Short Term View

Normally we take a very short term view of our careers and get carried away by what others are doing. We just look at the outside and seldom realise that the reality maybe different.

When we start our careers, salary is the most important aspect for choosing a job, well salary is definitely important but it should not be the only criteria for accepting a job offer - job role, organisation, growth prospects should also be looked into. Even if we do chose a relatively low paying job for better learning and greater long term benefits, we lose patience midways and jump on to low quality high paying jobs. I had read a very good article by the founder member of a prominent consulting firm, it narrated a story of a young boy who joined a low paying job and worked there for 3 years. The boy had one more year to go before rising in his career but due to pressure from family and need of money for his sister's wedding he shifted to a clerical job with double the salary. This was a disaster because just when it was time for him to accelerate he left his job. In this case the boy was in need of money, but had his family members supported him for another year their monetary problems would have been solved for ever. Switching of job at that juncture destroyed his career.

There has to a be fine balance between long term career plans and current salary structure. We should not run after money, once we have really built ourselves as indispensable assets, money will run after us. So, we should have the vision, the boldness and the perseverance to reach the top.

:)

Read between the lines

In the corporate world, communication is very indirect and words are normally pregnant. It is very important to be able to interpret the true meaning of any mail, conversation, statement. The more we understand the corporate language the easier it is to save our jobs and move ahead in our career.

For Ex :
Boss - When I was of your age I never used to be late in office. As a well wisher, I do not want you to get into this bad habit at such an early part of your career.
Actual meaning - Please treat this as the last warning. Be on time or I will kick your ass.

It is very important to read between the lines which will easily come from experience and alertness. It is foolish to take things on face value. One has to be diplomatic and sharp to tackle such things :)

Beyond Job Role

In our workplace we generally do not bother to learn skills or gain knowledge beyond the boundaries of our job role. Eg : If a person is in the MIS team, he or she never bothers to look into anything beyond MIS or even get into the depth of MIS like why this, why that, what if we change this etc...This slows down our growth because we limit ourselves.

I have always been very fond of reading about new topics no matter how irrelevant they might be to my job role. I started my career, in an Aluminium Foil Packaging company IFL - a part of Sterlite Industries, with a short 10 day stint in Finance and then was moved to marketing both domestic and exports. When I became fully involved in Exports I generated a lot of interest for the international non-ferrous market trends and started reading vigorously on the primary metals market which had absolutely no direct link to my job role. My boss used to tell me that I am wasting my time but I did not listen. In 10 months my newly developed passion bore fruit. The global markets became very very bullish and in one quarter the prices reached historic highs. This sudden turn of events made global benchmarking of prices a must and I was the only person in IFL at that time who knew how LME (the benchmark for non-ferrous metals) works. You must have guessed it by now - I became a very important employee :)

The above is just a small illustration of why we should continuously build our skills and should be very well read. Just knowing how to do your work well is not enough. Anyways after a certain time period you master your work, so to ensure faster progress one should always be looking at building new skills, preferably keeping in mind our goal in life. A career is like a jigsaw puzzle, we have the final picture in mind and all our moves should be directed towards putting the pieces in place.

Brainteaser

I came across this cool gadget which has 20 simple calculations and you are timed for solving them. I found it really cool. I keep playing and my best time till now is 19 seconds. I have put it at the end of the blog. Hope you guys find it interesting. I will keep looking for interesting stuff and my blog will be very dynamic. You will find new stuff every now and then and the layout will also change frequently.

enjoy

uday

Where are you going in Life

I came across a really interesting mail. Thought I would share with everyone :)

A boat docked in a tiny Goan village (Goa-India). A tourist from Mumbai (Bombay) complimented the Goan fisherman on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took him to catch them.

'Not very long,' answered the fisherman.

'But then, why didn't you stay out longer and catch more?' asked the Mumbaite.

The Goan fisherman explained that his small catch was sufficient to meet his needs and those of his family.

The Mumbaite asked, 'But what do you do with the rest of your time?'

'I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, and take a siesta with my wife. In the evenings, I go into the village to see my friends, play guitar, sing a few songs.... I have a full life.'

The Mumbaite interrupted, 'I have an MBA from IIM-A, and I can help you! You should start by fishing longer every day. You can then sell the extra fish you catch. With the extra revenue, you can buy a bigger boat.'>

'And after that?' asked the Goan.

'With the extra money the larger boat will bring you can buy a second one and a third one and so on until you
have an entire fleet of trawlers. Instead of selling your fish to a middle man, you can then negotiate directly with
the processing plants and maybe even open your own plant. You can then leave this little village and move to Panjim, or even Mumbai. From there you can direct your huge new enterprise.'

'How long would that take?' asked the Goan.

'Twenty, perhaps twenty-five years,' replied the Mumbaite.

'And after that?'

'Afterwards? Well my Friend, That's when it gets really interesting,' chuckled the Mumbaite, 'When your business gets really big, you can start selling stocks and make millions!'

'Millions? Really? And after that?' asked the Goan.

'After that you'll be able to retire, live in a tiny village near the coast, sleep late, play with your children, catch a few fish, take a siesta with your wife and spend your evenings doing what you like with your buddies.'

'With all due respect sir, but that's exactly what I am doing now. So what's the point wasting 25 years?' asked the Goan.

And the moral of the story is? Know where you're going in life. You may already be there. Life in the present world is indeed a rat race. Give it a serious thought

love

uday