When I met him last week for coffee, he told me he was not that happy with his work. "I sit on a computer and stare at spreadsheets till I can't wait to pull my hair out," he said coolly even as I nearly choked on my cuppa. Welcome to the real world. He had already applied to PricewaterhouseCoopers in an HR services role. A major in HR, he does not see himself as the quintessential "fin" (finance) guy and wants a change from his current profile, which, he says, makes him feel like he is slogging for an investment banking role without the perquisites.
How wrong he is! As an HR major, he should be thankful that he is getting to do "fin" at a reputed place. As any B-schooler will tell you, that's a godsend and my friend would be a fool not to capitalise on it. Let me explain.
Part of the admittedly forgettable experience of attending a B-school is learning about, and working around, the hierarchy of disciplines. Finance is number one, the preserve of the IITians who jam together in frenzied sessions involving derivatives and options. These haloed humans walk on a plane higher than the one reserved for the wretched hoi polloi, and this remarkable levitating feat ensures they go home with the fattest pay packets during the placement season.
The second rank goes to Marketing, Finance's glamorous, although less reputable, cousin - its association with that great bugbear, branding, is forever a matter of debate about its ethical heft. Then comes Systems, technical to the hilt and bland as an airport meal. Next is Operations, the working-class gofer who is needed to keep the trade running, but with whom one wouldn't be caught dead sharing the dinner table.
Then there is fifty tonnes of you-know-what. And then there is Human Resources, or HR. It's a truth seldom acknowledged, but frequently whispered, that HR is the black sheep of management. Corporations might spout right-sounding homilies and B-schools might adopt respectable-looking moves to incorporate HR in their curricula - why, we might even laud from the sidelines as HR adopts a status befitting its increasing importance in organisational operations - but the fact remains: if you are an HR graduate in a B-school, you are only second best.
HR roles at manufacturing set-ups are increasingly absent from profiles offered at B-school campuses. The flagship programme at XLRI, or Xavier's Labour Relations Institute, focuses on industrial relations. Notwithstanding the need for able HR professionals at hotspots such as Maruti's troublesome Manesar unit, there is an overall downtrend in the demand for plant HR professionals as India rapidly shifts to a services economy.
My friend knows this and wants to try his hand at corporate HR. Santrupt Misra, HR head of the Aditya Birla group, is an icon for many in the profession for having shone a light on the relevance of strategic HR initiatives in taking forward the group's mandate. Another inspirational figure is Infosys' Kris Gopalakrishnan, who has handled several leadership roles at the IT major besides HR. Both leaders have cultivated the HR pipeline as an integral part of the larger organisation function. Theirs is the ideal career progression for an HR professional, but it's not one that's guaranteed.
Besides, my friend is also looking to buy a house in Mumbai. Even 1 BHK flats - which have a bedroom, hall and a kitchen - on the Central Line touch Rs 60-70 lakh today. For that kind of money, no matter what help his parents provide, he is still staring at a home loan close to Rs 40 lakh, which roughly translates into an EMI of Rs 40,000.
And he is only 23. Plain crazy, I say. What if five years down the line he doesn't feel like doing the corporate rigmarole anymore and wants to hang his boots and go wildlife spotting? He would simply not be able to make an alternative life choice. Oh yes, he does have the option of getting rid of the flat and - this being Mumbai - pocketing a neat profit. But here's the thing. Buying a house is an insidious rite of passage that launches a slew of other, less reversible ones. Soon he will have a wife, then kids and, before he knows it, he will be 30 and homely and "settled".
But what do I know? If that's the choice he is looking to make, he had better pull himself together and think long-term. For someone who baulks at conventionalities, I hate to say this, but I know he will be much happier in a "fin" role than an HR one, however grim the situation looks to him right now.
The author has switched too many jobs in the past and hopes he can hold down this one