May 2023 marks the completion of my 5th year in the French Automotive industry. I started working after my masters from Ecole centrale de Nantes. I still remember my first working day in Toulouse, south of France. In the initial 2 months, I was so nervous & made a lot of silly mistakes too. On the same day, I accidentally addressed my client manager’s secretary as Madame & so she started calling me as « Mon petit » until I left Toulouse. In India, we use Sir/Mam a lot, thanks to our colonizers.
Working in a foreign country, speaking a foreign language and a completely different kind of work environment made it a very complicated scenario. But, I’m a survivor because it is nothing, when compared to losing my father at a very young age.
Big thanks to the support from Noemie Burgard, Séverine Ruelle, Maxime Brun, Laurent Sentenac, Mathieu TOUSSART, Alexandre Domarco, Catherina ROGER, Nicolas Oberti, Vincent Blangero & many other lovely former colleagues from the pink city, I was able to adapt into the French work environment & cherish these experiences. My time at Bertrandt in Toulouse was memorable.
3 years in Toulouse, taught me a lot of important life lessons. Initially, I felt so lonely in a new city and being an introvert didn’t help too. So, I went out of my comfort zone & started meeting a lot of people. This lead to the creation of new association called Indian Community Toulouse – ICT along with some amazing friends. Even though I’m not active with ICT anymore, the team is doing an amazing job.
The long hours spent in the -30deg cold chamber or on the test track calibrating various prototype cars was a dream come true. My mom doesn’t believe that I do these things at work. For her, I’m still a small kid who is afraid to fall from his bicycle.
Toulouse also introduced me to a lot new things which I had never dreamt of doing such as scuba diving, paragliding, canyoning, trekking, wild camping in the Pyrenees, very long drives, etc. Then the Covid crisis happened and completely changed my life again. My plans to settle down in Toulouse, changed to finding an apartment 🏠 in southern Parisian suburbs.
With a heavy heart, I had accepted the internal transfer to Paris region and started working at Renault Technocentre – Lardy in Jan 2020. Working at an OEM and a supplier can have very contrasting learning experiences. Thanks to Thibaut Bertolotti, Santiago Alario Rodríguez & others who moved to Paris region together and for all the support. Also, I slowly transitioned from calibrating engine control to electric motors control.
After spending a year in Lardy, I decided it’s time to leave my employer of 4 years, in search of greener pastures. Of course, the grass is always greener on the other side.
Since April 2022, I’m with Akkodis working on interesting Electric Vehicle projects at Emotors (Stellantis) and trying hard to be a Parisien 😉