Rewind an year or two and you would have known me as a staunch supporter of all roles that are marketing and vying to become one sometime. Well, I believe that i am marketer even now. Just that i am selling services, technology and consulting instead of a pack of beedis, printers or pills. But what pains me is the treatment IT jobs get in B-school campuses.
To start with, lets look what any MBA pass out would look in his/her first job (irrespective of industry / role etc.)
- Fat pay packet (oh yeah, that is first one for the most)
- Global career options, want to spend more nights in airports and planes than at home
- To be in thick of things and dollars. To get a fair participation in big buck deals, to meet exciting hot shot CXO / VP level people and show your capabilities to them
- Cool and comfortable work culture in office, 5 day weeks, plenty of time to splurge the hard earned money and good people / colleagues
- Growth options, chances to do exciting stuff
Well, now also look at the most glorified and revered roles at B-school placements:
- FMCG companies
- Banks – Relationship marketing, Treasury, i-banking, Corporate banking
- Consultancies indulging non tech activities, all the Mcks and TSMGs of the world
Now, lets look at a typical profile offered by any FMCG company (for example)
- 2 years of rural India stints in the name of training and development. Lot of back of the truck traveling and yelling at local warehouse managers in unknown dialects and calling people from STD booths.
- Good money coupled with few avenues to splurge
- The largest financial deal you can get in the first 2 years is closed to booking a truck load of fags for crore or two.
- You will grow to become something if you survive this for the first 5-6 years and yet meet all the targets
My current job gives all of the first list above and much more. I am hardly 5-6 months in to the company and least I can say is I am excited. I still don’t understand why 90% of the MBA batch applies for a 2-3% growing, 4-5% margin making, FMCG company or Consultancy over much more promising IT job. Herd psychology or legends? Beats me!
