Photo By Bruce Howard | 190517-N-VS214-0001 NEW YORK (May 17, 2019) Machinist’s Mate 2nd Class Abhishek...... read more read more
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Story by Electrician's Mate 1st Class (Nuclear) Adam Glover
NEW YORK - Machinist’s Mate 2nd Class Abhishek Srivastava does not believe in doing thing the easy way. Growing up in New Delhi, India, he earned two Master's Degrees, one in Business Administration and one in Social Work. Then he began a career with the Hilton Hotel chain in India before coming to the United States in 2013 to be the director of sales for the 16 Hilton Hotels in New York City.
Although his job was challenging and also allowed him to travel the world to promote his hotels, he was not satisfied. “I was comfortable and earning money, driving the latest Benz.” he said, “but after a while, the quest for material success actually erodes self-worth.”
This all changed one day in 2016 when he met a Navy Recruiter in the local mall. “I didn’t know anything about what the Navy was or what they did. But once we started talking I instantly was impressed with him,” Srivastava says, “Here I am selling rooms and suites to Fortune 500 companies, but he’s selling a life. So I asked him ‘How do I get a job like yours?’ and that was where my journey to join the Navy began.”
Srivastava enlisted in the Naval Reserve in November of 2016 as a machinist mate. Following Boot Camp and “A” school, where he was the honor graduate and won the 2017 distinguished snipe award. Then he advanced to petty officer 3rd class and was assigned to Navy Operational Support Center (NOSC) New York City. After that, he was assigned to Naval Support Activity (NSA) Souda Bay, where, based on his performance and academic results, he was advanced to second class petty officer within six months. While he was there, he worked with port operations and security supporting U.S. ships pulling into the Greek Island of Crete.
In January 2019, he got the assignment he wanted and came back home to New York as a recruiter in the borough of Queens. He quickly began using his previous experience to help develop new ways to expose more people to the opportunities available in the Navy with his fellow recruiters.
“I refer to this brainstorming method as STAR,” he explained. “It stands for situation task action results. I got a chance to implement it almost as soon as I got here.”
He applied this technique to his work when he facilitated interactions with a local Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (JROTC).
“We had a situation where one of our schools would not allow us to present to any students except the JROTC class. So our task was to organize a meeting that would create a relationship between the JROTC class and the Navy, and also encourage them to want to introduce their peers to the Navy.”
“Our action was to provide a lunch for the JROTC class and present all the opportunities available specifically through the nuclear power program. It sparked so much interest that the result was the students themselves went to the guidance counselors and requested that we come and present to the rest of the school.”
He also realized that he could do even more to raise awareness in the local community. “Richmond Hills is made up of a lot immigrants from places like India. They worked hard to start businesses and become successful,” he said, “but because of this, they have a very narrow definition of what constitutes a good career, and they don’t know about the unique opportunities available in the military.”
He began to visit the local Sikh Gurdwaras, or temples, to introduce himself. “I’m fluent in four languages, English, Hindi, Urdu and Punjabi, all of which are spoken in this area. This multi-lingual ability has made it easier for me to sit down with leaders from the Gurdwara from the area and communicate to them what the Navy has to offer their community members.”
He also began to visit the various local businesses owned by members of the Sangat, or congregation, bringing posters, business cards and other recruiting aids to put up. “There’s not a single business in this neighborhood that doesn’t have my cards or posters,” he said proudly, “But by bringing them in it let me start the dialogue with the owners. Sometimes being in a place where they feel comfortable and speaking in their first language is all it takes to make them begin to trust me.”
“In one case, I was able to sit down over tea in the back of the family’s furniture store with the owner who was also the mother of an applicant. Once the mother learned all the ways her daughter will be able to grow on a personal and professional level in the Navy, she encouraged her daughter to join which she did.”
He continues to work with the Gurdwara, serving meals to the community and acting as a mentor to younger members of the community, which he hopes will inspire others. “The local community shows me a lot of respect and admiration for what I do, and my cousins look to me as a mentor. Most importantly, my son wants to serve in the Navy as a pilot to eventually become an astronaut.”
Currently, he plans on becoming a career recruiter in the area, “I want to keep going because of how much I enjoy this work. The best and most rewarding part being a recruiter is when you help an applicant, not just through the initial process of joining but also taking responsibility for teaching them and building self-esteem. Recruiting is a tesseract, a never ending cube, it never ends, but folds over on itself so that you’re never really starting or ending.”
Navy Recruiting District New York covers 7,700 square miles and includes New York City’s five boroughs, Long Island and the northern half of New Jersey.
Navy Recruiting Command consists of a command headquarters, three Navy Recruiting Regions, 18 Navy Recruiting Districts and eight Navy Talent Acquisition Groups that serve more than 1,330 recruiting stations across the world. Their combined goal is to attract the highest quality candidates to assure the ongoing success of America’s Navy.
For more news from Commander, Navy Recruiting Command, go to http://www.cnrc.navy.mil. Follow Navy Recruiting on Facebook (www.facebook.com/NavyRecruiting), Twitter (@USNRecruiter) and Instagram (@USNRecruiter).
| Date Taken: | 05.16.2019 |
| Date Posted: | 05.16.2019 17:47 |
| Story ID: | 322683 |
| Location: | NEW YORK , NEW YORK, US |
| Web Views: | 187 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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