Harpreet started his journey with BILT in 1992 and went on to work with Essar Cellphones, Wipro, Infosys, Hewlett Packard and Hewitt Associates across India at Yamunanagar, Chandigarh, Amritsar, Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Mumbai.
Currently working as head Customer Service for Tata Tele Business Services since last 10 years where he had also worked for 2 years earlier(1999-2000).
Harpreet has a stellar career as a team player, fantastic motivator, mentor and a great role model for budding managers. He is a strong believer in continous improvement and is very good in translating vision and stragey into objectives for his team.
Linkedin : Harpreet Bhinder
Q. How has been your journey from IIFM so far?
A. Been quite a ride, basically after campus placement, which was at BILT, moved more towards traditional non forestry corporates and that was by choice as back in 1992 there were limited options for the “f” in IIFM, and more for the “m” part!
Q. What were some of the key milestones/learning in this journey that you would like to share with us?
A. Networking is very important even within an organization, it helps immensely to get work done and is a very large multiplier of your efforts.
Q. What is the most satisfying part in your career?
A. Almost everyone who has worked as my direct report is willing to work for me again; that is the best part for me.
Q. Has your learning at IIFM helped in shaping how you approach your professional roles?
A. The OT 1 and OT 2 programs in IIFM, the projects we had to work on in teams, then making presentations of the OT’s and the projects to our professors and classmates, all helped us in getting a great exposure to working life, which college had not prepared us for, IIFM also gave us exposure to management concepts which could be delved into as and when the need arose during our work life.
Q. Who (or what) are the biggest influences or drivers in your careers? What would be your advice to freshers and IIFM graduates who are looking to choose similar sectors/roles.
A. When we graduated, private well paying jobs were scarce, and most people stuck onto jobs for long durations if not for life, the biggest influence would be the opening of the economy which made private well paying jobs increase exponentially. Fortunately, we were present at the time this increase came and most of us caught that wave and got roles and salaries we could not even dare imagine ( I wrote a poem for our IIFM hostel magazine, that talked about getting a “dream” job that would pay Rs 5000 a month which was pretty much the highest paying job for our batch in placements!!)
Q. What are your favorite memories during your IIFM days?
A. We are a small batch (25 passed out of 30; 3 got Govt jobs before completion, and 1 got admission in a University abroad) , so everyone knew each other well, and there were lifelong friends that I made, the camaraderie and the fun we had together are my favorite memories.
Q. In hindsight, what was the biggest contribution or take away from IIFM that you think played a critical role in shaping you as an individual or professional?
A. IIFM as a ecosystem gave us the exposure and confidence that helped us in our careers, more than the subject knowledge, the exposure to work culture, and management concepts made us better suited for work life.
Q. The best buddies / seniors /faculty at IIFM? Some memorable tidbits that you like to share?
A. Professor Pethia who terrorized us with case studies in the first term ( when seniors were away on OT-2 and could not advise us not to put in so much effort for half a credit) which helped move us away from mugging up and taught us how to think.
Too many buddies to list, I would count half the class as friends that I am still close with, and among juniors Puneet Budhiraja.
Most of the tidbits I have would be censored, but one clean one can be told (without taking names)! We had gone in a large group to see the paintings in Bharat Bhavan, one of our classmates who prided himself on his knowledge of painters and paintings kept raving about one frame that had some streaks of paint on display, since this “work” did not have any label I asked a staff member what this unknown great work of art was, and was told that it was the wall as the painting had been removed for renovation so we realized our resident art critic was waxing eloquently about wall paint!!
Q. As an alumni, what’s your advice to freshers or those are joining IIFM to get best out of the 2 years there?
A. Enjoy, make lot of friends, network within your class and with seniors/juniors, that will help you as much as academics will in the long run.
Q. And how about weekends, hobbies, family and anything else you want to add?
A. I love to read and listen to music, in reading mostly fiction, current affairs and history. I have 2 daughters , both of whom are working now, weekends is mostly catching up with my reading, most of which is online these days.
Q. Favorite Books, movies, authors?
A. Authors-P G Wodehouse, Louis L’amour, Isaac Asimov.
Q. IIFM is driven by alumni’s passion and commitments towards its goal. How would you like to contribute to IIFM or IIFM alumni, students? Your engagement with IIFM Placement or OT/SI?
A. I can help prepare students for interviews, tell them what recruiters look for and how they need to prepare.
Q. What do you think is different at IIFM now vs when you studied there?
A. Bigger batches, changes in curriculum and OT structure, more job options than when we passed out ( and smaller hostel rooms 😊 )
Q. Any suggestions on who you want to get profiled/interviewed here?
A. My batch- Ajay Rai, Neel Gaurav Mehta, Harsh Chandra, Ravi Kandpal, Vineet Mehta, Rajeev George Joseph, S Raghuraman, V. Ravi, Saroj Pattayat, M Ashok, P M Busi, Kongari John Tapan, Sushil Saigal, Mineesh Gulati, Rohini, Sudha Vasan, take your pick.