Retail – The sunrise sector for employment opportunities

I recently wrote an article on the Retail sector in India and the employment opportunities it provides. Here's the link to the original article on ET Retail.Few months ago, a small paanstall mysteriously appeared on the footpath near our office. I saw a young man at the helm, selling paan, cigarettes, chewing gum and some toffees. As I walked by his stall in the evenings, I occasionally bought a packet of chewing gum to encourage his endeavour. In a short time, I found that he didn't need much encouragement from…

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Hiring Introverts and Extroverts

I recently became a little active on Quora. I came across a question there that caught my attention."As a decision-maker, when did you hire an introvert over an extrovert? Did you find them more productive or less?"I think it depends on the role you are hiring for. I have seen that when hiring for an individual contributor role, I might be okay to select introverts. I might even consider introverts for roles like testing, editing, proof reading etc. I am more likely to select an extrovert for leadership roles, sales roles…

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Recruiters, Wake Up and Use Social Networking to Hire

In a recent post, RWW reports that “In a study of 300 hiring managers and recruiters, Palo Alto-based social networking monitoring service Reppler reports that 76% of hiring managers look at applicants' Facebook profiles. An additional 56% are looking at Twitter, and 48% check out LinkedIn.”The fact that recruiters should be checking out basic info on social networks makes perfect sense to me. Unfortunately this doesn’t seem true, at least for Indian recruiters. I recently got a call from a recruiter, apparently someone involved in senior level recruitment in a…

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Is Changing Jobs the Best Way to Get a Raise?

In a recent employee survey by Mercer it was found that one in two employee is seriously considering leaving their jobs for better opportunities in terms of career and base pay. Interestingly around 66% of employees under age 24 are seriously considering leaving. It leads to an interesting question that I have been pondering over and researching informally:Is changing jobs the best way to get a raise?After say more than 15 years work experience, do you think someone who has hopped jobs more regularly will be paid more than someone…

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Lies While Quitting

@sidin posed a question on Twitter about lies we give while quitting a job. I am sure there’s a full article out with a lot more research. Over the years, I have heard many reasons that people give while quitting. These reasons are not necessarily lies in all cases. These are just a collection of some reasons that I figured were lies after the person had left the organization."I want to do something different" (when the will continue in the same industry doing the same thing)"I am getting a better…

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Career Paths for Trainers

Someone asked a question on the career growth paths for trainers on one of our internal forums. And about the same time I came across this interesting blog post which talks about not worrying about career path and living your career story, written by Jason Seiden. It is from Dan McCarthy’s list of 20 Best Leadership Blog Posts of 2010. Just loved the way Jason explains the need to dump career paths and focus on building your career stories. . So, what could be a Trainer's career stories? While it…

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Would You Fire Your Best Performer?

Sanjay is a great team leader aspiring to be a manager. He has shown good results in the projects he has handled. He has shown willingness to go the extra mile in the tasks assigned. He has been constantly told he is a great performer and the company would not like to lose a great team leader. Regular feedback and company awards have made him proud and self confident. However he has had some issues in his ability to handle larger projects and teams. His view of the industry is…

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Progress so far – Unofficial Salary Survey 2010

It’s been a slow start to the 2010 Unofficial Salary Survey of eLearning, Content Development and Training jobs. You can now view the responses by following the Responses link.Some highlights so far:Functions that have participated are Instructional Designers (33%) and Technology/Programmers (22%), followed by Project management (17%) and Graphics and Media (11%).Most participants have 10 years work experience (28%) followed by 5 and 3 years (11% each).So far the survey seems to be dominated by male responders (72%).Only 28% people switched jobs last year.Mostly people from elearning/training vendors have participated…

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Unofficial Salary Survey 2010

It’s time to launch the 2010 Unofficial Salary Survey for elearning, content development and training jobs in India. There's nothing official about this survey. The survey is not based on responses by companies but based on responses provided by you, the employee. This survey is not associated with any organization. The survey is anonymous.This survey is for you if you are an Instructional Designer, Content Developer, Technical Writer, Project Manager, Graphics designer, Flash Programmer, Content Integrator, Tester, Editor, Trainer, Training administrator, SME, or any other role involved in elearning, content…

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5 Reasons Why You are Not Being Promoted

I came across Dan McCarthy’s blog recently. Dan is a practitioner in the field of leadership development for over 20 years and is currently the Manager of Leadership and Management Development at a Fortune "Great Place to Work", "Training Top 125", and "High Impact Learning" (HILO 80) company. He has a great blog on leadership that I would encourage you to subscribe to. Dan wrote a great post Head’s Up – You are About to be Promoted or Fired where he shares why you might get promoted or fired. I…

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