Poornima Krishnan, June 2022
17 June 2022:
The day she has been waiting for. The final formality, culminating into a signed contract for a permanent position in local government, New South Wales, Australia.
While the entire market may say that Contract is the way forward, it certainly depends on the individuals, circumstances and the phase of life you are in. Not everyone wishes for a short term contract, which is beneficial in many ways. We are not going to discuss in the benefits of contract Vs permanent, but the journey towards this.
Poornima migrated to Australia in the year 2016. Around November 2016. By giving up the luxurious life in singapore first and then next best luxurious life in india. First few months it’s the meet and greet with known people, getting new friends, initial visit to many places in sydney and NSW.
One such initial meet was with a friend who was into volunteering. Now volunteering is generally thought as who have time and who are passionate about something. In sydney or Australia, volunteering is itself a separate industry! So many people have been giving their time for many activities. Few examples are in sports- Team Coach, team manager , club positions are all all volunteers. Entire marathon event , runs with volunteers. Community festival is run by volunteers.
Volunteering opened up a new horizons. Poornima went into volunteering full time. Did many events, participated in community festival. This certainly brought in fresh flavour to entire family and near/dear. With friends group, she did volunteering for colour run in sydney harbour, Burwood festival and few more. She got one such opportunity to work with Burwood Council.
Burwood council, that the place we lived also. Council was just behind our house. One street away. Very comfortable to go. No compromise in any of the schedule for me( Guru- Spouse) or Pranav (Son). She got new circle of people. Poorni, in general, is very generous in giving. Donation, helping, serving are all synonyms to her. It was so visible during her stint as Food Business Owner in Bangalore. Serving food for a cost, free without any strings. The feeling of satisfaction and fulfilment when you give. And also, when you get the feedback from the recipients of food. That one message — “thank you for prompt delivery and quality food. As I am in medication, timely food is important”. May be all these small events had snowballed and prompted to get into Volunteering at first.
Records Management role in Burwood did help a lot and put a initial start to the corporate work here in Sydney. Very friendly atmosphere.. and then “Spinifex” recruiting was the major turning point in getting the paid jobs. In Records management, in Department of Justice, Parramatta.. and then life took its own turns. next contract, next contract.. Worked in Chatswood(pretty long and tiring travel for 1 hr and 30 mins).. and then in Sydney Central [ NSW Government ], then on to FACS [ Family and Community Services] and then joined local government-Parramatta Council. Hell of a ride with Parramatta council, with last minute contract extensions, ambiguity over role etc.. But the best part is the Hard work and willingness to learn everything. With the IT background, the aptitude for learning was enormous. Poornima is also a natural problem solver, where the solutions will start appearing on its own, while it may look like a mammoth task for another individual.
Her versality, flexibility, natural relationship building skills, easy of speaking with everyone, right attitude towards work, commitment to getting the work done/assigned, going beyond and above of what’s required had made her a dependable, trustworthy member in the team. Default go to person to taking the backup work ,when someone goes on leave!.. These are very small /daily events but amalgamated for creating a best possible impression within the council.
Today, 17 June 2022, was the result of all the hardwork and connecting the dots from June 2017 to June 2022 [ 5 years ]. Now, its the permanent position in the Local Government council work.
Wishing her all the best for many more successful years to come.
- Guru.
