A Positive Ray of Hope in The Midst of Many Negatives

by Arshin Asharaf

It's genuinely not easy to find a job to love. Everybody has personal conditions, dreams, goals, ideals and expectations on how work life should look like. When starting a job during a pandemic, it becomes much harder to identiy, if the job really matches your expectations: virtual work becomes part of your day to day task, you are constantly trapped behind your own screen and you cannot get to know each other properly! How is it possible to know if this is the job you want to do and how to become part of a team in times of decentrality?

“Hello, am I speaking with Arshin Asharaf?"

(Conversation continues...)

As the day meandered along, with the gloominess of the pandemic settling in, this call was a breath of fresh air. Reality and dreams were intertwined, I had to snap back, and I knew this was it. 2020 without a doubt has been a troubling year for the whole world. When negativity was building a skyscraper, positivity had only tiny cracks to sneak through. This call presented an opportunity for positivity to burst in through the door.

"The most important warriors are patience and time" - Leo Tolstoy

These lines proved true for me. Unexpected? Maybe! But not surprising that these words rang true. Like any other year, 2020 began with a lot of hope and I had opened the windows for the future to shine its light on me. But the ebbs and flows of the year hung like a dark cloud. It was not until I joined Chemovator that I truly grasped what Tolstoy meant.

Road to Chemovator – the business incubator of BASF

Moving to Germany at the end of 2019 to pursue my master's in Management and Leadership was the turning point in my life. At the time, it was a bold step. But the vagaries of time proved, it was a step towards the right direction. When life throws a lot of uncertainties in your direction, panic is a natural reaction, but hope is what moves you forward and with the rock-hard support of a loving mother and wife, you feel anything is possible. I was confident of finding a job, my life has taught me as much. But how to find a proper employer and how to establish a stable marriage between your and your employer’s vision? Not easy.

It was a time consuming process.

But, when I found Chemovator, I found a vision I could identify and relate with. Bringing in my experience of running my own startup and implementing what I had learned from my courses. There could not be a better match.

Somewhere along the line, even though the year had brought with it a lot of undesirable difficulties, it also gave me a chance to deeply introspect myself, a true reflection of what you can offer and what you expect. Such moments are rare in one’s life as it is easy to settle in a flow. This new understanding had given me immense confidence and a true realization of what I really want from a job as well as life.

Four rounds of virtual interviews gave me a clear picture of how this company operates and most importantly, I had the opportunity to get to know all the people I was supposed to work with. An important aspect of your professional life, since you spend most of the time with your team. With each round, I had a growing sense that this is what I wished for and growing quietly confident that I would also be a good fit.

Onboarding

Change is inevitable but is also considered an inconvenience by many. Chemovator’s support and the patience they displayed in waiting for me to join the company was commendable. I had to travel back to my home country for personal reasons. Returning back to Germany for the first agreed joining date was not possible due to the raging pandemic.

There are many things in life I am thankful for and Chemovator’s understanding and patience are definitely getting an entry in this list. As I had mentioned previously, my intuition about the people at Chemovator turned out to be true. The warmth and consideration I received from the team members, even though I had only met them virtually, is something that I always admire of Chemovator as a team.

Life at Chemovator

It’s true that time flies: The first day.

It seems to have gone in a flash. But, what I remember was how much my supervisor made me feel comfortable and even though the premises were empty, my hunch on how things would be proved to be true. The first meeting itself gave me a lot of clarity on what I had to expect moving forward in the organization. Such transparency helped me in being confident of what I would be doing. This was the first time, I met my new team in person, not everyone, but some of them. Still with distance, but it felt closer than before.

“Small opportunities are often the beginning of great enterprises.” - Demosthenes

These words echoed in my mind and it shaped my work at Chemovator. I seized every opportunity at Chemovator and tried my best to push it into even greater heights. I was able to contribute well in the first major duty I was assigned, by being a part of managing a virtual event. It was organized with such brilliance and excellence, resulting in great appreciations from the stakeholders and thus making our team proud.

Being an entrepreneur and having worked at startups before, I truly believe in the value of proactively expressing ideas and thoughts within the working environment. And if you are appreciated and recognized for your work, passion will ooze through. A good leader has a clear vision and well-defined objectives. Even though it is too early to judge, I see these qualities in the leadership group at Chemovator.

For the same reason, I’m highly motivated and proud to be part of this team.

Share your experience

Which recruiting and onboarding experiences did you make in 2020? What helped you to become part of the team? Which learnings can you share with us?

Would you also like to become part of Chemovator and join our growing team?
See our open job positions here.

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Arshin's Background

Electronics & Instrumentation Engineer graduate who is currently pursuing his Masters in General Management and Leadership. Arshin is an entrepreneur at heart, co-founded two start-ups right after his Bachelor´s degree and has a solid working experience in the start-up environment. Arshin is currently supporting the Marketing & Communication team at Chemovator.