Paradox's Desai: Living a fantasy	Mobile2Win's Bala: Enriching lives

Guess what's keeping the CEOs of some of the biggest gaming companies in India, like Indiagames, Dhruva Interactive, Mobile2Win and Paradox Studios, awake at nights? It's not the demand for their products, which is anyway booming, thanks to strong offshore demand coupled with the gaming culture kicking-off in the country with a surge in mobile phone and computer sales (more the former than the latter, actually). Nor is it finances, with private equity players beating a path to their doors. It is the scarcity of people; from lowly testers up to fancy programmers, the industry can't find enough people. And this, when it is a Rs 220-crore minnow. Imagine what happens when it becomes a Rs 1,000-crore animal as it is expected to by 2010?

"The number of employable people has just not kept pace (with growth)," says Rajesh Rao, CEO of Bangalore-based Dhruva Interactive (yes, it's the same company that celebrated author Thomas Friedman mentions in the context of 'triple convergence' in his recent book The World Is Flat). Currently, the gaming industry in India directly employs close to 800 people; it actually needs twice that number. In comparison, China has over 15,000 people working in its buoyant gaming industry. "We will more than double the number of people in the next two years," says Vishal Gondal, Founder & Director, Indiagames. That's good news, and it is bad news. With demand going through the roof and few trained hires around, it's an out and out employees' market, with companies such as Indiagames spending around Rs 1 lakh per employee on training to bring them up to speed. Dhruva's Rao plans to spend in excess of Rs 2 crore on training programmes for new hires in the next year alone.

IT And Entertainment

"A gaming company can be described as an entertainment company with an IT background," says Salil Bhargava, Chief Marketing Officer at Mumbai-based Paradox Studios. In the absence of any formal breeding ground for gaming professionals, the industry competes with the it services one for people-from testers to programmers. Then it also needs advertising pros, animators, scriptwriters, graphic artists, producers, the works.

"Salaries have doubled over the last year," says Rajiv Hiranandani, Country Head of Mumbai-based Mobile2Win. To get a job in the industry, all that is required today is basic grounding in j2me (Java 2 Platform, Micro Edition) technology and Brew platforms, and often not even that. The entry-level job in this industry, that of a game tester, requires just "a passion for games and if you're good, you can grow into any role," says Anurag Khurana, CEO of Paradox.

He is right, for that's how the 28-year-old Chirag Desai, Lead Game Designer & Producer at Paradox Studios, started out. As a child, Desai, whose father owned a toyshop in Mumbai, grew up playing Nintendo Game Watch and Atari 2000. "It was like living a fantasy," he recalls. After trying his hand at a few odd jobs after graduation, Desai joined Paradox as a technical writer. Today, he writes the whole design document for mobile games, such as Van Damme Kick Boxing based on popular Belgian action star Jean Claude Van Damme.

It was much the same for Mukund Rao, a senior artist with Dhruva. "I have no formal training in games. Every college has a bunch of kids who are good at art and I was one of them," he says. After completing his bachelor's in electronics from St Joseph's in Bangalore and an MBA from Symbiosis, Pune, Rao worked with Infotech Enterprise for a year before moving on to visual effects at Spotlight Studios. Today, after picking up Photoshop, Maya and 3d Studio Max skills on the job, Rao works on console games and counts Forza for Microsoft and Toca Race Driver for Code Masters amongst his best works.

Jobs Unlimited; Disciplined Fun

With India committed to addressing the problems of intellectual property (IP) theft (something binding on it as part of Trade-Related Intellectual Property Rights agreement under the World Trade Organization), big international players such as Atari, THQ, Jamdat and Electronic Arts, who have so far been only outsourcing work to Indian players, may soon look at setting up base here. And salaries seem to have risen in anticipation with freshers commanding anywhere between Rs 3 lakh and Rs 4 lakh per annum and experienced individuals (those with over three years of experience) getting upwards of Rs 8 lakh, numbers that compare favourably with those in the it or entertainment industry.

Indiagames' Nair: Voice of sanity	Mukund Rao: Formal training? Nope

A career in gaming is, however, not for the purely right-brain types, for it is as much about logic, deadlines and processes as about creating games for two-to-40-year-olds. "I could be overseeing six to seven global game titles a day," says 27-year-old Prasad Nair, Senior Programmer with Indiagames. A math graduate, who joined the gaming industry after just one year of monotonous work in a pure-play it company, Nair considers himself "the voice of sanity amongst all the creativity that is going around". His job is to oversee teams as a project manager a la the IT industry.

For 23-year-old Pawan Bala, a gamer and a chemical engineering graduate a job with Mobile2Win as a creative writer was a dream come true, but it isn't all fun and, ER, games. "When I write a game, I try to get into the consumer's shoes, in terms of what will enrich his experience," he says. "And yes, working with the constraints of mobile format is tough. Also, I need to be pulled back from talking on creative flights (of fancy)."

With value-added services, like games, accounting for over 5 per cent of the typical mobile telephony company's revenues and growing, with the mobile population set to touch 200-250 million by 2007, the number of internet users set to touch 100 million by 2010, and global game biggies set to enter India, a career in gaming has only one way to go, up and up.

COUNSELLING
Help, Tarun!

I am a professionally-qualified person with three degrees in finance under my belt. In fact, I have been teaching finance for the last five years. I have also done a number of computer courses. However, of late, I feel that in order to further my career, I should opt for a consultancy/advisory role in equity analysis on a part-time basis. I also wish to expand my present position into technology (internet, hospitality industry and the like). Please advise.

With the kind of background you have, you are well suited for the equity analysis field. But deal with smaller equity firms to start with. Such firms may not only value your advice, but also help you in building up your reputation as well as enhance your learning curve as a consultant. Remember, word of mouth is the best publicity as far as consulting assignments are concerned, and once you have a few under your belt, you will be able to market yourself better. A word of caution, though-it is difficult to establish a consulting practice. The respect that you take for granted in the classroom has to be earned over and over again in the corporate world. So don't be disheartened easily and remember-success comes to the perseverant! And as far as getting into the technology sector is concerned, you need to closely look at your strengths and weaknesses and then make your decision accordingly.

I have graduated in commerce with 80 per cent marks. Now, I want to upgrade further. Many people say that I should go in for chartered accountancy (CA), but I am more interested in finance. Keeping that in mind, what are the various options I can pursue? Should I undertake a course from The ICFAI University or should I sit for the CAT exam instead?

Considering the fact that you are interested in finance, you can either go in for a ca or an MBA. After ca, you can even sit for the cat exam. If you choose to do an MBA, however, keep in mind that an MBA degree is more valuable only if it is pursued from a reputed institute. Therefore, start burning the midnight lamp to get into one. And what's more, you can also undertake a course like CFA (chartered financial analyst) if you so desire later on. People will tell you what you should do but at the end of it all, you should do what you want to.

I work in a call centre and I think I am quite hard working and meet most of my targets. My boss, however, feels otherwise. He is never happy with my work and puts me down in front of my colleagues. This, I feel, is because I am shy and reserved by nature and mostly keep to myself. The impression people get, therefore, is that I am not good at my work or not capable of taking on higher targets. I do not want to change my job. What should I do?

Being shy or reserved is no crime and doesn't necessarily mean that you are not good at your work. However, in today's world, being friendly and communicative, be it in your personal or professional life, always helps. So, you need to make that extra effort to be "included". Try and join your colleagues during lunch and coffee breaks. Just start a small conversation by asking them about their family, movies, music, etc. You need not be the most talkative in the group, just be involved in the conversations. Join public speaking classes, if possible. This will help you get over your fears to a certain extent. You need to have confidence in yourself, only then will others have confidence in you! Once you get over the initial barrier, you will find out that it is not all that bad a place to work in after all.

I am 28 and have just completed my MBA. I have been working in blue-chip utility companies for the past six years and would now like to find work as a management consultant or move into trading. Am I too old to get a suitable position? Most of the job advertisements are either aimed at fresh graduates or experienced consultants from a top consultancy. What should I do?

First of all, you are not too old as far as getting any position is concerned. However, you must realise one thing-not having any experience either in trading or in consulting means that you may have to start, more or less, at the bottom and you should be ready for that. Look for consulting firms that do work for the utilities sector. That way, your prior experience can be touted as a strength! And by the way, why have you chosen such diverse tracks as trading and consulting? I hope you are not getting carried away by campus fads and trends, and are making your career choice on sound reasoning.

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..

A Job Site For CAs
Jobs aplenty for CAs at placements-icai.org.

Window of opportunity: Just check out this site

The institute of chartered accountants of India (ICAI), the governing body for Chartered Accountants (CAS) in the country, has recently launched a job site-placements-icai.org.

The website provides an opportunity to "employing organisations as well as young professional aspirants/experienced professionals to meet and explore the possibility of taking up positions in industry". It is perhaps the first one in India to specifically cater to professional needs of CAS as well as semi-qualified accounting professionals (those who have completed only the articleship component of the ca course).

The site has a 'campus recruitment' section for fresh graduates. Various companies can also register here for placements on day one, two, three, with differential placement fees much like top MBA institutes. Companies looking for accounting professionals can also register on the site. They can also post new jobs as well as search the existing database. The site even has a daily notice board with reference to accounting jobs advertised elsewhere-in newspapers and magazines-which registered CAS and other accounting professionals can access.

-Shailesh Dobhal

Export As The Mega Job Driver
Exports can create over a crore jobs by 2010.

If we ask you which sector will create 1.35 crore (yes, you read it right, 13,500,000) new jobs in the next five years, probably your thoughts will wander to those it and ITEs code-and-call-centre companies that are mushrooming across the country.

But a recent study by New Delhi-based Research & Information System for Developing Countries (RIS), a policy think tank, has quite a different take: it will be the growth in the country's merchandise exports, currently at $79.6 billion or Rs 3,50,240 crore (2004-05), to $150 billion (Rs 6,60,000 crore) by 2009-10 that will add as much as 81.5 lakh direct and 54.6 lakh indirect new jobs.

True, most of these jobs will come in at the blue-collar level. But the widening of the job base in sectors such as textiles, leather, gems and jewellery, processed foods, toys and sports goods will also automatically create perhaps hundreds of thousands of new jobs for top-end skills such as merchandisers, designers, engineers, food technologists, and finance and marketing professionals. IT to export nation, did you say?

-Shailesh Dobhal