BUSINESS TODAY

Shekhar Deshpande, 31, is sure glad that the boring old days of job monogamy are gone. Despite his long work hours as Strategic Planning Director at J.Walter Thompson, Bangalore, he feels as enthusiastic as ever about his first passion, advertising. But on Saturdays and Sundays, this graduate from IIM-Lucknow gets busy with his other passion, teaching. As a part time instructor at IMS Learning Resources, Deshpande has helped over 3,000 cat-taking management hopefuls brush up their interview and group discussion skills. What began as advisory sessions has turned into a co-occupation.

"Professionally," says Deshpande, "I am an adman, but I am also passionate about teaching. Earning from that is secondary." He has conducted ad workshops at IIM-Ahmedabad, taught courses at NIFT-Bangalore and lectured at IIM-Bangalore. "If you are really interested or passionate about something," he says, cheerily, "you can always find time for it." Time, though, is rarely the issue.

After-work passion pursuits have always been around (people would be significantly duller otherwise), and have never raised eyebrows. Nor should they. Ad industry people, in fact, have always been encouraged to take up theatre, music or some other art form-as a stimulant. That's all very well. The complications begin when money comes into the picture, and the second income source grows large enough to put a question mark on the unstated assumption of loyalty to the first employer.

Some dual job holders, of course, happily concede that the second job is an income add-on, but most prefer to talk of the earnings as a token fee paid in lieu of the effort. And why not? After all, some reason, if it's okay for people to invest money in other companies, it's also okay to invest some effort as well, just as a person tracks his portfolio. The same logic can be extended to running a small business.

Sudhir Bhagwat, a mechanical engineer, teamed up with a childhood friend and started a 750-sq-ft Garden showroom in Mumbai's Dombivili, way back in 1986. Ever since, Bhagwat has also been working for various engineering companies. In October 1999, he quit to set up a second franchise outlet. By late 2000, it was clear this project wasn't working, and he wanted a job again. In March 2002, he signed up with ICICI Prudential as a life insurance advisor, underwent a one-month training module, and now sells around four policies a month. He goes insurance selling during the week, and spends the weekend managing his store. Does one job help the other? In terms of skill enhancement, there may have been a gain. "The training at ICICI has helped me a lot to understand the way to sell policies," says Bhagwat, "and as for our business, we have repaid all our debts and it earns us good money."

Tushar Kochrekar, 25, talks freely about the dual income benefit. A graphic designer by day, he spends the time between 7 pm and midnight selling timeshare holiday packages. While his second job has aided his communication skills, he doesn't plan to continue with it for much longer. He has made enough moolah. Says Kochrekar, "I am earning quite a lot from this job and I soon plan to start my own advertising agency with my graphic designing skills."

The second job often has no clear connection with the first. There are stories of how a financial dealmaker has cracked the business of selling vanity products, and how an oil exploration scientist has set up a successful call center. Maybe it's the big picture exposure that leads to the small market success.

For many dual job holders, though, it's plainly a matter of actualising one's inner potential. As every b-school student will tell you, after a primary set of needs is met, it is natural for people to start exploring activities that will help them make the most of their lives.

Delna Pooniwala, 41, a mother of two, is from a family involved in crafting diamond jewellery. Armed with a design degree from Scranton University, Pennsylvania, she had joined the family business, training others at design. But six months ago, she joined a gym as a fitness consultant. At Mumbai's Mind & Body gym, she has discovered a talent for imparting trainees her isolation techniques, helping people tune their muscles and cut flab. "While my teaching assignment definitely earns me more money," she says, "my job at the gym is more to use my spare time more productively."

Several corporate employers, however, would rather have all that spare time spent on relaxation, if not on the main job-which ought to be taxing enough to exhaust the employee's physical and mental resources. The idea of demanding exclusivity is to maximise the individual's work productivity. Corporate sector jobs are often 24/7 affairs; people are paid to meet goals, not spend their day at some desk.

Neither can anyone claim ignorance of the old concept of loyalty. Even if a second job holds no obvious conflict with the main one, employers can't be expected to be pleased about any dilution of attention to their goals.

But then again, such employers need to recognise the limitations of their claim on employees' lives.

Dual job holders may not be as self-serving as they seem. Nor is it reasonable to expect loyalty over some other cause-such as, say, the truth.

In the information economy, intellectual property (IP) is the stuff to fight for. But you can't go fencing it up. Claiming ownership involves filing patents, and there could be a career awaiting you as a patent filer. "The profession is new, exciting and has huge potential," says Ashish Gupta, Country Head and Chief Operating Officer, e-valueserve, an IP consultancy, "but demands high skill levels." You must understand technical uniqueness and the law. For its part, e-valueserve has 30 patent filers, mostly engineers. The initial pay? Some Rs 4 lakh-an-annum. "There's no established industry yet," says Gupta, "but I see it growing faster than you think." IP bandits stand warned.

I am a 22-year-old who has recently joined a leading call centre. This industry is supposed to reward people who achieve their targets, but I've yet to see that happen. There are people here who don't meet their targets, but are still appreciated simply because they are old hands. In fact, these colleagues even throw their weight around. And although I'm meeting my targets, it seems I'm not important enough to be appreciated. This is getting harder to take with each passing day. Should I quit? I need help, Tarun.

At your age, you're likely to face the same problem in any industry. Quitting will solve nothing; it will only add to your frustration. To have a successful career, you need to think long-term and build positive relationships. The first thing you need to do is consistently keep meeting your targets. That way, your bosses are sure to notice you and appreciate your work. Also, try and be friendly with your colleagues, particularly your seniors. Once they are comfortable with you, they are likely to stop bothering you. They may even start helping you with your work. Stick around; hopefully things will change for the better.

I am a 25-year-old commerce graduate with a PG diploma in marketing and advertising management. After working for a year as an export assistant, I am now employed as an import/operations assistant with a freight forwarding company. I feel I can do much better, though, and am looking for ways to get into the management team of a good company. Should I continue with my present job and work my way up the ladder, or go in for higher qualifications, such as an MBA or CS, to help achieve my objective?

Pursue higher studies by all means, but do only those courses that will help you achieve your goals. If you want to get into management, MBA is the way to go. CS, on the other hand, will put you in the company secretarial department. You also seem to be undecided about what area of business you want to specialise in. Don't waste your time weighing too many options. First decide what you want to specialise in, and go for the qualifications needed to be successful in that line of work. Then, just do it.

I am a 25-year-old production assistant with a news production company. Deadlines are sacrosanct here, and tempers fly high when there are goof-ups. However, I somehow always get the blame for errors, even those committed by others. Sexist comments by my studio director have convinced me that this is happening because I'm the only woman in the production control room (PCR). My colleagues are not helping things either. They play along. What should I do?

Are you sure you're being deliberately blamed for others' mistakes? Bosses have a way of venting their anger at anyone who is within striking distance, so you may have just happened to be at the wrong place. But if you feel that you have a valid point, there are a couple of things you can do. First, try and talk to your boss' seniors. But before doing that, identify a colleague or two who would support you. That is easier said than done, though, since not many would like to put their own jobs at risk. Besides, you can expect your boss to have his defence ready, so prepare yourself for his possible arguments. Alternatively, you could request a transfer to another department. If nothing works, quit. There are better places to work.

I am a 35-year-old marketing manager in a small pharmaceutical company. My previous job was with a pharma company marketing over-the-counter (OTC) products, which folded up due to low revenue. Since my current employer does not have a major marketing programme, I am feeling underutilised, dissatisfied and bored. Bigger companies won't touch me because of the earlier failure, which was not my fault anyway. How do I make recruiters judge me by my own abilities, and not those of my past employers'?

It is not necessary that it's only because of your past failures that you aren't getting a better job. Companies do look at other aspects such as qualifications, past experience and so on. Also, they may already have capable people employed as marketing managers, so opportunities may be few. When you talk to bigger firms, try and highlight your abilities by, say, justifying your marketing strategy at the OTC company. Till better things happen, smaller companies are your best bet.

Answers to your career concerns are contributed by Tarun Sheth (Senior Consultant) and Shilpa Sheth (Managing Partner, US practice) of HR firm, Shilputsi Consultants. Write to Help,Tarun! c/o Business Today, Videocon Tower, Fifth Floor, E-1, Jhandewalan Extn., New Delhi-110055.

Bonus is Latin for 'good', and the corporate bonuses this year seem very good. Not only are they larger than before, they might even have started incentivising performance. For the latter, thank the variety of shapes bonuses nowadays take.

There's the classic organisation bonus, paid to everybody for the year if the firm has done well. There's also the business unit bonus, for group performance. There's the individual bonus, for individual contribution.

But, as Sunit Mehra, country manager of the search firm Hunt Partners, says, "The organisation should encourage performance-driven pay on a round-the-clock basis, not at the end of the performance." So there's the spot bonus, paid at any time for a task well done. There's also the variable bonus, paid against a set of deliverables.

Even more interesting are the pre-performance bonuses. There's the sign-on bonus, paid to a prospective hotshot employee in lieu of his or her signing on the dotted line for the job. There's the joining bonus, paid after he or she actually joins. And then, there's the loyalty bonus, for displaying loyalty through such acts as refusing to yield to the temptation of an arch-rival firm's sign-on/joining/whatever bonuses.

-Moinak Mitra

For Lateral Latitude
Aviation jobs: altitude, latitude or both?

Airline jobs: Flying higher, or maybe sideways...

The industry reputed for breaking out of binary inflight choices could be doing it again. As cross-landmass business activity picks up in India, domestic flights are starting to pack up-even as private airlines jump at the prospect of flying South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) routes. Meanwhile, foreign money might finally be on its way in. In terms of aviation jobs, this could easily spell a season of upward mobility, lateral shifts and even some of the most interesting kind: diagonal moves.

"The world's becoming a global village," notes a senior executive at Air Sahara, "and the economy's opening up to foreign investors. The aviation sector, as a direct fallout, is experiencing a boom. There is tremendous requirement for specialised professionals-service, technical, finance, you name it."

What about lateral movement within the sector? It's a highly specialised field, and the premium on airworthy professionals is high; remember the raids private airlines made on public carriers?

Airlines are tightlipped. But once fresh money comes, expect action. This is among the rare sectors that have actually suffered a constriction of employment options.

-Ananya Roy