Living Life KingSize

I did not want to end up a mediocre Naga earning a few thousands and doing a government job. I thought to myself ‘success is more than that, more challenging’, says the successful professional earning a six-figure salary packet and living her dreamsShe thought she’d become a doctor or an engineer, the two indisputable professions that most Nagas look up to, but Kevilekhonuo Naleo found herself working in a reputed private firm in the country’s capital years after her childhood ambition died down.
Her romance with the company actually started when she realised that it’s a traditional trend to want to become doctors and engineers (though of course she doesn’t detest those careers in any way), she dislikes the fact that scoring good marks in X standard sort of puts that mentality into your head.
From that moment on, she began to think differently - that there’s life beyond such professions while she questioned “why is everybody after that?” and that’s how she set her own spirit of competition.
She then graduated in Microbiology from Pune University, also earned a Masters degree in Packaging Technology from IIP Delhi and a Diploma in Marketing from CIM UK and right away became a part of a multinational, multibillion, multidisciplinary Industry known as the Institute of Clinical Research, India. The job involves research for finding new medicines and also those which have grown around the world at an unparalleled rate in the past few years.
Elaborating on the scope of the industry, she says it has opened up new vistas of employment for a large number of people. “The Clinical Trials market worldwide is worth over US$ 45 billion and the industry has employed an estimated 2,10,000 people in the US and over 70,000 people in the UK,” she says, adding that there are 50,000 professionals required in India alone in this industry in the next 2 years.
She now heads the international market and her role as a Senior Manager, Global Business Development, is to get collaborations, joint ventures, tie-ups from market outside India especially USA and Europe and to contact those companies who wish to outsource their businesses to India.
She would perhaps have it no other way because she seems enviably content with her job. But many Nagas would think making a decision to work in a private company outside the State is not the wisest choice.
However, she says “I did not want to end up a mediocre Naga earning a few thousands and doing a government job. I thought to myself success is more than that, more challenging. Also, honestly I wanted to earn a six figure salary and my dream was to travel abroad. Today, I am in a successful industry booming with each year and I am glad that I made the right choice.”
The best thing she likes about her job, she confesses is the opportunities she gets “to travel across borders and continents all at the cost of my company, meeting people with diverse culture in various countries of the world.” For an avid traveller, she has pretty much achieved her dream and is glad to have visited mostly the USA and other countries like UK, Europe, Dubai and Asian countries like Singapore, Hong Kong, Korea, Japan and Bangladesh.
It is noteworthy that she’s the only person from the whole of North East India to be working in the reputed company.
When asked if she plans to settle in Delhi, she surprises by saying she would like to live abroad, preferably the US but that, she has left it for destiny to decide. And on being provoked as to why Nagaland isn’t the first choice, she nonchalantly replies that the Nagaland Government wouldn’t be willing to pay her what she’s earning now, though of course, she expresses possibility that someday she would like to come home after she’s had enough of experiences and probably bring in something big.
On the other hand, she is encouraged to see a lot of Nagas working in the capital city after finishing their studies successfully and also enthused that she has met some Nagas working overseas too. This, she says wasn’t the case a few years ago.
Earlier, she further points out, “most Nagas after finishing their studies go back to Nagaland and hunt for jobs” and is delighted that “today the kids are smart” and “they know what they want and do not want to waste their time” she adds optimistically.
Delhi, she feels “is one of the best places to get a qualification” to which end she also opines “is one of the most desired cities to get a job.” And yet getting into the skin of Nagaland, she expresses that “we should encourage more players from outside Nagaland to establish their businesses and set up private firms, market tourism business, open more technical and vocational colleges.”
Six years into the job and the position she holds today is pretty much her own hard work. It is clearly evident, she did toil for it. If anything, she is happy in her world of managing in the senior level, bearing fruits of her own labour. Hard work always pays, they say.
This jolly, effervescent and sometimes naughty lady who used to write leave applications and love letters on behalf of her classmates and friends has certainly earned her credits real well and the other side of her also loves to indulge in books and music. Interestingly, she plays the guitar too. She’s a perfect example of how success comes to hardworking people.