How much is too much ?

Circa September 2009, I switched over to ALICO to join a band of ex-Citibankers who, in the quest of fire, action and glory moved to this company en-masse. Each of these ex-Citibankers was a star in their own right. Like all Citibankers starved of action, I was desperately trying to find that "action" within the bank. However, I realised that I had to move out of my comfort-zone if I wanted action. That prompted me to look outside of Citi, and so, to cut the long story short, I joined ALICO towards the fag end of 3Q '09.

The first thing that prompted me to join ALICO was the role on offer...exciting, scary & one that was made for the not-so-weak hearted. Coupled with this was the fact that the men who were above me on the ladder were all ex-Citibankers, and so, I for some profound-yet-unexplicable reason, decided to take up the job.

Before I took up the job, I was mentally prepared to face the grind. I knew that I would be heading a branch which for all practical purposes did not exist as far as the top-line was concerned, let alone functioning like one. I got my first taste of this in my first briefing with my reviewer [in case you don't understand the corp lingo, reviewer is supposed to be your boss' boss !] when he told me with a smirk that I was about to get into a stormy chair. That little 'smirk' in the guise of a metaphor whispered a lot of unfolded-horror tales about what was in store for me. I was curious, excited and a bit apprehensive..curious to know as to how the other guys managed to screw up..excited about the sea of opportunity that lay in front of me, and apprehensive about my decision to quit Citi when every soul worth his dime raised an eyebrow at my decision to switch from an upmarket bank to a masses' product.


The past 90 days have been action packed, exhilarating, hectic and everything that will make a moron of a sane man. No matter how hard I tried to take this as a passing phase, I couldn't help but notice the stark contrast to what I was doing at Citi. Here, despite giving in my best for close to 13-14 hours a day, I still don't hit the bed at night with a satisfied feeling about the way my day went by. There is a vacuum which seems more like a black hole 'coz no matter how many productive hours one puts in, the vacuum never fills.

3 months into the job, I feel I work in an assembly line with a bunch of morons, who just cannot think straight. I usually am not very critical of the people around me, but there is nobody who I can look-up to, nobody who I think I would want to emulate. This job is moronic and is turning me into a maniac with each passing day, and the more I talk about it, the more I hate this industry. But, ladies and gentlemen, this is what I do for a living, and so, good or bad, sweet or bitter, gotta take this in my stride, at least for now !

Huh...now that I've given a vent to what I am going through, I feel a lot better !

More on this, very soon !