My e-Zest story

Every MBA course has a 2 or more months of industrial intern-ship embedded in it or at least mine was. This is the sole reason why I came in contact with e-Zest Solutions.

The whole intern-ship thing started to take shape during the early summer of this year i.e 2014. Intern-ship is generally not taken that seriously and is just a matter of the completion certificate for few, but I was very much interested in the whole experience. The first interview that I gave was of KPIT and I was not selected. Somewhere at the back of my mind I decided that I needed to go in an IT company for the intern-ship.So, the next company I applied for was e-Zest Solutions Ltd. Frankly speaking, I had never heard of the company but as long as it was Pune and IT, I was fine.4 people were called for the interview and I alone got selected. There was no actual celebration but I was happy.

The intern-ship started on June 2nd. Not much happened on the first day. But second day on wards it was a roller coaster. I got introduced to the team I would be working with. The same day we even went outside for team lunch as a celebration of team's performance in last month. My mentor for the intern-ship was Mr. Mandar Thosar, the most coolest and supporting boss anyone could get. Unlike any other mentor, he gave me a few choices and asked me select the project that I want. I mean, who does this! All I heard was people getting dumped in project they don't like or have any idea of. That day I was pretty happy as I had selected two projects, both of very different nature and also because I knew that the next two months were going to be fairly comfortable under a boss like Mandar.

e-Zest Solutions is an IT firm based from Pune. It was founded around a decade and half ago. You can find all the factual information about the company on the internet, what I intend, is to tell you about the e-Zest I experienced and why e-Zest has become a company I would like to be associated with for lifetime. The experience is not just professional but have been personal. e-Zest has taught me a lot about life.

In e-Zest I was part of the marketing team. The team was headed by Mandar with Faisal, Prerna, Shashank, Sneha and Madhavi as colleagues. During the early days I was a bit shy and formal with everyone. But as time passed Faisal became Faisal bhai, Sneha Pulivendulam became Puli, Shashank became Shanky. Through work the bonding in the team grew real quick, especially with Prerna. Prerna was my partner in one of the project and even my guide. But we use to quarrel like brother and sister. We use to scold each other all the time and the whole office would enjoy our little fights. Even Madhavi started enjoying it and use to ask us what was wrong when she would see us sitting quietly. But Prerna supported me throughout the intern-ship and so responsible for most of my learnings.

A similar relation was developed with Faisal bhai minus the quarrels. He is one of the most down to earth and cool guys I have known. During the intern-ship he not only supported me but also helped me grow professionally. Soon Faisal Bhai became like a elder brother to me. We use crack jokes. I even caught up his funny accent and some of his peculiar words. Puli, Shanky, Madhavi were no less helpful. They all made me feel comfortable. The whole team was extremely supportive and fun to work with. Hardly there was any day when we didn't disturbed the other team with our laughter and silly jokes.

e-Zest has been a special experience due to the professional freedom it offered. I could easily share my ideas, I could freely do some small things which might not be considered "professional" in other corporations. The importance was given to the work rather than the tantrums around it. I was bestowed with responsibilities of delivering the project rather than being in the dark about the deliverables and just doing assigned tasks. Due to this, I felt responsible for the outcome and was able to contribute more, at least I think so.

Mandar arranged small of sessions for the team where he explained how the activities we do affect the business. We discussed experience from our life, books, creative ideas for events, new trends in business. The lessons weren't strictly professional. Most of the time I learned some really valuable life lessons which I might use in coming days. These little things have helped me tremendously.

The compassion that was shown in the working environment is very rare. Even the higher management use to walk around and talk to people like peers. For example, I met the CEO, Mr. Devendra, twice. Both times, we had a nice chat where he shared his life experiences, how his childhood was, how he founded the company, his ideologies, how he is proud to be an entrepreneur, his passion for gadgets, etc. Now, which intern gets the chance to have such a quality time with the CEO of the company. Generally people get nervous around higher management people but the atmosphere of the company was so friendly that no one hesitated around them and were able to actually learn from them like friends. 

To sum up, the two months in e-Zest Solutions Ltd. provided me a new perception of professional environment in which work life can be productive and fun filled at the same time.  

I really appreciate the values and environment e-Zest has and if at all I end up creating something, I would want it to be like e-Zest.