OK! You’ve made it! Great! But your journey has just begun.
If you have several placement offers, you now face the dilemma of choice.
Put the CTC (Cost To Company – which indicates the total amount the company will spend on you per annum) offered in the background and look at job profile and prospects. Hark back to what I said in my first post.
The most important question is – which opening offers a job that you would be happy doing for several decades in the prime time of your life.
Then look at the opportunities available for personal and professional growth.
Organisational culture is also important. Browse sites like glassdoor.co.in to get an idea about the organisational culture. Of course, all that is posted there may not be true. Disgruntled employees would have made vindictive statements. But one generally gets an idea by going over the reviews.
The first two, three years in your career are like the first two, three years of your life. You carry the positive pats and praises and negative emotional bruises and scars throughout your professional and personal life.
CTC and other terms should be considered only after considering all the aspects described above.
The initial CTC doesn’t matter. It is enough if it provides you financial independence covering your basic needs of food, shelter (rented) and clothing. There is no percentage in choosing the offer with the highest CTC for the sake of bragging rights and suffering later in painful instalments.
The experience gained in the formative years of your career can lead to excellent prospects even if the starting CTC is modest. And the work experience and skill-sets gained, will matter much more than academic performance.
Academic excellence only helps you clear preliminary screening. Thereafter, it is your domain knowledge and skill sets that matter.
Look at it from the employer’s perspective. You may have many degrees and diplomas. But if you aren’t able to deliver on the work front, what will (S)he do with your degrees and diplomas? Pickle them or make preserves out of them?
Gaining domain knowledge and acquiring skill-sets is the recipe for career advancement. That’s why, it is advisable to choose firms and companies that allow you to gather domain knowledge and improve your skill-sets.
If you don’t have a choice in your first assignment, no issues. Persevere and try to gather as much domain knowledge as possible and improve your skill-sets to the extent possible so that on that basis, you can switchover to a company with better prospects.
Focus should be on not wasting any time after completing your academic journey. It is much better to be employed somewhere, gaining valuable experience rather than sitting at home, moping and doing nothing.
If the salary isn’t enough to make ends meet, look at the deficit as tuition fees. Try to manage within your means. Cut out all non-essential expenses. Being independent gives you a high, in spite of all the sacrifices.
A very common complaint is, ‘I don’t find time to gather domain knowledge’. Look, it isn’t your employer’s look out to improve your career prospects. If you want to go up the ladder, YOU will have to FIND the time to upgrade yourself.
Remember, time management is the hallmark of a good executive. Time management is nothing but ability to prioritise. There are a thousand demands on your time. You have to learn to prioritise, deciding what is urgent, what is essential and what can be put off or even ignored.
If you focus on trivial things, you will miss out on major issues. If you focus on ants, you’ll have to bend over to see them properly. Meanwhile, elephants and camels will pass over you unnoticed.
And please treat the first few years of your career as part of your education. Let your focus be on your career. Socialising, recreation are of course needed, but should not be high up in your list of priorities.
And a year into your first assignment, it is time to assess whether the career you have chosen is appropriate. At this stage, you can afford a mid-course correction if you feel that you have made a mistake. A few years later, it would be too late.
If you feel that this is the career path for you, it is time to take up part-time or on-line courses to improve your résumé and acquire knowledge at the macro level that will promote professional growth.
And don’t forget networking. Be active in LinkedIn groups. With experience, you will be able to contribute more to the discussions and gather more attention which will improve your career prospects and growth.
Raja P Areyada
Retired Banker. Expertise in International Finance, Payment systems, Treasury automation, Trading platform development & deployment, Information security, Risk Management, Financial Inclusion, IT software development.
Wide array of interests including Philosophy, Quantum Mechanics, Macro Economics and Parapsychology.
