You work like a dog five days of the week, and what do you have to show for it? Come appraisal time, your cubicle-mate gets a 15% bonus, while you get 5% - again. If your investments gave you 5% returns a year, you’ll exit quickly, right? So why treat your career any differently? After all, it’s your main source of income for the next 20 or so years.
If the returns are far less than expected, is it because you’ve invested too little? Or because you have failed to take advantage of market movements that could have led to rich yields? It’s never too late to examine your career portfolio and make changes for the better.
Ask Ajay Vij. From kitchen trainee to executive chef to food and beverages manager, he was an intrinsic part of the hotel circuit. But after 10 years, he says: “I knew I had capped my further growth in this segment.” Instead of getting steadily more fed up with the limited options available to him, Vij reassessed his skills.
As a graduate from the Oberoi School of Hotel Management, he had not just learnt how to whip up a souffle, he knew all about managing the flaming tempers and simmering resentments that form a part of any kitchen.
And so, from The Oberoi in Bangalore, he moved into the infotech sector as head of tech support at Talisma, a software solutions firm, in Bangalore. The only real investment Vij made in his career was the time and effort spent studying management. This has paid rich dividends; today, Vij is a senior vice-president at Accenture, a technology services company. He maintains that he did not make the career shift for monetary gains; he simply did not want to be stuck in a rut.
Vij is not alone. Across the country, professionals have been examining their careers, and have been making course corrections so that they end up with a healthy profit. Prithwis Mukerjee moved out of Tata Steel and ended up with IBM—far happier and wealthier.
Madhu Suri, however, who left journalism to be a psychologist, lost out in monetary terms, but is more than delighted with her job. At 46, she honed her skills by doing a Masters in Psychology, a subject close to her heart. “I haven’t looked back since,” says Suri, who works with Max Heart and Vascular Institute in Delhi.
Learn and earn: It’s like any investment you make. Simply because it offers decent returns and because you’ve held it for years, does not mean it is the best for you. Take a chance, do some research, and you are more than likely to end up with a multi-bagger. It’s the same with your career. The minute you start limiting your options, your career will stagnate. “If you contin -ue to learn, you also grow as a professional,” says Ajit Isaac, CMD, Adecco, an HR solutions company.
The learning could be on-the-job or through a workshop or a course. Ignoring education in lieu of work experience is like building a skyscraper with no foundation and all the education in world will be ineffective without the right soft skills, believes Shailja Datt, founder and MD, Stellar Search and Selection, a manpower consulting firm.
Like any investment, do not expect a new job to start paying from day one. Think long term; a low-paying job today can prove immeasurably useful later because of the skills you acquire. “It is important to make an informed move i.e. get into something that you really want to do or something that you feel will enhance your long-term career potential,” says Anita Belani, country head, Watson Wyatt, a global head hunting firm.
Sudheesh Venkatesh, head HR, Tesco, an IT and business services firm, adds, “It is also important to constantly upgrade yourself with new experience and also to keep abreast with the latest technological innovations and know-how in the business.”
If you want your career to pay big dividends, you will have to examine your portfolio of skills. Hone those that you think will prove profitable, and invest in gaining others you don’t have. It may not prove very profitable in the short term, but in the long term, you will gain immeasurably.
