At this company, we offer training in various subjects. Most of the students have no or little experience in the relevant field. So what we do is, before they attend the main instructor's class, I brief them with basic stuff in SQL, Oracle and QTP for about 6 to 8 weeks. Most of the students are elderly people, like our parents' age. But few months ago, we had an exception. One of our 'future' student's father came to see us (who also happened to be our student back in 1999-2000) about his son. His son is a college dropout and father wanted us to train him in IT. Everything was set, I was supposed to take initial classes and finally he arrived. This was about 6-7 months ago.
My first impression was, OMG, how am I gonna tackle him? A typical "ABCD" guy, who would hardly talk or ask any questions. No interest in studies or learning anything new. I even thought he might be a drug addict!!! He would come for one class and then disappear for couple of weeks. It lasted like this about 2-3 months, from my end I finished everything, but from his end, no progress. Again, his father came and requested us to peruse teaching him. We reluctantly agreed, because all this time he did not pay to company and personally, I also did not get anything out of it. Now I had no interest or motivation, but no choice either. I started training all over again and this time, I could see some positive response.
Then, last week or so, I told him that I would no longer be available to teach him as I was moving to a different place. To my surprise, he was shocked. (Though we were talking through online meeting, I could imagine his expression). I almost remember everything he said to me "Oh really! This is very much shocking....you do not know how much grateful and thankful I am...I wish I could say this in person that I respect and appreciate you a lot...you have been very patient to me, though I gave you a very hard time..If there would be someone else, he/she would be really pissed off...thank you so much"...I mean it's no big deal, once in a while we all receive compliments like this, but this was stunning. And now it's like, he shares almost everything with me, I'm the only one who knows about his girlfriend and all that kind of stuff. He is really sincere about studies and very eager to attend the class
I felt good after this incident, sort of satisfaction you get after doing good work (without expecting any tangible return) and then being appreciated for the same :)
My first impression was, OMG, how am I gonna tackle him? A typical "ABCD" guy, who would hardly talk or ask any questions. No interest in studies or learning anything new. I even thought he might be a drug addict!!! He would come for one class and then disappear for couple of weeks. It lasted like this about 2-3 months, from my end I finished everything, but from his end, no progress. Again, his father came and requested us to peruse teaching him. We reluctantly agreed, because all this time he did not pay to company and personally, I also did not get anything out of it. Now I had no interest or motivation, but no choice either. I started training all over again and this time, I could see some positive response.
Then, last week or so, I told him that I would no longer be available to teach him as I was moving to a different place. To my surprise, he was shocked. (Though we were talking through online meeting, I could imagine his expression). I almost remember everything he said to me "Oh really! This is very much shocking....you do not know how much grateful and thankful I am...I wish I could say this in person that I respect and appreciate you a lot...you have been very patient to me, though I gave you a very hard time..If there would be someone else, he/she would be really pissed off...thank you so much"...I mean it's no big deal, once in a while we all receive compliments like this, but this was stunning. And now it's like, he shares almost everything with me, I'm the only one who knows about his girlfriend and all that kind of stuff. He is really sincere about studies and very eager to attend the class
I felt good after this incident, sort of satisfaction you get after doing good work (without expecting any tangible return) and then being appreciated for the same :)
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