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I completed my B.Sc (Hons) in the summer of 1971 and for some extraneous reasons I could not apply for my post graduate course in Bangalore University, although with my marks I would have got a seat. Since I was to wait for next admission season, I earnestly started to prepare for Civils and simultaneously apply for jobs to keep myself engaged during the interim period. Every unemployed aspired for a Bank job as it was the fashion then. The others avenues open to me were in the Defence Services. The third, relatively less chosen option in my relatives circle, was a sales job. One of my cousins was in TOMCO (Tata Oil Mills Company) selling Consumer goods and another cousin was in an MNC dealing in heavy earth moving equipment. In my immediate family sales profession was just an unknown entity. All the same, I did make my attempts in all those 3 areas while continuing with my preparation for Civils. My parents would permit my travels to different places for sure, if it was for interviews. So I threw the net wide so that I could get many interview calls. I did visit places like Delhi, Hyderabad, Mysore, Anantapur, Roorkee etc. I must confess that it was a mixed bag of successes and failures. I did reject some jobs even when I was successful. The one that foxed me totally was the job as a Medical Representative in  a Swiss Pharma giant CIBA. I was selected for the job in a final interview in Bombay (as it was called then) in Feb 1972. I wasn't familiar with the sales job that it was. I had to stay back for a class room training (for nearly 4 months) after my selection in the final interview. The job offered a very handsome salary (higher than what a probationary Officer would earn in SBI, considered to be an enviable job in those days) with additional lucrative travel and other perks to cap. I did well in the training. But still my heart was not in it as I aspired for success in Civils or completing my PG course. It was my brother, Dr.Vasant Rao who convinced me that the job with CIBA was worth giving a try. He told me that option was always open for me to quit if I didn't like it. That nailed it for me. That's how I entered a sales profession that was so unknown to me. I never regretted my decision to accept that job. It also put in my pocket more money than what anyone with similar educational qualification or age could earn at that time. It however meant that persuing my aspiration stated earlier started to take a back seat. Further, I started to like my new job.

We were a batch of 20 trainees - 5 each from Andhra Pradesh (the then composite state) UP and Maharashtra, One from Assam, One from Rajasthan, two from Bihar (actually both were Bengalis) and one from Nepal. 

Training itself was very methodical and lasted for 15 weeks imparting all required basics like human physiology, anatomy, pharmaco-kinetics, sales techniques for carrying out our job successfully. We had a great trainer by name Sri Bhattacharjee. He was very practical and trained us to handle tactfully situations that often explode in our faces while doing our job. As medical representatives, we are expected to know all about our products so that we make a good presention about our products to a doctor. We are trained also to answer any questions asked by the doctor about the product. We carry a handout with full product information called a product literature which we generally leave with the doctor after our sales presentation. Sometimes, unexpected questions are asked....like conditions where the product should NOT be used (called contra indications in medical terminology) or drugs which should not be used along with our product. When faced with some such odd question for which the answer is not remembered by me, I take out the literature and pointing to the answer on the literature read out the info to him giving an impression that I am showing him the location of the answer on it while actually camouflaging my short coming.