dave and Busters” for dinner. We played video games and had a good meal. I suddenly felt like I was 16 again!! It has been a long time since I played video games.. No wonder why I played so miserably :)

A New Chapter

One of the best decisions of my life was joining Citigroup as a TLP Associate. There are only a few decisions in life which you know is right from the very beginning. This was one such decision!

Picture source: citi.com

The Technology Leadership Program (TLP) is a two year program offered by Citigroup where they help you develop and hone the leadership skills in you by making you lead key projects. There is so much one can learn about management and leading teams by being a TLP. This is definitely the place to be if you want to make it big!

There are four 6-month rotations where you are the Project Manager/Leader of one of the on-going IT projects in Citigroup after which you "graduate" from the program and join one of the many IT Teams in Citigroups across the world! Citi wants to use this program to groom fresh and energetic youngsters to become leaders within their organization!

My kitchen at the Residence Inn

A total of 40 candidates made it to Citigroup for this program out of the 200+ people who interviewed with Citigroup. All of us have come to Cincinnati for the training sessions a.k.a “The Bootcamp” in TLP jargon.

Its going to be a fun ride from now on and I hope to share some of my experiences through this blog! :)