Career Management

Where is recession? – Indian companies increasing salaries at highest rate in Asia – Hewitt survey

Feb 20th, 2009
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As per a of 480 Indian companies over December 2008 and January 2009 conducted by HR consultancy firm Hewitt – despite the economic slowdown, a majority of Indian companies are still hiring employees. Here are some interesting revelations of this

  • Average hike in India in 2009 will be 8.2% (the highest in the Asia Pacific region hoever first time in six years that India is likely to see single-digit increases)
  • Projected salary hike is lower than the increase of 13.3% seen in 2008
  • The hike higher than China (8%) USA (3.2%) and Japan (2.3%)
  • Sectors expected to see the highest raises are FMCG, durables and telecom.
  • Healthcare is sector that is doing well globally and in India. In 2008, hospitals had awarded the lowest salary increases but have been placed among the top five sectors for 2009.

With inflation well below 5.5%, an average increase of 8.2% can be considered as a good raise.

To read more about this on Hewitt website – click here

  • Employees at the junior manager, professional and supervisor levels are expected to receive the highest increases.
  • About 16% of companies in India are considering retrenchments
  • More than 60% are still hiring
  • Nine out of every 10 companies still giving promotions
  • Only 0.83% of companies are resorting to salary cuts

Now compare this to USA – 55% of companies in the US, 30.6% in China, 32% in Australia, 20% in Thailand and 17% in Japan are considering laying off their employees to cut costs in the face of

How Indian companies are facing recession

  • In India, most companies face the downturn by drastically cutting down on luxuries and discretionary expenses such as non-billable travel and entertainment, with greater focus on prudence and productivity with the intent is to avoid .
  • They are redeploying human resources and making largescale realignments to the organization

Common mistakes we make in our career

Jan 27th, 2009
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are a great way to learn!

We all make mistakes at some or other stage in our careers. there is nothing wrong in making mistakes. What however is wrong that we do not learn from our mistakes. To rectify these mistakes there is a need to understand that in which areas we may have been going wrong. And then we need to start making the right decisions now. To avoid these career mistakes, you will need a paradigm shift. You may have to unlearn the way you have been taught about work.

Here is a list of commmon mistakes that people in their careers:

Thinking that Working hard means working long hours
People tend to think that these two are same – working long hours means we are working hard. Well working long hours for delivering results without understanding that there is more to get results than the hard work approach. Working smart is the need of hour and not working hard.

Failing to set the goals
If you wait for your boss to set your goals you may be making a mistake. Not setting the accountable goals for yourself and measuring yourself on an ongoing basis is a prescription for failure.

Not leveraging your communication skills at work
Communication is all about modern organizations. If you do not know the art and science of communication in your job – you are at risk. Although you are paid for your skills and experience but how the others will know that unless you present them to the world. Hence your communication and presentation skills are your biggest assets at work and you must leverage them

Failing to network is sure a recipe of failure
The best jobs and opportunities are there very near to you. If you do not understand the importance of within and outside the company to gain access to the right people (and hence right opportunities) and not knowing how to network – you are cooking for failure.

Not making yourself visible
Making yourself visible means crating your uniques value proposition for organizationa d making that visible to key people. If you are not doing this – you do not exist. Your value needs to be visible to the people in your company who matter on a regular basis.

Not being an Intra-prenuere
You have to manage your career as a business. You have to think like an entreprenure within the organization. Then only your true potential will come out and your value will be unlocked. If you feel yourself as a business and understand the need to “Brand yourself as a Business” – there will be success around the corner.

So next time you are out in organization check if you making any of these common mistakes and make a concious habit of analyzing your every move against them.

It is better learning from mistakes of others than doing them yourself.

How to make a career in Working from Home

Dec 10th, 2008
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The era of internet and Web 2.0 is full of offers. Work from home now is not only an accepted norm for housewives but is also regular professional are attracted towards this due the advantage of flexibility it offers.

However most of them (work from home sites) ask for a registration fee. And like any other business – this business is also full of players (read cheats) who just collect upfront fee (by promising you very high earnings while working from home) and vanish.

Many people want to know how to work from home for FREE, without paying any fees. You can make money while working from home, but it will take dedication, hard work, and creativity. And you can make money subsequently and reach your goal without spending money. here is what steps you should take in this career alternative of working from home:

1. Find your niche area: There are legitimate opportunities to work at home with no upfront fees. We recommend you to Research the options and find something which you are REALLY interested in. There are opportunities can be for freelance writing, freelance editing, freelance design, freelance web development, freelance teaching, freelance customer service, freelance technical support etc. There are other companies that are even for freelance secretary (working virually).

2. Research work source: Once done your research and identified an area to work in identify the people who will need your service. Complete as much research as you can to be sure the site is legitimate. There should be no fees involved to “get information”. If the site is legitimate, you will able to begin for FREE. There are many scams out there. Check out scambusters website link below. Some of the reputed sites which are online freelance marketplace are:

www.elance.com
www.rentacoder.com
www.mondayworks.com

3. Register at the site. If you choose to start an at home career, sign up with the website to find out more information on what the company is looking for. Remember never to give any financial or credit card information to sites. Free sites never ask for this information.

4. Check for available work and show your intention to work on thes projects. of required bid for the projects.

5. if awarded – do the work. Once you decide on what you want to do, do the work. For writing, obviously you will need to write. If it is customer service you wish to do, you will have to dedicate time to answer the phone calls.

6. Stay focused, dedicated, and patient. Most legitimate at home jobs are not get rich quick plans. You may not show any significant income for a while, but as you learn the ins and outs of the business you will start to earn more money.

Remember the purpose of you coming in Work from Home bandwagon – then be prepared to give it a long shot. Give the time to this and see results.

Have questions or want to share your views on work from home – just write writing comments to this post.

Diffrentiate yourself – PUSP (Professional Unique Selling Proposition)

Nov 3rd, 2008
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To be successful in any domain of life, you need to be different from other. In this world of me too products – people always prefer products or services that stand apart from others. We go a retail store and out of various offerings we always try to pickup the stuff which stands apart. This also applies to getting recognition on at work. In the career also you need to stand apart from the people around you.

The marketing experts use a terminology called USP – that is Unique Selling Proposition to describe a feature of product which is its unique proposition to be sold. The same way as an employee we need to have our (Professional Unique Selling Proposition) – something that makes you stand out from the crowd and this is a very important aspect which may decide your fate on the job.

All senior managers look for someone who can be their trusted soldier. Depending on these few trusted employees (on whom they depend for operational aspects) the managers try to rise up in any company. One of the reason you see many managers when leaving the job they tend to take their team also.

You may be highly skilled or qualified but of you are not visible to senior managers – you are nowhere. There are many ways to become visible in organization but the key is to position yourself in a place where these senior managers will notice you. Here are some of the ways to be visible:

Senior expect to recognize a rising star before they recognized by others in organization. The first step for this is to have a PUSP – professional unique selling proposition that you can talk about to show a potential new manager that you are different to the people around you.

Once you have identified the industry, or area that you want to work in, you need to brand yourself, be clear about your professional unique selling proposition, and practice selling yourself to the people around you who can help you get to the position you are aspiring to.

Note that positioning yourself is not a one day job – you need to do this day in & day out in your career. The dynamics of a successful career demands that you compete in you career every day – you compete when you go for a job interview, you compete daily for the best positions, promotion and pay rise.

So next time when you are in a position to speak in front of one of these managers will you take that positioning step. Yes and keep doing that always? Having an elevator pitch – a GE way in which you are prepared with small conversation pitched (small enough to get completed in elevator) which leave the desired positioning in senior manager’s mind.

Now let’s take an example of how positioning must have helped some of the industry leaders. Mr. Ramadorai CEO of leading software services company TCS has started off as a Trainee in the company and has worked his way to the position of CEO. This would not have been possible without the right positioning he made for himself ever since he was a middle level manager. This includes the way he positioned himself in the right area, networked with the right people, let them know where he wanted to go, and when the right positions came along. Earlier he was America head which is followed by being COO second only to visionary Mr. F C Kohli (one of the founders of TCS). What we need to notice here is that he was prepared for the position, the management at TCS knew he was prepared this position, and he himself right from start knew what he wanted, and he was an undisputed choice for the role.

Unless you put it in practice, then only you may realize the power of PUSP – Professional Unique Selling Proposition. I invite readers to share their experiences of own or people around them. Just add to the comments on this post.

Early warning indicators for approaching layoffs

Oct 16th, 2008
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Indian workers has got the taste of globalization yesterday from none other than its home grown leading private airline Jet airways. Jet Airways have laid off more than 900 of its employees in one single day and have plans to make this figure above 1800 within next two days.

Till now in India the layoff by an Indian company were an hush hush affair. The layoff or pink slips (as they are called in western world) were thought to be a way of only companies from rest of world. This event was unlike the earlier which has been splashed in media like anything.

On the other side of world amidst the more than 750,000 jobs have disappeared from the U.S. economy this year. The workers face the prospect of plenty more layoffs to come as a continuing credit crunch and weak consumer demand hamper firms trying to maintain payrolls.

Now the big question before all of us workers is – “How safe is my job”? The answer is tricky but not difficult. You can now look for early warnings indicators for approaching layoffs. Here are seven signs (EWAs) that may signal your position is on the line.

(1) Other got fired in your company: If others are losing their jobs you may too, even if your boss says otherwise. Prepare yourself for that call to corner office and being handed over the pink slip. Note that in bad times even management may not have sense of things which may be affecting the business real time. In a globalized economy situations change rapidly. This does not mean that people are telling lies but them may not be aware genuinely. It may be the case of missing information, or circumstances change.

The basic pint is that you need to be aware of the possibility of a layoff. Workers at greatest risk of layoffs may be those who were most recently hired (although a lot depends on company policy). This was the case with Jet Airways layoff above. Other targets are workers who aren’t getting the job done. Middle management and highly paid top managers are also targets. The workers who are contract are also among the first to go.

(2) Freeze on New Hiring: Vanishing job postings (internal or external) and vanishing referral schemes are also send a layoff signal. You should look at whether colleagues are taking on more or less work, and whether some are being asked or told to leave.

The sequence of disappearance is typically started with the newly created or budgeted positions that have not been filled which are the first to go, then replacement positions that used to be posted and have disappeared, and then come the retirements that seem to be welcomed by management and are not filled.

(3) Training budgets cut: Even large companies may cut training budgets, a red flag that financial concerns could lead to layoffs. While there are certain critical initiatives or projects that need to go forward if a company wants to keep up production, workers should watch out when project spending slows.

From an employee’s standpoint, anytime they see an organization cutting back on its spending and cutting back on activities, as well as staff or initiatives around them, they need to think through the details and figure out at what point does it reach my position.

(4) New projects and events vanishing from scene: The new IT project or budgeted initiative has just vanished and no one talks about it now. Well, that is an indication of slowdown and probable cut in employees who are normally required for new projects.

(5) Office Grapevine: Conventional wisdom calls for taking office gossip with a pinch of salt. But sometimes it makes sense to listen to what your co-workers are saying and doing. It makes sense to notice what the talk is and to notice how people’s responsibilities or jobs are being redefined.

(6) Company is missing targets quarter after quarter: While some management may be less than forthcoming about missed targets for financial performance, workers can investigate a company’s health by checking out the budget. A major sign of approaching layoffs is a business that isn’t performing well. Especially at publicly traded companies, performance is critical, because firms that don’t perform to an expected level, even during recessionary times, will be forced to cut back.

(7) What your top management is saying in public: The top management speeches and statements in public are sometimes indicators of coming dangers. Like in case of Jet airways – a stress deal with Kingfisher airlines is announced a couple of days earlier and this followed by retrenchments.

Whatever may be the reason workers all over the world need to face recession and have to secure their jobs. Making note of early warning indicators may help in some cases.

How to keep your job during financial crisis?

Sep 26th, 2008
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Employees can gain a leading edge in an uncertain job market by following some guidelines. Considering the recent economic crisis the time has come for employees to develop their job hunting skills and review their career plans. The crisis in the market and credit crunch will eventually hit the job market. As more number of employees will start looking for jobs (the resulting influx of so many people made jobless by the banking crisis) it will become moredifficult for jobseekers to secure the right employement. 
The markets which are immediately affected (by job cuts) are investment banking, financial services, and information technology (which depends majorly on banking). In such situation understanding the key requirements to get and keep a job is key will only ensure you an edge over others.
Existing employees have to position themselves positively in market. They have to learn how to play the cards and become indispensible even in the middle of a credit crunch. Making yourself indispensible will ensure that your are not given pink slip in the next round of job cuts.
Employees need to take some time and think on their career path to ensure that they understand:
(a) what is needed to survive in the current market and 
(b) what is my plan of survival. 
Even if the market outlook is bad employees can still make themselves ahead in the race so that they get a clear edge over others. They need to brand themseves to stand out in a competitive market to guarantee career success. This will require not only doing the work but also keeping people who matter informed about your contribution.
If you feel that your job is not secure you may need to relook at following:
(a) What are my alternative employers?
(b) Same industry or a similar industry?
(c) Can I relocate?
(d) Can I take a cut in my compensation?
(e) Shall I use this time to home my skills and go back to school?
(f) What I can offer a potential employer?
In the coming day we will write more on the subject of how to keep your job secure during the financial crisis. 
All said and done – just remember “tough times never last tough people do”.

Networking for recent college graduates

Sep 25th, 2008
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In a comment to my post on “Gabriel Monge-Franco” asked:

“What if you’re new to the field/industry — a recent college graduate who knows nobody perhaps — then what? How do you start networking?”

In this note I will be covering some starters for recent college graduates, where they can start networking.

Internship: Most graduates have option to attend internships. Whether paid or volunteer – the internships offer a great chance to come in contact with people in your area of choice. I will advise students to chose internships not on the basis of earning potential but on the basis of networking potential. A sound network developed during the internship will go a long way in your career to become foundation of your professional network.

Networking with senior batches: A batch which has passed from your college a year before you will also be ideal target for initial networking. Usually they have first hand information about various companies and their employment procedures. And they will be a good start point in finding a contact in that company.

Networking through your faculty: Your college faculty will normally have good contacts in industry and other academic institutions. They may lead you to right contacts in some situations.

Online : You can use websites like www.linkedin.com, www.xing.com and like to start your online professional networking. Even social networking sites like www.orkut.com or www.facebook.com also have a lot of potential for professional networking.

I would invite other readers to share their experience on networking while in college.

Effective Personal Finance helps in managing your career better?

Sep 25th, 2008
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Effective has a very important role to play in managing your career. here are few reason why managing your finances will help you in managing your career better:

Save to avoid compromise in your career: A good kitty in savings will prevent any desperate measures to compromise in career. Just compare the case of two executives who are being laid off – one is having one year’s take-home pay in the bank and while other is no savings. the second executive will immediately try to settle for a job (whether he likes or not) to save himself from financial distress. Savings are a big relief for the desperate feelings of needing a job when you don’t have cash in the bank. Savings allow you to better choose a position that meets your needs and not taking any job because you need the money right now.

Lower debt helps in more disposable income: If you have lower debt (loans) means you will have lower monthly installments to pay. This will give you that extra flexibility and while working you can enjoy more from life by having more disposable income. Also if your job is in danger, having lower debt means your payments are low and will help you in preserving your cash flow from your savings. This means you can survive without a job for a long time if required.

Credit Rating reflects your capability: Your credit rating will have a great influence on your ability to be hired. Some of the companies, with your written consent (background check), can see your credit information. Hence the companies can use that that information for not hiring you. If the candidate can not manage his finances how will he manage the job?

More savings means more money for the future like – retirement etc. Not having enough savings will significantly reduce your choices about your life and career. For instance if you want to make a decision to choose to no longer work – your savings will be a determinant factor.

Can take more career risks: How well you manage and invest your money and finances will sure have an impact on your career options. More savings cushion will help you in taking more risks – which may help you in earning more (higher risk – higher returns).

One of my sincere advise to candidates is to make a personal finance plan while making career plan. They go hand in hand together as our savings come out of our earnings from job and our future jobs may depend on savings.

Network for a Successful career

Sep 21st, 2008
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How many times we have heard that – “He has got promotion because he has connections” OR “She go this job because she had a known connection in that company”?

The above examples may sound unethical but they are a fact. And only those who fail to network pass such comments. Key to a successful career is !

The people whom you know and help will be the people who can help you in your time of need. Many of us ignore this critical area and fail to build a network starting early in our career. Of course you may be busy performing your day to day job? You may already know hundreds of persons? But note that knowing is not networking. Networking is creating relationships who can be of your help. Here are few tests to check your networking status:

Breadth of Network: How many diverse types of people are in your network? Do you have people from all professions in your network? Do you have connections in diverse geography?

Depth of Network: How deep are your relationships in network. How supportive the network connection will be in your time of need?

Networking is not a day’s job or a project which you do in a day or month. Networking is a continuous process. Networking is not only knowing someone – it is nurturing your relationships with whim you already know.

Tools to network: Here are some tools I use regularly to network:

  • Gmail Contacts: A great place to sture your contacts categorize them in groups and have as much details about your contacts. Will be a great source to keep your contact innformation online.
  • Plaxo: Online business cards – beauty is that they can be updated as people move and you always have updated information.
  • Linkedin and Xing: Great place to network with people across Geography. Geographical networking was always a constraint earlier and with online networking tools like Linkedin it has solved all problems.

Networking will be even more critical in the bad econimic times that we see now and in near future. With becoming common everyday – your network will come handy in securing new jobs.

Insist on the Best for Your Career

Aug 27th, 2008
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By: Donald Mitchell

I remember looking for a job just before I finished graduate school. I poured over lists of companies that were located where I wanted to live, and I dreamed a lot about what it might be like to work in different industries.

I was reminded of when several my friends graduated with MBA degrees the preceding year and the goals they had.

One handsome, tall fellow wanted to become a vice president of an airline. I asked him why, and he told me that you could become a vice president of an airline at an earlier age than in other industries. Smiling, he also mentioned that as a single man he liked that there more unmarried young women working for airlines than could be met in most other industries.

A married couple had more modest ambitions: to get jobs in the same city that would provide opportunities for challenging careers. If the city was a nice place to live, that was an extra benefit. When both gained jobs in Seattle, Washington, they were thrilled.

Another man had spent a lot of time as a sailor on a nuclear submarine before graduate school: Any job that didn’t involve working underwater was welcome to him.

All of that sounds pretty reasonable, doesn’t it? Little did I know that we were aiming very low.

A recent MBA graduate helped me see that much higher goals can be set. It was quite an eye opener. Let me tell you his story.

Ramesh Venkatraman was born in a beautiful village in a part of southern India that is well known for entrepreneurship in exporting products around the world. Accompanying his father on professional trips expanded his geographic horizons at a young age. His early schooling, college, and graduate studies were undertaken in a semi-urban setting renowned for its textile exports. Having absorbed so many influences, you might think that he entered a career that connected back to those origins, but that was not the case.

After completing a master’s degree in science, Mr. Venkatraman was preparing to join a Ph.D. program; however, he joined the Indian space program instead, expanding his perspective on what can be accomplished. You are probably expecting to read that Mr. Venkatraman then became an astronaut . . . but that’s not what happened.

Instead, his focus turned earthward and outward: He entered the information technology (IT) industry and began work in the United States, gaining important skills in IT at firms like KPMG, FedEx, Compaq, BvOI, and ABN AMRO Bank. Supremely talented, his quickly rose through the ranks from project manager to program manager to vice president.

In the corporate world, he came across many talented individuals who caused him to raise the bar on his dreams and aspirations, directly and indirectly tapping into his hidden talents.

One fine day, he learned that a highly respected colleague was an MBA and a Ph.D. student at Rushmore University. The colleague shared that he would soon be moving into a strategic management function from a technology management position, and the colleague became head of strategy and planning for a leading financial institution.

Encouraged by that example and wanting to build on his IT success, Mr. Venkatraman decided to earn an MBA degree. He hoped his studies would add the skills and knowledge he would need to become a generous entrepreneur, one who would share any wealth gained with employees and other stakeholders.

He also selected Rushmore, primarily because he would have more freedom there to tailor his studies and courses to meet his personal objectives. The freedom he gained provided lots of motivation to learn, and Mr. Venkatraman graduated a little more than a year later.

Asked just before his graduation what his goals for using his MBA degree were, he reported that he now wanted to found a billion-dollar business in a short amount of time. Wow! What a contrast that goal was with what my friends and I had thought about at the same stage in our business training.

Curious about the shift, I asked Mr. Venkatraman to tell me more about how he decided on this new direction. He responded that the course work at Rushmore made him realize that greater things were possible than he had considered before. Wanting to help others, he also began to appreciate that the more successful he was as an entrepreneur, the more people he could help as a philanthropist, a role he hadn’t thought about playing before.

He now feels confident that he can accomplish that aggressive goal and is working hard to achieve it. He is also considering earning a Ph.D. from Rushmore.

Naturally, few people accomplish the full scale of what they hope to achieve. Often, they accomplish quite a bit less.

Even if Mr. Venkatraman falls far short of his new goals, he will probably accomplish more than he would have by merely fulfilling his pre-MBA goals. By learning the power of thinking carefully about what he wants to accomplish, his education served him better than mine did.

What are the lessons for you?

Are you insisting on the best from your career? If not, why not?

Ask yourself what the best could be for your career if you shoot for the top. Then get busy!

Author Resource:-> Donald W. Mitchell is a professor at Rushmore University, an online school. For more information about ways to engage in fruitful lifelong learning at Rushmore to increase your success, visit http://www.rushmore.edu-

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