January 2009 - Posts - On The Job

January 2009 - Posts

Wipro wants b-school salaries reset

Posted by Poornima Mohandas at 
Note to readers: The following post features several comments from Mr. Pratik Kumar , Corporate Vice President, Human Resources at Wipro Ltd . These comments while made by Kumar, have however been taken out of context. The post has omitted to mention that Mr. Kumar's statement on job reset was contextualised as follows: "in the light of global...

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Naukri sees 2009 replete with jobs

Posted by Poornima Mohandas at 
Crystal gazing, Naukri Survey: Hiring Outlook for 2009 & Job Index: Dec 2008 paints an overall rosy picture for 2009 across sectors -- IT, ITES, retail, banking & finance, real estate, pharma, telecom -- with new job creation albeit with job losses. Highest lay offs are anticipated in real estate and IT. It's good news for teachers as they...

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Are you in the mid to senior level?

Posted by Poornima Mohandas at 
Predictably the Teamlease Employment Outlook Survey Jan-Mar 2009 is galore with gloomy indices and blue business outlooks all down from the previous quarter. But there is a silver lining. If you are in middle or senior levels you might just get lucky as companies are showing an increased interest in hiring at those levels. Meanwhile the International...

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On the bench in Satyam

Posted by Poornima Mohandas at 
When does an IT services firm need a bench? When there is pipeline of deals. These are people who are in suspended animation waiting for a project to work on. In the case of tainted, Satyam Computer Services , which is even losing its present customers , the deals in the pipeline would have more or less disappeared ever since the over Rs 7,000 crore...

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Wish you were a teacher or a doctor?

Posted by Poornima Mohandas at 
Mood: Remarkably upbeat Location: a golf resort in the outskirts of Bangalore Event: Knowledge Conclave - Universities of India 2008-09 "I've been to many events lately but the mood was glum everywhere. This is the only one in which people are talking of investment...The people in this room are indeed lucky," said a head hunter who was...

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Job security or higher salary?

Posted by Rajeshwari Sharma at 
The other day I was meeting a couple of friends at a cafe and much to my chagrin, the conversation mostly veered around job security. One could not have imagined even a few months back that joblessness could ever hit us. Stability was never a concern with employees in India. And why would that be when your economy is growing at a robust and companies...

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Work, anxiety and the Elsewhere Generation

Posted by Aparna Kalra at 
You are at work but worried if you should be spending more time with your kids? Or are you with friends but anxious that your boss might need you in office? Welcome. You are part of the 'Elsewhere Generation' of professionals, according to Newsweek, who constantly feel they should be elsewhere. In an interesting feature, Dalton Conley argues...

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Passing out in a slowdown

Posted by Poornima Mohandas at 
In one of my long waits to meet the head of an educational institution in Bangalore I met this young, attractive girl working as an office secretary. She offered me coffee and we started chatting as we waited for her boss to finish his meeting. As we got talking the girl dressed in a smart black and white salwar kurta told me she held an MCA (masters...

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Job cuts at Google India

Posted by Rajeshwari Sharma at 
Google India has terminated the jobs of some 30 to 40 employees from its finance department, according to at a Googler and a recruiter familiar with the development, who did not wish to be identified. The terminated staff, comprising financial analysts and chartered accountants among others, are largely contractors or temporary workers and some Googlers...

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Job cut or Salary cut?

Posted by Poornima Mohandas at 
While US firms announce job cuts amounting 400,000 and promise worse times ahead , companies in India, small and large are debating between salary cuts and job cuts or a combination to stay trim and slim in these tough times. What works and when? Opinions of consultants differ. What is the need to punish the entire work force by cutting salaries? Isn't...

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Subdued hiring: unlikely to get a booster shot

Posted by Taru Bahl at 
Industry chamber Assocham was lambasted for making some scary predictions late last year. They had said on 29October that post Diwali, Indian industry would see job cuts as high as 25%. Most newspapers picked it up and ran it prominently on their business pages. Not surprisingly, unable to substantiate the 25% bit, the chamber had to run a formal apology...

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Hiring and firing strategies for 2009

Posted by Taru Bahl at 
As companies sharpen the saw and cut costs, even dispensing with external recruiting firms, relying instead on referrals, it makes sense to relook some of the traditional time and tested hiring strategies. One also has to be blind not to notice the pressure on companies (even those where one could join and retire from) to turn a blind eye to non performers...

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Social Conscience: Gen Next ups the barometer in 2009

Posted by Taru Bahl at 
I remember how most of us used to grumble about having to complete the 200 odd hours of social service as part of the college national social service scheme (NSS) that we had opted for. And inspite of the sensitization to old age homes, blind schools and orphanages, most of us continued to be driven by the "what is there in it for me?" motive...

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