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Vinod Tete/Global Practices
Director/ HCL Comnet
1994-2000: Senior Manager (Sales), Maruti Udyog
2000: Joined HCL Comnet as General Manager (Sales) |
Help, Tarun! |
Wanted: Fitness
Freaks |
Should
you stay or should you move on? New age conventional wisdom says
job hopping is the path to faster career growth. But, there are
several people who have remained loyal to their employers and
received ample reward in terms of career growth, financial compensation
and professional satisfaction as well. "The trend of switching
jobs every three to five years has been acknowledged and accepted
by corporate India," says Venkat Shastry, Partner, Stanton
Chase International, a leading executive search firm.
As people gravitate towards fast-growing
industries such as retail, it and civil aviation, lifelong or
even decade-long commitments to a single employer is expected
to decrease, argues G. Shankar, who recently moved from his previous
job as CEO of Lifestyle Retail to head the footwear vertical at
Reliance Retail. "I've always wanted to be in the fast-growing
retail market. After handling the sourcing business for the UK-based
Tesco and following a delay in its retailing plans, I decided
to switch to Lifestyle," Shankar says. Then, he decided to
jump ship again, this time as head of Reliance Retail's footwear
division. "I was in the sourcing business for five years
and then got a great opportunity to switch careers with Lifestyle
and then Reliance... these are the kind of chances people will
increasingly take in a booming market," he contends.
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Sumeet Sood/ VP
(Finance)/ Amar Ujala
1992-95: Regional Audit Head, AFL
1995-2001: Sr. Consultant, Arthur Andersen
2001-06: GM (Finance & Audit), HT Media
2006: Joined Amar Ujala as VP (Finance) & Chief
Financial Officer |
Naresh Gupta
Senior VP/
Adobe India
1992-94: Principal Scientist and Director, Applied
Artificial Intelligence (AI) Group, LNK Corp.
1994: Joined Adobe India as Computer Scientist and
worked his way to the top |
"A lot of people make the mistake of
looking at a potential job from the point of view of what it is
today rather than what it will do to their careers in the long
term. You need to ask yourself: what will a new job add to my
career and where will that lead me?" says Ronesh Puri, Managing
Director of search firm Executive Access.
K.K. Maheshwari, Director, Aditya Birla Management
Corporation, Wholetime Director, Aditya Birla Nuvo, and Head of
the group's global chemicals and trading businesses, has been
with the AVB Group for more than 20 years. He joined the group
in 1985 as Vice President (Finance) and has grown with it. "That
was the time (1985) when the group began centralising its finances.
I was fortunate to get the opportunity to head that function.
That gave me my first exposure to senior management and the outside
world. Thereafter, I was transferred to Thailand to manage the
group's chemicals business there. Then, last year, I was moved
to the group's global (overseas) chemicals business. And this
year, I was asked to head global trading. Obviously, when a person
gets opportunities to prove himself and is given recognition for
good work, he grows in confidence," says Maheshwari.
What's his take on job hopping? "The
key to career progression is learning, which always happens over
a period of time. If you do not give yourself a 'realistic' time
frame in which that learning can take place, you may not be doing
justice to your career and your employer," he says. Adds
Sandeep Bidani, Director (hr), Colt Technology Services, a captive
BPO of European telecom company colt Telecom: "The phenomenon
of job hopping is rooted in the obsession with vertical career
movement. But a satisfying stay in a single organisation is often
based on lateral movements encompassing a variety of roles."
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K.K. Maheshwari/
Director/ Aditya Birla Management Corporation
1977: Joined Zenith Industries (an Ashok Birla group
steel pipes and chemicals company) as Project Officer and
left as Project Manager
1981: Joined Blow Plast as Manager (Finance) and left
as GM (Finance)
1985: Joined Indian Rayon (now Aditya Birla Nuvo) as
VP (Finance) and gradually rose to the top |
Naresh Chand Gupta is another stayer who has
belied the belief that changing jobs is the only way to the top.
He has been with software product vendor Adobe for the last 12
years, and has turned down several lucrative offers on the way.
Gupta says forsaking offers from other companies was worth it
since he got to anchor the establishment of Adobe India's R&D
centre in 1997 and saw it evolve into one of the company's largest
facilities globally. "Long stints within a company give you
the chance to work across multiple locations and give you the
space to experiment with multiple business lines," says N.S.
Bala, Senior VP (Manufacturing Solutions), Wipro Technologies.
"In the 16 years I have been with Wipro, I have had the opportunity
of working in multiple businesses and in multiple locations from
Coimbatore to Chennai to Bangalore to Dallas to New York."
Pankaj Bhargava, Chief of hr, Marico, who
joined the company 15 years ago and worked his way to his current
position, agrees. "Moving jobs gives people multiple perspectives;
but if you want to build an organisation, you have to stay with
it through its ups and downs," he says.
Sanjeev Keskar, Country Sales Manager for
Freescale Software, had worked in National Semiconductor (five
years) and AMD (five years) before taking up his present job in
2005. "You need at least six to eight months to get the feel
of a company's culture. And one can make a contribution only after
that," he says.
Sumeet Sood, VP (Finance), Amar Ujala, has
changed four jobs since beginning his career with AFL, a privately
held logistics company, 14 years ago. He has also had stints with
Arthur Andersen and ht Media. "I look for a larger role for
myself when considering job switches. I believe it's important
for a person to spend sufficient time in an organisation; this
allows him to stretch his learning curve to the optimum and then
deliver what he promised to his employer," he says.
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Pankaj Bhargava
Chief of Human Resources/ Marico
1991: Joined Marico straight from the campus and climbed
up the ladder to his current position |
N.S. Bala/Senior
VP (Manufacturing Solutions)/ Wipro Technologies
1989: Graduated from IIM, Kolkata, and joined Wipro
as Software Support Executive straight from campus
He has held several important positions in the company and
climbed steadily to his current position |
Vinod Tete, Global Practices Director, HCL
Comnet, made his way up the corporate ladder by moving from a
large company (Maruti Udyog) to a small one. "Moving from
a big brand automobile company to a small, relatively unknown
it infrastructure services company six years ago was a big gamble,"
he says. But it paid off; as HCL Comnet scaled up from being a
500 person company to a 3,800 person one over, he saw his designation
change from Manager (Sales) to Global Practices Director. "You
can grow fast by moving from a big company to a smaller one-that's
when you get a bigger role-and then moving back to a big company.
So, it is sometimes imperative to switch jobs to give your career
some momentum," he says.
Adds Girish V. Rao, VP (Sales and Marketing),
LG Electronics India, who began his career with Blow Plast, then
spent 20 years with BPL, before joining his current job three
years ago: "When changing jobs, it is always important to
consider what value the new assignment can add to your resume.
International postings and larger responsibilities pose challenges,
but also bring satisfaction. Higher compensation is a natural
outcome of such progression."
There is, therefore, no set route for achieving
professional success. There are examples both of people who stayed
with one company and rose to the top as well as of people who
switched jobs and made it. Equally, there are people who did these
things and did not succeed. The choice really depends on the individual
and his/her unique circumstances.
COUNSELLING
Help, Tarun!
Q: I am an MBA (Finance) with three years of experience in the
recruitment field with institutes and consultancies. I wish to
join an MNC, but they prefer an HR specialisation. Will a diploma
in HR management suffice or should I pursue a computer/IT degree
to gain entry into an MNC?
First you need to figure out what discipline or specialisation
interests you and is the best fit for your skills. Given that
you have an MBA, not all companies will hold the lack of specialisation
against you. It will be a good idea to do a computer-related course
if you want to be in it. IT and finance have always been a good
combination.
Q: I am a 29-year-old marketing professional
working for the past three years with an auto MNC. I joined this
place soon after completing my MBA in marketing and finance from
a reputed institute. I want to pursue chartered accountancy now.
Please advise.
You have to decide whether you want to pursue
marketing or finance. Try and get a transfer to the finance department
to get a feel of the job. Chartered accountancy and an MBA are
a good combination for a finance professional. However, since
you have not done articleship, you might have to give up your
job to do so.
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..
Wanted:
Fitness Freaks
Gyms, spas and corporate offices are all
hiring physical trainers.
Kamlesh
Futnani (certified Reebok instructor) gets up at 6 a.m. every
morning to teach aerobics to his batch of 20 at the Russian Culture
Centre. This translates into a monthly income of Rs 45,000-50,000.
India's young, and health conscious, working population is throwing
open a new career option for "fitness freaks".
There is a demand for trainers not just in
fitness centres, gyms, hotels, spas but also in offices. "Many
corporate houses and advertising agencies have well-equipped gyms
and employ fitness trainers who advise on how to stay fit,"
says Nisha Verma, Master Aerobic Trainer with Reebok for the north
zone. Brands matter here, too. Reebok is the only sports and apparel
company to train personal and general instructors in India. Home
grown brands like Talwalkars and Growth For Fitness Instructors
also have courses for people who want to take this up as a career
option.
-Pallavi Srivastava
FACT FILE |
WHO'S
HIRING
Gyms, hotels, resorts, spas, companies, schools, colleges,
clubs
WHO'RE THEY HIRING
Trained physical instructors
TRAINING INSTITUTES
Reebok, Talwalkars and Growth For Fitness Instructors
COURSE DURATION
Three months
COURSE FEES
Rs 12,000-25,000
SALARIES
Rs 20,000-50,000 per month
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