Corporate concerns....

Effecting change in every corporate function is a constant endeavor in modern times, managerially speaking.... (I'd like to say that in the manner of Jim Carrey's famous take on 'metaphorically speaking' in the blockbuster movie "The Mask"). After all, change is the only thing that is constant, we are told!

However, it hits you to see some of these true-blue managers becoming smart-alecs that try to stonewall the very change their department seeks to effect. More, perhaps, to keep secure their comfy cushy jobs, which might run a risk of getting redundant once the changes are effectively practised!

Image is something that every corporate entity - big or small - tries to carefully nourish and project as one different from the crowd. In pursuit of this, corporates try out different permutations and combinations of variable changes that appear customer/employee 'friendly'. They even have specialized functional managers/departments to deal with innovative ideas. Therefore, you have an 'employee relations' as distinct from the HR, or a 'customer service' as distinct from sales. As long as these are actually vibrant, they serve their purpose. However, there are times when one feels that one would not miss these departments even if they ceased to exist.

Employee Relations (as a fictional example - could be the story of any corporate) is a great department provided they really live up to their name. There are occasions where this department is a glamorous face to impress new inductees; a great way to create ornamental functionaries of an otherwise dispensable band of employees, but who have the clout (and cheek!) to hang around! So you have an assistant manager, a manager, and an assistant vice-president independently (wo)manning this department. While you do see the lower rung working their skins off to ensure that every employee query or concern that comes their way receives a positive response, it is usually the self-important top notch guys that are actually living off the skim of their subordinates' labor. And these top guys also get to jet around the various facilities to 'drop by' and 'see' if the employees are indeed getting all the requisite response from the ER department. But try putting forward a concern or two to these guys, and they suddenly remember that 'actually your point of contact is Ms.....' and I am so important that I can be contacted only if need be. In other words, I know nothing, and it is actually Ms..... that will go through all the grind and sweat to see that your concern is positively addressed. I am here to well..ahem..'know' if you still had any concerns in spite of Ms....!

We shall look at some more of other such departments in the future....

Cab in, Cab out…

“Saab/Madam, aapka location kahan par hai…. Main Cab driver baat kar rahaa hoon…”

Cabs are an essential part of almost every IT/ITES/BPO employee’s work life. Their reporting time at work is most likely dependant on it! So, I decided to have a look at these vibrant life-lines of the high tech industry.

Cab operators, known as vendors in the industry parlance, run fleets of automobiles – a high population of them is the Tata Indica(b), followed by the Tata Sumo and the Chevrolet Tavera – servicing the logistics of transporting employees in and out of the company they serve. Maintaining the fleet, overseeing operations on a large scale, ensuring rosters are optimal in terms of time and location, tracking movement of vehicles as they pick/drop employees one after the other and so on, is no mundane task. And agreeably, most operators do a wonderful job of it.

Barring a few occasional hiccups, most cab drivers/operators carry the day with élan. Providing employment to well over a hundred thousand, this industry does its work without much ado. While an employee would not hesitate to register a complaint at the slightest inconvenience, rarely would the cab service be complimented ‘on record’ for a job well done! Most of the city streets in India that looked desolate at the stroke of the midnight hour not very long into the past, are now bustling with these cabs, zipping to and fro on their errands!

Employees, on their part, consider cabs a great way to commute. Apart from the obvious savings on travel, they are also saved the hassle of negotiating through traffic gridlocks. Therefore, they arrive fresh as a dewdrop at work, and can also afford to catch up with a wink or two on their way back home, tired from the day’s (night’s) work.

Using the cab service also fosters friendship and bonhomie amongst colleagues – and is in fact, a great way to catch up with ‘offline’ information and gossip. Rotational shifts or route reviews bring new cab-mates from different departments/processes, and over a short period of time, they turn into good friends.

While there will be concerns of rash driving indulged in by some cab drivers, the general opinion is that the cab driver is a friend of the ‘greenback’ industry and will be around for quite some time to come. So, three cheers to the ‘one for the road’!

Missed Call!

"Hi, Amit, this is Rina from Aychaar Solutions...Just wanted to remind you that you have your final round of interview at 3pm this afternoon. You need to be there at the venue by 2.40pm and report to Gaurav of HR. Wish you all the best! I'll give you a reminder call anyways at 2pm. Bye..." (All names changed, to protect the privacy of the intended parties) This at 10.30 a.m.… Come 2 p.m., Rina calls Amit’s mobile and is greeted by the 'either switched off, or out of calling area' message. She then calls his home phone, and the lady at the other end is ‘not exactly’ sure of Amit’s whereabouts. Maybe he is somewhere in India; maybe, he’s taken a flight to Los Angeles…. At 4pm, a tense Rina is alternating between calling Amit’s mobile (with a prayer in her heart), hearing the same message, and receiving Gaurav's frantic and exasperated calls.

Familiar scenario? All too familiar scenario!

What does Rina do? What could Rina do?

Pretty little! Considering that eight out of ten interview-schedule calls meet with the same fate today…. Recruiters, jobseekers, and the corporate HR staff, go through this much dreaded grind almost every single day. Blame game….anyone? Dicey, ain’t it?

I hope to go forward in this blog looking at all of the central players in this game of the 'missed call'. Amit, the elusive Amit, could well have been at the cinema, watching the latest release that afternoon, to celebrate the honey-dripping offer letter that he had picked up from another employer that morning, soon after Rina's call. To Amit's credit, he is not amongst those 'cats' that walk around with at least half-a-dozen offer letters across their attire, on any given day. He was content with the offer he had picked up, knew the afternoon guy couldn't fare better; so decided to call it off, and enjoy a movie instead!

Rina, in the meantime, has a tough evening ahead trying to explain this 'missed call' to her team leader. Gaurav's scene is no better as he is one guy short, and hopes Rina or her counterparts from the other consultancies make up for it the next day! And there are a couple of other 'gaayabs' too for the other positions that he has to close by the end of the week. So, Gaurav is not really a happy man either.

Rina could be forgiven for feeling let down by Amit. She had guided him most diligently through the company profile intro, the job description, the pay package counseling, the initial telephonic interview, the elimination round….taken pains to update him on all the possible landmines, the benefits, his strengths vis-à-vis his competition, and so on.

However, for Amit, she was but doing her job! He does not realize that his accomplishment is also very much a part of Rina’s job. That his success is her success too! So, he does not think it important to update Rina with his conquest of the morning. Nor does he want to be ‘pestered’ by Rina’s follow-up calls… so stays off the familiar number! And this behavior is surprisingly displayed across functional levels. Only, the ‘missed calls’ are a little stylized at the upper end of the spectrum. ‘Had an important JV contract meeting at the other end of the world, scheduled at short notice….’, ‘had intended to call and let you know, but was just too caught up…’, ‘you mean to say you did not get my SMS?!! That’s strange!’ Yes sirree….strange indeed!

Just as an employer has the right to choose from amongst the best of the turnout at the interviews, and just as the recruitment firm would not pick all and sundry CV’s to proffer to their clients, every jobseeker does have the intrinsic right to choose the best offer. But the point we need to reinforce here is about communication. How and why does the same recruiter suddenly fall out of favor when someone has landed a better offer? Why is it that when one could spend time to explain his/her expectations and aspirations, and the recruiter takes after those discussions, there is a feeling of ‘disconnect’ when the recruiter is needed no more? How different things would be if one were to spend just about five minutes to explain that they have a better offer, and thank the recruiter for all their efforts!

Recruiters - well, some of them think that it is they that the jobseeker and the client owe their very existence to! This creed of recruiters would do all to pick up any CV, sell the jobseeker the job profile that they have an interview deadline for, meet the numbers, and goddamn the jobseeker! Left in a tizzy, the jobseeker walks out of the interview, humiliated by the alien questions not relevant to their realm, wondering what hit them! I once had someone share their experience of a walk-in for a BPO, announced prominently in a huge ad that appeared in the newspapers. The walk-in venue, apparently, was the office of one of their consultant recruiters. And when this person showed up for the walk-in, he was surprised to find a long queue actually circumventing the centre parapet across the whole floor. No seating arrangements, nor any attendant staff to walk around and inform the progress. Just one security guy at the entrance, and everyone had to patiently wait their turn to ‘walk-in’. Maybe an isolated case….maybe not! But downright pathetic! If that is the way jobseekers are treated, how could you expect niceties in return? And then we have the run-in phone calls from telecalling recruiters parroting about a better opportunity and would-you-be-interested stuff; no specifics, no nothing…. I’d be damned if there is no one out there that has not received a call about how lousy their resume looks, and how about them zapping yours! Maybe, giving it a try might elicit a direct call from Bill Gates!

Corporate HR staff - the hallowed torchbearers for the jobseeker and the recruiter alike - how could they be wrong? Ever! Well, some of all the foregoing confusion could be avoided with a little effort from their side as well. For starters, some of them could do with having a definite job description and an absolute clarity on the role when requisitioning the services of a consultant recruiter on a job mandate. Interacting with too many consultants for single digit requirements might actually end up as a case of too many cooks. The idea of generating numbers in terms of CV even to fill just one position is sure to drive the recruiter crazy. When you have a consultant recruiter empanelled, might as well give their intelligence their due! The job of filling up a position that began with a consultant recruiter should end with the consultant recruiter as well. Most of the recruiters feel that they are in the dark especially when there is an offer firmed up with the jobseeker, and they hear it first from the jobseeker rather than their client company’s HR personnel. Apart from the monetary issues that crop up with some clients, another issue that is causing concern to many recruiters is the issue of database ‘hijack’. Stacking up unused resumes forwarded by the recruiter, holding out for a while, and contacting the jobseeker directly is apparently becoming more a rule than an exception.

So, the merry-go-round continues....but let's hope we all see wisdom and let each of us enjoy the ride!

Oops…I see a couple of missed calls on my mobile…..Ciao!

"Home" Page!

"Aa ab laut chalen...."

Mukesh's mellifluous voice hypnotizes you while listening to this number from thespian Raj Kapoor's 'Jis Desh Mein Ganga Behthi Hai'.

The magic of being 'at home' is a pleasure indeed! And I do not intend to say this as an antipathy to the idea of staying in a land that is over a thousand miles away from one's own.

Nothing can take away the days that you fought the pain of moving away from your loved ones and all the warmth, to pursue your dreams of making your mark where it mattered most! Nothing can take away the initial struggle that you successfully overcame in coming to terms with working against your disposition to adjust to a new timezone, and to live amongst a new ethos. Nothing can take away the triumph you felt overcoming the initial tribulations, both emotional and physical. And finally, nothing can take away your stupendous success against all these odds! If you honestly feel that you have a lot more to achieve, and perhaps give back to the host country, nothing should stop you from rolling on. Period!

On the other hand, if there is a budding thought that is dormant in your mind about returning home ...well, nothing should stop you from brooding further! Again, it is understandable if one would like to take a holistic view of the whole idea. Chucking something that has been fantabulous all along, and moving back to a scenario that might need a bit of 'catching up' would take a lot of deliberation. It is not just about you; your family has to be comfortable with the idea too. Losing out on a well-knit network of colleagues and friends is another prospect that could tug at your heart. In other words, the whole process is quite a roller-coaster ride. If, however, the determination to return to India gets the better of all these, then what next?

I would like to steer clear of all the hype that surrounds the neo-persona of India Inc. Enough material would rain on you at the click of a mouse! It would make sense to judge your career options back home that would give you a close similarity to your current lifestyle in the US, if not all. The usual destination picks for returning Indians would be the hot metros. Bangalore and Hyderabad are no less favored. Of these, Hyderabad is where I would like to point to at the moment....

A decade ago, Hyderabad was just another non-descript capital, going about its business with a late start and an early finish every day. The earliest risers would be the industrious milk vendors with about a dozen of their overflowing milk cans tagged on to all available space on their two-wheelers rushing in to the city from its outskirts to ensure retail distribution. Of course, there would be the vegetable vendors on their way to pick up their stock for the day, and the morning walkers / joggers. Late nights were for the odd businessmen returning after an extended day's sale or a stock check, folks returning after the midnight movie show or a marriage, and a few others. Traffic at any time of the day would be far and between. That's not the scene today!

Far from the laidback milieu, Hyderabad is now a vibrant (greater) city, with all the trappings of a metropolis. There are the concrete high-rises jostling for space with residential apartments - with every vacant space or dilapidated building being eagerly lapped up to accommodate yet another construction venture - cineplexes, pubs, frequent traffic gridlocks, convenience stores, convenience products, et al. Every day sees yet another multinational corporate entity opening its office here. From retail to biotechnology to embedded infotech, jobs abound, and every major player boasts of a facility in Hyderabad. There are placement facilitators too, eager to co-ordinate every level of job requirement.

Lifestyle, though not comparable to a cosmopolitan city, can still be rated good. Cost of living is on the higher side of moderate. Yet there is some magnetic charm to this city. So, welcome to Hyderabad!

**For expert guidance on your plans to return to India, please check with Achyut Menon who is an authority on career Options for returning Indians!

Dreaming IT and realizing IT....

Today we look at opportunities in the Information Technology industry. If you said, "Easier said than done...", you are probably right! The sheer intervention of IT into the lives of each and everyone on this planet today (aliens are probably feeling the heat too...), has taken careers in IT to phenomenal levels. The spread of careers in IT, or niche areas, has far outbeaten the evergrowing specializations in the field of Medicine or Engineering. So you have the Software jobs and the Hardware jobs further demarcated into domain experts (in different fields, of course...), programmers, developers, analysts, hardcore skill experts, testing experts, designing experts, embedded technology, networking, x, y, z...

Careers in the IT industry are much sought after, for many reasons. Primarily because most software companies are big and growing. Apart from the aura of being employed with one of them which inherently means that you are considered one of the best in the industry, most people move in for the great opportunities that abound to showcase their talent, get recognition for their worth, and to move up the heirarchy with relative ease (since talent does get recognized pretty fast around here). Also, for the pleasure of getting to work in a team and sharing best practices. Since each of these companies is willing to give what it takes to be heads and shoulders above their competition, one is assured of being exposed to the latest in management techniques, avenues to enhance one's current academic achievements with sponsored study programs, peer knowledge transfer, and most of all - a professional work environment. The icing on the cake is the fabulous salary package with perquisites that may range from performance-linked incentives to stock options, and opportunities to travel to different parts of the globe on on-site assignments. Not to speak of the tremendous social impact it creates about you, on your circle of family and friends.

IT as an industry, caught up in its initial years in the developed nations. Today, India has emerged as a key player in the IT industry. A good amount of Indians form a majority of the IT workforce worldwide. Indian software majors such as Infosys and Satyam are household names in the global market. With the onset of globalization and the concept of a 'global village', India is now the most favored destination for most IT majors to set up their off-shore development / technology support sites. For the jobseeker, this is a major plus, as each one of these IT majors are looking to recruit and retain the best of talent!

The pertinent question relevant here would be as to how does one successfully manage a career in software. The latest technology in IT gets outdated even before one could blink. So, essentially one needs to be in tandem with the 'in' things. Keeping up with the pace of technological advancements, a diligent worker in the IT industry, as with any industry, is a precious asset to any employer. In other words, this would mean being a 'seen' member in some very good projects, where your contribution can be assessed or spoken about in tangible yardsticks. Even if your contribution was just a part of one of the modules in the whole project! Your interpersonal relationship with your peers and your Team Lead / Project Lead do matter a lot. After all, you would want some of them to speak good about you when your new employer checks on you!

Ciao, and more on this in my next entry. In the meantime, I thought you would like to check out some very interesting openings at http://www.optionsitjobs.blogspot.com (You could also mail your career programs or queries to jyothish@optionsindia.com or sridhar@optionsindia.com who will be glad to help)

Retail India

We are all aware that the retailing industry has been around in India right since the days of Maharajahs and elephants. Back then, you could stroll into the market square, perhaps on designated days, and buy anything as varied as vegetables, slaves, and diamonds. All for a couple of copper and/or gold coins!

With evolution of civilization and the onset of a democratic and free India, retailing meant everyone from your ‘friendly neighborhood’ tiny grocery store reeking of a mix of odors from its jam-packed collection of spices, detergents, flour, and so on, right up to the strategically located showrooms of the shoe giant, Bata India. A strong network of wholesalers, C & F agents, and distributors with their proactive sales paraphernalia ensured that multinational giants such as Unilever, ITC, Pharma majors, et al, reached their target customers with absolute ease through the retail outlets. Some of the retailers either branched out to different locations, or upgraded themselves to larger spaces in a new avatar – the supermarkets.

So, what if someone wanted to have a career in retail back then? Well, no one really did! They either set up their own little store hoping to close the day, everyday, with a nice bundle of cash to take home. The not-so-lucky ones would join up as shop assistants, attending to customers at the counter, and to the owner’s errands with equal panache - all with the hope of owning their little shops one day into the future! And then, of course, there would be blink-your-eye-and-you’d-miss-him accountant showing himself for a couple of hours to catch up with maintaining the day’s accounts.

Gladly, the situation is dynamically different today. We have almost all the global retailing majors such as Metro, Wal Mart, Foodworld, etc., coming in (apart from our very own pan-Indian groups, Aditya Birla, Bharti, Reliance, RPG, Spencers, Vishal et al) to set up their ambitious retail chain of superstores and hyper stores through every possible town and city in India. With their proven expertise in sales and management of retail chains in other parts of the globe, they hope to tap the world’s most growing economy with the simple mantra of ‘giving more than the customer expects’. So you have the whole gamut of marketing skills being employed from wooing customers with discount coupons, quantity discounts, freebies, and sometimes, free tickets to the latest blockbuster or a celebrity event – to name a few. Now herein lies the tale that is of equal interest to us recruiters, and you, the jobseeker, alike! Of drooling interest, if I may add…

Never before has the average jobseeker have it so good. In fact, this is the next best thing that could happen to them right after the BPO influx, which re-defined recruiting parameters in customer service. The booming retail industry offers as many interesting options in terms of a career, and I am talking of a well-defined career here, for those who seek it. They could be anyone from the front-ender store help, serving the crowd of customers across the floor sections, to the unobtrusive retail outlet manager…and up across the hierarchy ladder.

With practically a zero number of retail chains to source a battle-ready workforce, the mega-retail ventures are picking people from those just into the employment market, and for critical positions, from across sales departments in other industries. We have observed these developments with interest, and would highly recommend this industry to those who would love to ride a stallion across the Rocky Mountains of Colorado to eventually have their pick of Mackenna’s glittering gold! So, here’s wishing you all success………

Check this out for some great openings in Retail, in the following departments:

Retail operations, Logistics, Supply chain, Cash, Maintenance - Store, Buying (Food/Non-Food), Merchandising (Food/Non-Food), Imports Agent, Construction, Finance, Legal, Marketing, Quality, Administration, Communication, and Human Resources.

Build your Career in Infrastructure

India is on a roll.... so are the real estate prices!

Every sleepy suburb and village skirting India's cities and major towns, is today the hub of frenzied activity in construction. Landscape that was once just green, rugged patches of earth looking emptily at the sky above, is now giving way to ventures of all sizes and shapes. Commercial office spaces, residential apartment complexes, gated communities, cineplexes, malls, are springing to life all around. Giant ventures include software parks, SEZ's, international airports, airport upgradations, railway projects, refineries, power projects, national highways / speedways, ports, and shipyards. Visit any area after about a week or two, and you are sure to be confounded at the sudden appearance of a huge structure that you are sure was not there the last time you drove by.

The opportunities being many and in huge numbers in terms of floor space and project value, anyone and everyone has jumped into the bandwagon to take their own slice/s of this mega-offering. The boom being exponential over the past decade, aided by a very co-operative bureaucracy, there is an unlimited scope for careers within this industry. The one-man-show realtor now has competition from multinational conglomerates that are moving in fast into India. Architects and interior designers have more work than they can catch up with. Engineers are in equal demand as are marketing experts. With office spaces and housing headed towards the designer niche, the infrastructure industry is looking for players with a high degree of dedication towards customer delight. After all, it is not everyday that one finds a customer looking for their second or third 'dream' home or office! The customer has to make a calculated choice from the market, trying to find the optimum mix of price, quality, and budget. And if this purchase is being supported by a bank loan, there would be some more thinking to do.

Great careers await those that would like to move in and grab their share of space in the infrastructure industry. Partnerships between the private and the public sectors, formation of consortiums, and conglomerates diversifying into this industry, have multiplied the available career options. Apart from direct employment with the infrastructure industry, there is also a sharp rise in human resource requirements with secondary industries such as cement manufacturers, earth moving equiment manufacturers and contractors, water resource management specialists, and so on.

Listed below are just some of the roles that one can hope to fill in this industry, and pursue a concrete career... One of these good openings might well be yours......

• Technical: Project Manager, Manager Planning - Site, Planning Engineer, Manager Contruction, Engineer Construction, Engineer QS, Engineer QS (Client Billing), Engineer QS (PRW), Manager QA/QC, Senior Engineer QA/QC, Manager Plant, Site Plant Engineer, Regional Safety Coordinator, Safety Engineer, and so on.
• Stores / Materials Management: Materials Manager, Officer Materials, Stores Manager, Store Keeper, and so on.
• Business development: Manager Business Development, Executive Business Development, and so on.
• Finance / HR / Administration / Legal
• Land Acquisition : Some organizations consider this function as part of Business Development.