Satya Prakash Mohapatra On Leaving A Career In Engineering & Pursuing HR

How many of us have the guts to take the bold decision of leaving a high paying job to follow our dreams and passion? Satya Prakash Mohapatra, currently, Corporate Human Resources Manager, Tata Projects took the courage to leave a career in engineering and follow his dream to make an impact in the HR field. Let’s read his story, as told by him:

Back in 2010, when I started my Engineering Career, by virtue of my networking skills, my reporting manager had given me an opportunity to handle some part of HR like Recruitment of Local Candidates, Local Liaising apart from my core job.

That was the first time I got an opportunity to get a flavor of HR, which never struck to me until early 2013, when I decided to make a career change from Engineering to full-fledged HR Professional.

Before joining my full time MBA Degree, I even tried my luck as Freelance HR. I worked as a recruiter who was taking care of Overseas Middle & Junior Level hiring for multiple consulting organizations for almost, you can say 6 months.

Out of four consulting firms, for 3 firms I was working free of cost and one was paying me Rs.1000-2000 for a month. Those 6 months before MBA was the golden period or you can say learning curve for me in many ways.

You may laugh at me, I may be a mad individual who has left a good job just to pursue my passion. Even my parents were tensed. However, I was determined towards my goal, I wanted: ‘To become someone in the HR field who is admired by people.’

Truly speaking, I have two career goals in my life:

1.To become CTO (Chief Talent Officer) 15 Years down the line. The reason is quite simple. For me, HR means “Human Relation”. If you can build the relation and know how to leverage on it, believe me you can do wonders for Organizations.

2.To build my second start-up where I can contribute for the benefit of the larger mass without any discrimination for the talent irrespective of the background.

Life is just like a roller coaster ride. Until now, I have enjoyed both the ups and the downs. Fortunately, I have worked on both sides like the talent side, being an engineer and the talent management side, as an HR professional.

Along the way, from each mistake, I have learned many things. If I will see my nearly a decade experience in the employment market, being in HR, two golden things I have learned i.e. ‘Empathy‘ & second is ‘Gratitude ‘. These qualities are needed in every individual who aspires to be in HR or any other profession.

I used to make a note of my learning every day. Sometimes, we also need to reward ourselves at the time of achievement. Be it small or big, no matter, but try to enjoy that moment for sure. Remember to pat your own back!