It was 1992. I had bought a one-way plane ticket from a small town in India to go to the United States to pursue my advanced studies in engineering. Most students in my situation would have had a full scholarship or wealthy parents who could fund their education. I had neither of them.
I had to take out a bank loan just to get my plane ticket. So, when I arrived, I just had $60.00 in my pocket. I was working from 8am to midnight every day. It was a very difficult first semester, but it was through that degree and the next degree that I was able to get eventually an internship at General Electric (GE).
Growing up in India, all I had known about GE was that they made light bulbs. But when I started my internship, I realized this company does amazing products in locomotives, medical equipment, aircraft, engines. It was an engineer’s heaven. And yet my manager often spoke about how he struggled to find qualified, reliable engineers, those who could solve the problems being presented by GE businesses.
Soon I realized that his big problem was my giant opportunity. In 1997 in upstate New York with borrowed money from the credit cards, we started Quest Global. Our vision was simple, to create a business that would employ the brightest engineers and leverage the latest technologies in order to solve our customers most difficult engineering problems.
When we began, the office we rented was barely big enough to fit a few desks and GE was our only client. But it’s surprising how easy it is to be creative when you have little to spend, don’t not have enough resources, and there’s no fallback plan.
Well, we had nothing to lose, and between 1997 and 2001 our little company grew very rapidly. In just few years, I had achieved greater success than I had imagined possible in my entire lifetime, and I was only 30 years old.
But then, in 2001, a disaster struck. Enron, the 7th largest company in the US, collapsed. CNN reported that it was the biggest bankruptcy filing in the US history. It was a defining moment for every company working in the sector. GE was one of the companies most badly hit. It sent shock waves through the industry. I had to let go many brilliant engineers. For the first time in five years, I was managing a business that was shrinking.
One moment we were on top of the world and next moment we were in debt. We’re on the verge of closing the business. It was one of the hardest times in my life. Thankfully, due to the discipline and the commitment of our team, we were able to wither that storm and by 2003 we’re back on our feet.
But that experience changed me substantially, as well as my ambition for the company and my purpose in life. In the early days of the business, my goal was a simple one right to solve engineering problems and get paid. But now those things alone didn’t seem to be enough.
My mind wandered back to GE. How did a 100-year-old company like that be built? One that continues to create thousands of jobs, build lives and communities. I wondered whether that should be my life’s journey. So, over the next few years, instead of trying to go after many clients, I intentionally constrained it so that I can learn how to build a deeper and a longer lasting relationship with the most important clients.
And today, our goal is not to be the biggest or the most famous. Our goal is simply to be the most trusted partner for their hardest engineering problems. When we first set out, I thought that with commitment and hard work and lot of heroics, we might just be able to build a boutique engineering company employing 30 engineers. Well, we achieved that goal right from A2 engineers in a small room in upstate New York. We have grown to be a global organization with over 20,000 amazing people working in 17 different countries making a huge difference to hundreds of clients.
But ultimately, it is not just what we have achieved, but how that matters most to me. At the end of the day, Quest Global is not just a company. It is a collection of people with the shared belief that if we aspire to do great things while remaining humble, we can make a difference to the world and build a better future for everyone.
We are Quest Global. We’re in the business of engineering, but what we’re really building is a brighter future. It’s not just what we do, but why we do it that makes us different. We believe engineering has the unique opportunity to solve the problems of today that stand in the way of tomorrow. For more than 25 years, we have strived to be the most trusted partner for the world’s hardest engineering problems. As a global organization headquartered in Singapore, we live and work in 18 countries, with 78 global delivery centers and offices, driven by 20,000+ extraordinary employees who make the impossible possible every day.
Quest Global delivers world-class end-to-end engineering solutions by leveraging our deep industry knowledge and digital expertise. By bringing together technologies and industries, alongside the contributions of diverse individuals and their areas of expertise, we are able to solve problems better, faster. This multi-dimensional approach enables us to solve the most critical and large-scale challenges across the aerospace & defence, automotive, energy, hi-tech, healthcare, medical devices, rail and semiconductor industries.
It has come to our attention that scammers have tried to mislead people by fictitiously claiming to be employees of Quest Global or posing as authorized recruitment partners. These entities are misguiding job-seekers by promising well-placed roles with our company and asking candidates to pay for a certification course with a promise of reimbursement once they have joined. Kindly note, Quest Global conducts a formal interview process in our search for extraordinary people. We would NEVER ask candidates to pay for certifications at any stage of the recruitment process.
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