Tridib Bhattacharjee: A returnee's story

Tridib Bhattacharjee is a good example of how a young man after completing his Bachelor of Engineering in Computer Science from Utkal University grew as a professional from a very modest Service Engineer to a global technology professional. Bhattacharjee after working for some large Indian IT/Telecom services organizations worked in the U.S. for four years and benefited from having high quality management professionals as peers. Though he was growing he felt that his job in pure product development and support area made him function mechanically everyday. In the U.S. the job functions are very process oriented. The processes are well defined and hence some of the jobs become very repetitive. For Bhattacharjee this was a myopic existence.

Bhattacharjee yearned to do something he had never done before and more importantly contribute in whatever way possible to India's growth and development. Contribution to India's burgeoning telecom sector was one outlet. Relocating to India from the U.S. at that point of time was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be part of a growth engine.

An offer from Reliance Communications in India in 2003 to scale up its data network was an opportunity for him because the job responsibility entailed expansion of the network to almost every part of India. The challenging decision to relocate from the Silicon Valley, leaving behind a stable job with Cisco Systems and friends had to be taken. Another challenge was that relocating would mean a paradigm shift in the lifestyle pattern. Some comforts had to be sacrificed.

The turn of events during Bhattacharjee's initial days after his return made him feel very depressed. However, it was just a passing phase and support from his family helped him overcome it. Looking back, he says the move to India was worth it given the tremendous growth here and the constant challenge to prove oneself. Each day has took him higher up the learning curve, and he realized that the horizon of his thought process has constantly been pushed northward.

At Reliance, Bhattacharjee felt he was part of their critical growth process as some of his ideas were implemented. It was also a double bonanza since he was, as a U.S. returnee, valued for his global experience.

After Reliance Communications, Bhattacharjee worked for Alcatel-Lucent and built a global service delivery center for one of its IP Divisions, which resulted in significant cost savings for the company and increased customer satisfaction besides offering exciting career opportunities to young technology professionals of the country.

The entire process has to wrapped up in a matter of minutes as it deals with mission-critical problems. A delay on their part could mean unending harassment for the client's customers. To that end, gauging the symptoms is very important. "You need to be the Sherlock Holmes of Technology," quips Sinha. "Sometimes it takes 400-500 minutes to solve a problem," he says

Bhattacharjee joined Avaya in March 2007 and is currently in the process of building one of the largest service delivery groups for the company.