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CAREERS TODAY Best Jobs Best CEO Picks CEO; Reputed organisation manufacturing electronics/ electrical meters; New Delhi; Electronic engineer with MBA, with 20 years experience in the electronic industry; Resources Management Associates, 206, Ashok Bhawan, 93, Nehru Place, New Delhi-19. e-mail: vohrasrma@satyam.net.in CEO; Automajor; New Delhi; Should be
suitably qualified; Vishvas Associates, B-47, Shivalik, Panchsheel,
Gitanjali Road, New Delhi-110017. Best Marketing Picks Head (Marketing); New Delhi; Relevant qualification with three-four years of infotech and internet-related products; First floor, 29, Patparganj Industrial Area, New Delhi-110092. Executive (Marketing); New Delhi; Graduate with two-to-three years relevant experience; Swagat House, 18/22, Arya Samaj Road, Karol Bagh, New Delhi-110005. Manager (Marketing); Nigeria; MBA with experience in marketing textile products; H-3, Commercial Complex, Alaknanda, New Delhi. Best Overseas Picks Senior Manager (Marketing); Jumbo
Electronics; United Arab Emirates; Post-graduate in business
administration with at least five-to-seven years relevant experience; P.O.
Box: 31743, Dubai, UAE Executive (Marketing); Jumbo
Electronics; UAE; Post-graduate in business administration with at least
two-to-four years experience; P.O. Box: 31743, Dubai, United Arab
Emirates; Manager (Finance); Jumbo Electronics; UAE; CA/MBA in finance with five-to-eight years experience; Jumbo Electronics, P.O. Box: 31743, Dubai, UAE.
Wireless Warrior Pushing Tractors Shankar's career started in sales when he joined HLL in 1971. He had a long stint of 19 years at the premier FMCG company after which he joined Citibank and has also done a stint in advertising with Anthem Communications. Career Compressing More The Merrier Headhunted COUNSELLING
Your story sounds familiar. The good news is that the industry is not looking at this unfavourably. You are also lucky to have good qualifications, which will stand you in good stead. However, getting back into an FII may not be very easy considering the state the market is in. You have two options-either you can stick to the same job or you can change. If you decide to change, my advice to you would be to keep your options open-don't close your mind to any kind of assignment. You must understand that every high return proposition more often than not is attached to high risk. All you need to do is take an assignment that is good and fits in with your long-term career goal. I am a 23-year-old and have just completed a BE in computer science. I can't decide what to do next. I do not know whether I should do an M. Tech or look for a job. What are my career prospects if I do an M. Tech? Would acquiring work experience be better than a master's degree? Please advise? You have a BE in computer science-one of the most 'hot and happening' qualifications in the world today. Getting a job could be easy (I am assuming that your qualification is from a reputed institution and that you have got good grades). M. Tech is a good qualification to have, especially if you are academically inclined, but may not really enhance your chances beyond a point. You should look for a job, but if you are interested in going into academics, you could do an M. Tech. On the other hand, you could always pursue your M. Tech out of sheer interest rather than only for job prospects. I am a 30-year-old housewife. After schooling, I got married, and completed my graduation in commerce from IGNOU (after a gap of six years). I have already completed one year of MBA (Finance), again from IGNOU. I am well versed in software like MS-Office, FoxPro, and Oracle 8. I want to put these qualifications to use. Where do you think I will fit into the corporate world? Will my age and inexperience be a major handicap? You made a choice when you got married and took a break. But if you look at the brighter side, you can now choose to do what you really enjoy. You could start working in a firm and scan the appointment columns for a job. Simultaneously, you can acquire additional skills through part-time courses. You must know, however, that you will have to start at the bottom of the ladder and work hard to make up for the lost years. I am a 29-year-old banker with a public sector bank. I am second-in-command in one of the bank's main branches. My company has offered a tempting VRS. Many of my colleagues are taking it up. I would like to ask you whether you feel it is the right time to agree to a VRS. What options are open to me after the VRS? It is difficult to answer your question on prospects without knowing more about your educational background or work experience. Suffice it to say that you are young and may be able to find another job, but it will not be easy since you will have competition from people with similar backgrounds. So, if you are not pressured to accept the VRS and you see good prospects in your current bank, you should stay on. It is very difficult for me to comment on how easy or difficult it is going to be for you to get a similar job if you decide to accept the voluntary retirement scheme. Another thought, however, is that if you haven't acquired a qualification relevant to today's market scenario, you could use this as a logical break and pursue higher studies if you so feel like doing so. Tarun Sheth, the senior consultant at the Mumbai-based recruitment and training consultancy firm, Shilputsi, addresses your career concerns every fortnight. Write to Help, Tarun!!! c/o Business Today, F-26, Cannaught Place, New Delhi-1. BUILDING ME-INC In your mid-30s? Have the comfort of savings in the bank? Bored in your present job? The answer could be a VRS. In this instalment of 'Building Me-Inc', Careers Today caught up with executives that used the VRS option as an opportunity to build their careers. Deepak Gupta
In Citibank, a VRS comes up once in eight years, and as Gupta had no intentions of waiting another eight years, he decided to take it up. He spent four months looking for a new challenge. The only thing he was set on was that he wanted to head something. On the one side, he was itching to start a business of his own. He even got an idea in the form of a healthcare portal-something that had not happened in India till then. On the other hand, as far as jobs were concerned, he did the rounds and came up with different options in consulting and banking. Finally, he opted for the head-hunting job. ''I realised there was a huge opportunity cost of starting up on my own, considering the jobs I was getting.'' This was not the first time the 41-year-old had taken such a bold move. In 1992, he was successfully working with Citibank in Texas. He shifted back on a whim to India as Head (North India). Corporate Banking. Ambarish Raghuvanshi
For some time, the 39-year-old boa Vice-President had been doing checks on himself-weighing successes and failures. Till then he had never wandered off the banking path. Starting with Standard Chartered in 1987, a seven-year stint with HSBC and then five years with Bank of America. When he finally took the VRS-he had no other job option in hand. A status that continued for four-to-five months. The fact that he had a wife with a plum job in ANZ Grindlays gave him the extra buffer he needed to be able to take the risk. As he puts it: ''As my wife had a stable career, I felt I could be more aggressive with my own.'' And so he used the time to figure out what he wanted to do, finally deciding to join the Sanjeev Bhikchandani-promoted naukri.com. Says Raghuvanshi: ''When you shift from one job to another directly, you really do not get time to sit and think. You tend to shift within the sector, like from one bank to another. Taking the VRS gave me the opportunity to look at new pastures.'' In fact, according to him, the break also gave him time to recharge his batteries, spend time with his four-year-old son, and catch up on all the reading he wanted to do. |
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I
am a 34-year-old CFO working with an internet start-up for the past two
years. I left a good job as an analyst in an FII to join the dotcom. I am
an IIT/IIM (A) graduate. We had an IPO planned when I joined.
Unfortunately, when the dotcom bubble burst, we had to put the IPO on
hold. Many have left the organisation and the morale is low. I am at a
loss as to what I should do. How receptive will the industry be to me
after this debacle? Please advise. 
''It
was difficult to cut the umbilical cord-but once I did it was great.''
That's how Deepak Gupta, Country Head of the executive search firm Korn/Ferry
International, describes the VRS he took from Citibank in October, 1999.
For four months, he lived off the pension of his settlement, surfed the
internet, chilled out in Mussoorie, looked for a job, made a business plan
for a internet venture, and as he puts it: ''had the time of his life.''
For
Ambarish Raghuvanshi, the Bank of America VRS programme coincided with
what he calls his mid-30 syndrome. He used the scheme to take a break and
study the options open to him. And that is how a confirmed banker ended up
as a CFO in the jobsite naukri.com.
