Som Dutt
Som Dutt

Reliance Jio as Deputy General, Manager

“There are no shortcuts if you want to climb the corporate ladder,” says Som Dutt (SRMSCET Batch of 1996)

Coming from Bareilly, Som Dutt, Class of 1996, from the Shri Ram Murti Smarak College of Engineering and Technology (SRMSCET), completed his degree in Computer Science and Engineering in the year 2000. Currently employed with Reliance Jio as Deputy General, Manager Tools and Automation in Mumbai, Som says that he had to work very hard to climb the corporate ladder. No doubt, 90s wasn’t really the golden time for Indian Engineers with big dreams and even bigger plans for success. And professionals like Som never wanted to settle for less. He can very well be seen as the man who walked all the extra miles to ensure professional fulfilment.

Som’s first salary in Delhi in the year 2001 was Rs 3,500 per month. He was then working for IBM where he had spent the better part of seven plus years. Recently, Som joined one of Reliance Industries’ youngest ventures- Reliance Jio as the DGM of Tools and Automation.

We were curious to know what prompted Som to consider a comparatively younger company having spent 7 committed, successful years in IBM? The huge challenges and having to fire fight all the time were some of the reasons he admits, apart from the fact that his managers at IBM, who had joined Jio, asked him to join them as well.

Hard work and commitment are attributes that Som has in plenty and quite obviously, as he has learnt – the dividends are huge. IBM was smooth sailing in comparison he says, “We had already achieved big things and we were left with no more challenges – in a nut shell no more excitement!” At Jio, his responsibilities included monitoring all the IT assets and mission critical applications, looking after Reliance retail and Jio money with different tools, providing SAP solutions and real time proactive alerts with a team of 70 engineers working 24×7.

Meetings, conference calls and closing business escalations form part of a typical day at Jio where work takes first priority regardless of the time. “Today’s engineers think of a double digit salary and a 9 am to 6 pm job as soon as they leave college,” says Som adding, “This thinking stunts growth. There are no shortcuts if you want to climb the corporate ladder. Absolutely none!”

Som says that when today’s new engineering recruits face reality, they get easily frustrated and demoralised – something he sees on a daily basis. His advice to them therefore, would be: to be open to learning new technologies, to focus on short and long term goals and ensure that they enrol in a few good certification courses.

A degree from SRMSCET Som says teaches one to be independent and to think for oneself. “This is why I did not face any challenge when I moved to different cities in different jobs,” he explains adding that SRMSCET is doing an excellent job in providing quality education to students. “When I was there they even started an out-of-syllabus course of Visual Basics for interested students. There were workshops, discussions, healthy peer learning, great faculty, everything. They had even started providing computers on loans with easy instalments… what else could you want from an institution trying to make its mark in excellence in the chaos of 90s?” he questions.

Som is right. SRMSCET’s alumni have done exceedingly well, climbing to senior management levels in reputed organisations like Goldman Sachs, HP, IBM, Intel, Interglobe, Huawei, TCS and so on. However, he believes that the alumni should help students by coming down to the college to give lectures, share their life experiences, help them to get good opportunities, etc. He also feels that the institute should guide students about where to get the correct certifications so that they have a powerful resume before entering the competitive world.