since big city folks seem to have other things in mind - increasingly - thus IT field could land up in laps of small towners -- just like Civil service jobs once the fiefdom of metro-bred youth now get majority of recruits from the states like Bihar.
Juts like the western youth increasingly find tech fields boring and law and MBA more attractive - leaving the field to be outsourced - now could be outsourced from Bangalore to Guwahati. Umesh http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/2661517.cms Not a job-seekers favourite The Indian government showcased it. The world envied it. The stock market rewarded it. The media hyped it. And Indian job seekers raved about it. Since the turn of the 21 st century, Indias IT industry has been what dreams are made up of. For a third world nation, the IT industry offered first world dreams. Its sizzling growth, global operations, fat pay packets, swanky offices and attractive people practices offered Indian job seekers an option that was homegrown and yet world class. Understandably, everybody headed there. Civil engineers switched track for tech jobs. Science graduates learnt programming to get hired. NIIT computer courses became an instant passport to a fast-track career. Anybody and everybody from HR professionals to marketing experts, PR consultants to training experts harboured IT dreams as the sector grew and absorbed talent aggressively. It was a dream come true, recalls Rajesh Ravindran, 25. A small-town boy who graduated from the Calicut regional engineering college, Ravindran couldnt believe when he landed a job offer from an IT MNC in 2004. Attractive salary, nice office, smart colleagues and fun outdoor activities, his job offered everything that he had ever aspired for. Barely three years later, the tide may be turning. Pursuing his MBA from IIM (B), the techie Ravindran is now dreaming about investment banking. IT has lost its charm. With so many people, it no longer feels special, he says. The job is stressful and boring. Never before in Indias history has any sector caught the nations imagination as IT in the last seven years. A sector that few had heard barely half a decade back suddenly became a national, economic and social phenomenon. It helped shape Indias global image, boosted its economy, pushed exports and gained tremendous social recognition. Its impact on the job market and employment trends too has been deep. It not only created plenty of well-paid jobs, it also set new benchmarks on virtually every aspect of employer-employee relationship. 2008 may mark a shift. The IT industry, India Incs cheerleader for over half a decade, may not remain so. New, bigger and more exciting growth engines like infrastructure, retail has emerged. And they are moving faster, investing bigger and promising visions that make IT look relatively paler. The effects have begun to show in the job market and among jobseekers. IT jobs have lost their gloss, admits Pratik Kumar, HR head, Wipro Technologies in one of those rare candid moments. Day-1, day-2 slots at IIMs a litmus test for judging hot sectors are becoming difficult for IT majors. Smart executives working in IT sector are now switching career to more exciting companies. Ask Srini Vudumula who recently quit IT sector to join Maytas Infra as HR head. Back in 1997 when he joined IT sector was in its infancy. It didnt have anything then quality, processes, reputation and branding. But we had this grand vision which attracted smart people, says Vudumula. It was chaotic but very challenging offering fantastic growth with tremendous pay offs (remember ESOPs). Infrastructure is exactly at the same stage as what IT was then, he says. Little wonder new emerging sectors like retailing, infrastructure, R&D and engineering services are luring away smart executives, many from IT, something that was almost unthinkable till recently. Not that the IT sector isnt attractive or growing anymore. Just that other sectors are beginning to compare and at times outshine it, says T Hari, senior VP, Satyam Computers. EMA Partners, an executive search firm, says infrastructure practice, which was almost zero three years back is growing rapidly and could contribute 15-20% of the business next year. News of ecstatic growth in IT industry today jostles with angst of rising rupee and margin pressure. The talks around swanky offices and high salaries are alongside stress and burnout in workplaces. Quality of managers and leaders has gone down with the hiring frenzy. This year as Sensex rose over 40%, top IT scrips like Infosys, TCS slipped in doubled digits. We dont see significant growth upsides in IT. Its retail, hospitality, infrastructure, says Avinash Vashishta, CEO, Tholons Advisory. Listed on global stock exchanges, somewhere the focus shifted from that big vision to Q-to-Q profits. Leadership is under so much pressure to satisfy those analysts that long-term goals are often compromised, says a director level IT executive that recently quit to join an infrastructure firm. What put me off is the clinical approach, heart and emotions are totally missing, he adds. Such growth pangs perhaps are unavoidable. But as other sectors build steam, no matter how sizzling and exciting, there wont be another IT. For a nation just beginning to explore the world in the 1990s, IT industry set benchmarks and raised the bar for human capital management, says Hema Ravichandar, a strategic HR consultant who was with Infosys in early 2000s. Growing at an average of 30% over the last decade, it was the first industry that hired aggressively and for such a long time absorbing educated talent from everywhere. Massive training infrastructure, world class offices, a performance-driven culture and focus on staff retention and attrition issues a lot of stuff we see in the job market today started with the IT industry. They started the trend of five-day week, almost a given today. Even better, they created the first few batches of millionaire employees setting new benchmarks for employer-employee relationship in every possible way. To be fair, IT sector is still logging high double-digit growth. Profit margins, though shrinking, are still attractive in relative terms. It remains among the most global and visible growth stories from India with world-class homegrown firms. While IT firms like Google will remain exciting, going forward, increasingly IT will have to share the dais with new emerging and exciting sectors. In the job market and for job seekers in 2008 and beyond, IT may no longer be the first and obvious choice for bright executives. And it may be a good thing for everybody. Umesh Sharma Washington D.C. 1-202-215-4328 [Cell] Ed.M. - International Education Policy Harvard Graduate School of Education, Harvard University, Class of 2005 http://www.uknow.gse.harvard.edu/index.html (Edu info) http://hbswk.hbs.edu/ (Management Info) www.gse.harvard.edu/iep (where the above 2 are used ) http://harvardscience.harvard.edu/ http://jaipurschool.bihu.in/ --------------------------------- Sent from Yahoo! - a smarter inbox. _______________________________________________ assam mailing list [email protected] http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org
