Will and I will be moving to Pune in January. I have accepted a new position with iPlace USA, a recruitment process outsourcing service provider, running their sister company, iPlace India. In an expanded Senior Vice President role, I will be in charge of HR, marketing, leadership development and career coaching, and responsible for all new initiatives for expanding the company and achieving the business goals. It's going to be AWESOME. Even better, the CEO is American and we're in synch with where the company should go and how we can grow it together as a team. The company has made some amazing hires and while most of the staff are very young, they have tremendous potential. The company works hard to treat everyone fairly, there is parity across the organization, and employees are compensated based on their performance and effectiveness, not by who the managers like or are related to. Nice change. Some of the managers in place are extremely impressive and I look forward to working with these rock stars. :-)
We're super excited! Will is looking for the right college and there are plenty of very good schools in Pune. We'll be closer to Mumbai and south Goa, a couple of our favorite places in India, and will enable us to focus our travels in the south of India, where we haven't spent much time. We've been all over the north of this great country, but the backwaters of Kerala are calling, Pondicherry has been whispering in my ear for years now, and the fact that I've never been to Bangalore is almost embarrassing to make public.
So, this blog will effectively end with this post. My thanks to all my readers, for all of your great feedback, support, laughs and fury. It's been a tough slog these past few years. I will deeply miss my current co-workers, some of the best and brightest women (and a few good men!) I've ever worked with, here or overseas. But fear not, dear reader! I have set up another blog, focused on Pune at http://american-in-pune.blogspot.com. Check it out! Subscribe to it, like it, share it amongst your friends and we'll continue our brilliant conversations from there, okay? Follow me!
Onward,
Jeanne
wonderful are your words, all so true as well. It captured me, especially your discription of special treatment as a 'white' in India. I too had that very same reaction - in regards to position to the front of the line while on my visit to Delhi and Southern India. My first trip to India was a shocker in many ways. Here I a native Californian, born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area in a mix raced household no less...to have this ' you white woman go to the front of the line ' made me EXTREMLY uncomfortable - completly against my nature and way of being raised. I would become angry and fustrated - which seemed to only confused those others who showered special treatment on me. My Indian friend whom I was visiting was of no help in being how she thought I was crazy to not take advantage of it! Anyway, thank you so much for what you wrote - brought back lots of feelings and memories and yes - I understand what it means to be an American! I will be returning to India soon in a few months, a little wiser to certain rules this time around.
ReplyDeletePeggy, I feel you. India is an amazing country. While some of the cultural differences can be challenging, I love living here. I love my work here and have amazing friends and co-workers. Where have you visited in India? Where are you planning to travel when you next get here? If you need advice or want to share, by all means, contact me. And please visit my new blog at http://american-in-pune.blogspot.com!
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