Of bean counting and bridge building

Engineering graduates in this part of the world, are increasingly finding bean counting as an interesting job! What else can explain the number of engineering graduates enrolling for a class which prepares aspirants for a clerical job in public sector banks. I haven’t conducted any survey on this, but I can easily count to a minimum of 8 fellows known to me who have either got into some banks as clerks or who are preparing for bank exams. Here are two different stories about engineering admissions.

Story One: My cousin and her husband, both civil engineers in Central Government Dept. are hell bent in making their daughter a civil engineer. With less that 50% marks in Math, and with her heart inclined toward English Literature, the daughter is now enrolled for a course in civil engineering. Wonder how she builds bridges!

Story Two: A studious girl, with more than 95% marks in her +2 exams has no idea other than follow what her parents choose for her. Her parents enrolled her for a course in an engineering college, which could possibly rank within 1 to 10 from bottom. When asked why this college when she could easily get admitted to some really good ones, the reply was, “We  just want her to earn an engineering degree so that she can appear for bank exams and become a clerk”. When further asked, then why engineering rather than a degree in commerce or so, the reply was, “these days every one who gets into a bank has a engineering degree, and so she too”.

Good luck to both of you, and whoever uses the bridge the fellow in story one is forced to build.

Enjoying HR? Oxymoron (?)

“Oh! So you’re in HR. Enjoying huh? No work to do right?”

Asked my cousin, when we recently met at Bommanahalli to board the bus to Trivandrum. I tried to educate him “No No, we have lots of work to do..from manpower planning, to designing training programmes to statutory compliance to co-ordinating performance discussions to aligning salary to event management”. He wasn't convinced
“Ok, but still you don’t have any deadlines to meet like us right? Ha ha... You people are enjoying..” “No”, I interrupted him “We have SLAs and deadlines to be met as well. We are accountable for company operations..”
I could see him smirk.. and could read his mind
“Hmm.. whatever it is, you guys are a lousy lot. It is afterall we the software engineers who bring in money for the company to sustain. If it were not for us, you would have been jobless”

I am sure anyone in HR line of profession might have encountered the above situation atleast once. HR function is like a swan in the lake. It looks like the swan is floating, enjoying the surroundings and relaxing, but underneath it keeps on struggling with its leg to keep it moving forward. A home maker to a home is what HR to an organization. Ask the home maker not to do her job for a day and by the end of the day you will get to know her importance.


HR job is more like a double edged sword. We need to please both the management and employees. I faced it when my previous company announced a pay cut during difficult times (Although it was not called ‘pay-cut’, but 'salary restructuring'). On one hand we ourselves had to suffer the cut in our pay and on the other we had to explain to the grieving employees on the justification regarding the pay cut.

Ha, it takes a bold heart to be in HR and sustain.

I still meet my other cousins who are also in some software firm or the other. Perceptions are etched and can hardly be alterd. So I just let it be and have some fun in the process.. When they make fun of HR , I tell them back. ‘Shh.. quiet please. Let it be between you and me. It is true that we don’t do any work. Come in the morning, swipe the card, visit blogs, read newspapers, sip coffee, get into the chat messengers, walk around, meet other fellow HRs who are equally jobless, discuss about the latest movie, send some absurd mails and forwards and swipe out on the dot. Phew man. Pray to God that you be an HR in the next birth. We are blessed souls.”

I feel some sadistic pleasure when I say that.

The questions still vibrates.."You guys just don’t have any work to do and enjoy right?”

No work to do ? – NO , a big bold, underlined, italicized ‘No’. We have a lot of work to do my boy. That too not dealing with the deadwood computer and codes but human beings with flesh and blood. And brains. People like you. Right from the top of the organization chart to the housekeeping boy.


Enjoy? – Yes, a big bold underlined, italicized ‘YES’.

To be significant over successful

Chasing materials here I came
To this big place which made me discover
The unsatisfied fellows who worship
Those materials which they don’t need

I came running to this place
In search of treasure and wealth
Which would add some more glow
To my life; I was wrong

But I don't hate me for coming this far
To realize some more is no more
And that any more wealth I add,
will not be seeking the real pleasure

I now face a big white wall
The end of which I have no clue
But I drew my dream on it
The dream is not to draw my dreams

The dream is to live my dreams
And be significant; not successful
So I made up my mind
To take a leap across the wall

While I move back to gather the pace
And energy to cross the wall
Thoughts keep rushing and gushing to me
Making unseen dreams, uncertain

But fear I not, for I take a leap and I know
If there’s a river, I’ll also have my boat
If there’s a desert, I’ll also have my camel
If there’s a forest, I’ll also have my jeep

Gather courage, Jump over. NOW !!

It's raining beans!

Gone are the days of people making money from getting into a career in Investment Banking armed with their degrees and diplomas from IIMs and ISBs and the ilk.
The in thing is Sports Management.

Do you know how to organize, manage and conduct a popular sports / games event?

Yes? Ta da ! You are a millionaire, next year same time.

Sports Management is a niche area where only highly competent minds can survive. Those people who don’t snore when they listen to CNBC or make paper rockets out of balance sheets are highly encouraged to take up this as their career. No you don’t have to walk in to the fields, you don’t have to know what the dimension of a basketball court is, and you don’t even have to play computer games. Infact a little knowledge of any of those is a disqualification. The only game you need to be good at is bean counting.

Do not wonder if Sports Management finds a prominent place in those fatty Finance Text books, or may be offered as a specialization in the premier B-Schools.

Dear citizens of tomorrow: watch out and keep a track of all sorts of sports and games events happening around the world. What if you missed the CWG, you still have Asian Games, Lot of Athletic Meets, Olympics and a zillion other small tournaments apart from the adopted national game of Cricket. Start building you personal currency chests. Right away !

The career fixation crisis

“A drastic shift appears in everyone’s career somewhere between 5 and 15 years of tenure (let’s say X)- a shift which forces her to toss away her (mostly well paying) job and look out for a career which offers better satisfaction. Some follows their heart and be successful in their own way, while others who decide to continue with their line of job, would most certainly leave by the time they reach double the tenure (2X) or will be sacked by then”

- her to be replaced with his wherever necessary. I am not responsible for difference of opinions regarding the gender differences in the above hypothesis.
- the figures are on an average. This could as well range between 2-12 or 4-14 for that matter

Wow! Did I just speak my mind?

Remember : You read it here first. Now don’t blame me if you have to teach this to your kids when this gets printed in one of those management books. :-p