Thinking of a career change? 5 tips – NDTV

Better remuneration, a travelling job, greater opportunities for growth, more exciting work, better work-life balance. Just some of the reasons that make people look at a career change. However, changing careers is very different from changing jobs. There are many examples of people who have given up solid careers to follow their hearts. They have turned hobbies into lucrative vocations or just turned entrepreneur. There are those that have switched careers midstream and made a success of what they chose to do.Play to your strengths, always. Be very sure of what you are good at. These include your talent and your skills, which you have gained from your work experience and your education. Therefore, while you may compromise on several things while changing your career hoping for a better second run, such as salary, work timings, daily travel distance, perks, don’t compromise on your strengths. Always remember that a better salary alone should never be the reason for a career change. What will keep you in the game in the long run are your strengths and interests. These could include proficiency in a particular field of management, expertise in a particular sub-field in your current job, managing people, public speaking, etc.It takes time to establish one’s position in a particular industry. Lots of challenges have to be overcome, a lot of learning and unlearning takes place, a lot of contacts have to be made, and you start finding comfort in chaos. Changing your career may need you to start afresh completely. A totally new work culture, work ethics, a fresh set of challenges, new skills to learn, a new network to be made—these things take time. Therefore, do factor in all these things before making the switch. The best career switch would, of course, be when most of your skills and resources stay the same. A good HR manager may move to career consulting; a good legal reporter, who would already have sufficient knowledge of the legal system, can study law and become a practicing lawyer. This is a no-brainer. You should be willing to study further to meet the qualification criteria as well as brush up on your knowledge. This could mean a two-year post-graduation or an MBA. What this also means is that you will have to manage your studies with your current job, and neither can be compromised with. Lack of seriousness in your job will not be tolerated, and lack of dedication towards education would mean poor grades as well as missing out on the knowledge you require for the new career, and you may just fail to make the cut. That would be disastrous. It’s best to speak with your manager beforehand about this. Let him know that you plan to study further. If company policy allows, you may be allowed a work-from-home, or maybe put in fewer hours at work, or even a sabbatical. A career change could mean added expenses towards education. Also, a career change may not always work, and you may want to go back to your previous job. Add to this the chances of a slightly lesser salary simply because you don’t score on the required work experience. Make sure you have set aside adequate funds for your family in case things don’t work out. An ideal window would be two-three years. Find out if you are eligible for an education loan. A working spouse would mean lesser mental and financial stress.What may look good on the outside may not be good on the inside. Do a lot of research. Speak to people who are already in the profession you seek to pursue. Find out the inside stories. Are there really better chances of growth in the long-run? Are the average salary packages really as attractive as they are made out to be, or is that just for the top 5 per cent? Will the new career offer you as much flexibility as you think it would? And while you are at it, don’t ignore your current network. They are the people in your current field you know best. Let them know you are planning a career change and ask for feedback. It’s quite likely that others in your official circle may have thought of the same and could give you valuable advice. Also, these are the people you may need the most in case the career switch is not working out.Reliance Power chairman Anil Ambani on Tuesday called for healthy tariff structures to ensure that power producers and distributors remain in business. Addressing the 18th annual general meeting of the company, Ambani said, “power tariffs will have to go up reflecting the reality of the prices of fuel. It is necessary to ensure that generation companies are paid their rates if the power sector is to remain healthy.” Stating that power is a major growth multiplier, he called for “a very concrete and clear-headed strategy to meet the challenges in the power sector,” which is plagued by a host of challenges, such as fuel shortages, cumbersome clearance processes and issues related to land and water availability.” Listing out the achievements of RPower during the reporting period, Ambani said during the past fiscal, Reliance Power has formed a strategic partnership with RWE of Germany, which is the world’s largest integrated power and mining company to develop its Tilaiya coal mines. It has also entered into an alliance with Shell to set up a floating LNG terminal in Andhra Pradesh. “With 65 MT per annum from domestic mines and 30 MT from Indonesia, Reliance Power will be among the world’s largest coal companies,” Ambani said adding its coal resources will not only ensure fuel self-sufficiency for a large proportion of our power plants, but also gives it a sustainable competitive advantage in the marketplace.” In the second quarter of the current fiscal, RPower, which had reported a net income of Rs. 867 crore in FY12, partnered with China Datang for technical collaboration. It has also started production at its controversial Sasan coal mines six months ahead of schedule, which has an annual capacity of 20 mt. The Sasan coal mines is the largest in the country in volume handled, also the fastest allocation-to-production for any greenfield coal mines in the country, Ambani claimed.Aluminium giant NALCO has invited criticism from CAG for possible “governance deficit” which the government auditor says has resulted in many inadequacies, including delays in its Rs. 4,091.51 crore second phase capacity expansion project. “Gaps and inadequacies in project formulation and execution points towards a governance deficit in the company which needs to be addressed appropriately,” Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) said in its report tabled in Parliament today. It said the “system weaknesses” contributed significantly in delaying the project and due to delay in completion of civil and electrical works, the mining equipment procured in 2008 at a cost of Rs. 103 crore could not be commissioned. The equipment pertained to saving cost for bauxite transportation. The government had approved the company’s second phase capacity expansion plan in 2005 to take its bauxite mining capacity to 6.3 million tonne per year (MTPY) from 4.8 MTPY, alumina refinery capacity to 2.1 MTPY from 1.5 MTPY and smelter capacity to 0.46 MTPY from 0.3 MTPY. Also, it planned taking the capacity of captive power plant (CPP) to 1,200 MW from 960 MW. However, the expansion plan which was scheduled to be completed by December 2008 got delayed “due to various gaps and inadequacies in planning and execution,” the CAG report said. It added, “The completion of expansion of smelter, CPP and refinery was delayed by 12 months, 23 months and 36 months respectively.” Noting that the second capacity expansion plan was very vital for the growth of the company and the country, it said that the company did not explore the availability of improved technology while formulating the plan. “As a result, the DPR (detailed project report) had to be revised which led to delayed commencement of project which had a cascading effect on the completion of the project,” it said. Also, it expressed unhappiness over roping contractors with poor track record for the project. “While awarding the contracts, the company did not learn from its past experience and awarded the critical contracts to the contractors with poor track record in executing earlier contracts,” it said. The company also awarded contracts or another critical activity to an inexperienced contractor by accepting its abnormally low offer, it added. NALCO is Asia’s largest integrated aluminium complex, encompassing bauxite mining, alumina refining, aluminium smelting and casting, power generation, rail and port operations.

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Thinking of a career change? 5 tips – NDTV