August 2, 1999

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By Namrata Joshi and Nandita Chowdhury

Ajay Pahuja, 26, switches off his mobile, swivels in his custom-made leather chair and checks the time on his diamond-studded Rolex. The conference call from one of his foreign clients lasted one and a half hours. At $250 an hour, that earned Rs 16,000 for the company he works for. There are at least six such calls every day -- all by foreign companies who want a piece of the current privatisation drives in sectors like power, telecommunications and entertainment. Pahuja, as a junior partner, gets Rs 50,000 a month (this is his second year on the job) besides a share of the company's profits. "Time was," he says, "when a lawyer like my father spent all his time in a crowded courtroom, eking out a living." He smiles, gestures around his plush wood-panelled office and says, "Today I get all this, a house and a car for sitting here and doing all my work. I don't even see the inside of a courtroom."

Welcome to the era of new jobs. Careers that make your wildest expectations come true. Careers that have opened up in areas you never even dreamt off. India Today spoke to leading head hunters, career counsellors and experts in various fields to figure out what the best jobs will be in the new millennium. "Jobs are mushrooming in all kinds of new areas and even conventional sectors are re-inventing themselves to create new niches," says K. Gopal, executive director of Omam Consultants, a leading head-hunting firm. Today, as never before, Generation-Xers are nudging the stereotype, preferring to work in areas their parents or grandparents could never have imagined. Their parents, in their lifetime, made a beeline for jobs that promised two things: steady money and job security. But the youth today have no such hang-ups. They're confident, savvy, hugely materialistic and tirelessly prowl for that better deal. "This generation is brought up on competition, they are go-getters," says Pervin Malhotra, a Delhi-based career counsellor.

One reason why so many new sectors are booming is the economic liberalisation. It was a magic wand that opened up the economy, introduced new areas of growth and spawned a host of career options. Of course, today that euphoria has been replaced by some good-fashioned pragmatism -- the trend in most companies is to be lean and mean. "Everybody is restructuring and that itself is redefining new jobs," says Sumer Datta of management consultancy Noble and Hewitt. Thus, aspirants must understand the new office trends.

Like outsourcing -- a new buzzword. Many companies now outsource important functions like marketing, sales, human resources, thus allowing niche companies that carry out these functions to thrive. Outsourcing has boosted the growth of entrepreneurship with scores of youngsters getting into assignment-based associations with companies. The other trend is specialisations where sectors like, say, finance have been broken down into sub-sectors like treasury, audit and accounts. But companies are not looking for people with just one skill: the name of the game is multi-skilling. "Companies want people who can handle diverse functions," says Dinesh Mirchandani of hrd consultancy Boyden. Lastly, remember that the key to any job in the new millennium is how comfortable you are with technology: everyone is looking for techno-savvy people.

DESIGN
Coming into its Own
Corporate India is waking up to design. For decades, design was something to be filched from across the seas -- the Swiss, the Italian or the Japanese models. No wonder then that a National Institute of Design (NID) graduate would either go into media, advertising or interior decoration. Today, design has become an essential part of the industry creating a bigger demand for professional designers than there is supply. "Every major industry is now displaying confidence in Indian designers," says Ravi Hazra, professor of product design and visual communications at the Industrial Design Centre, iit, Mumbai. The sector is estimated to be worth Rs 300 crore and the manpower requirement is projected to grow 20 per cent annually. Increasing consumer awareness in India and easy availability of designer goods from abroad have made it imperative for Indian designers to be innovative. "It has exposed them to quality and competition," says Hazra.

SURYA SAJNANI, 25
Bangalore
A science graduate who switched tracks to make a career in graphics design and now works with the Bangalore-based graphics design workshop, Ray and Kesavan Design. "Furthering a science career would have meant following the beaten track. Graphic design has more challenges," she says. Earns about Rs 8,000 a month.

ENTERTAINMENT
Medium Pace
The entertainment industry is expected to see a boom of about 15 per cent, much of which would revolve around TV. In this age of media hype and hoopla even an obscure cassette launch is becoming a professionally managed event. "Image building, communications and launches are in. So event management has become a sunrise industry," says Sabbas Joseph, director of Wizcraft, India's oldest event-management firm. Event management is estimated to be worth Rs 200 crore in the organised sector and almost double that in the unorganised sector. Headhunters say corporate houses are going to allocate 20-25 per cent of their budgets for such promotions and manpower requirement is expected to grow by 50 per cent in the next couple of years.

ARTI MANI, 26
Mumbai
A commerce graduate who works as a manager in Wizcraft's event cell. "Companies are spending more on image building," she says. Earns Rs 15,000 a month.

LAW
In Search of Legal Eagles
It's a profession that has traditionally been identified with courtroom battles. In the post-liberalisation world the options for lawyers have undergone a sea change. Corporate law has come to the forefront with the MNCs emerging as the major clients and non-litigation work is gaining ground. Lawyers are becoming an integral part of the core corporate team of any firm. "In-house counsels are getting recognition," says Sajai Singh, senior associate with Jyoti Sagar and Associates, Delhi's leading corporate law firm. There is also a growing demand for lawyers in intellectual property rights, patent law, trademarks and copyright. "As India signs new conventions and treaties, the law will get amended, new concerns and litigations will emerge. The demand for IPR specialists will grow," predicts Praveen Anand, senior partner in Delhi-based law firm, Anand and Anand. Both the areas are expected to see a 50-60% growth in manpower requirement.

HARDEEP SACHDEVA, 26
Delhi
An economics graduate, Sachdeva went on to study law. He is now an associate with the Delhi-based corporate law firm, Ajay Bahl and Co. He specialises in handling contracts for MNCs. "The idea is to handle the contracts so well that the question of litigation never arises," he says. He earns about Rs 30,000 a month.

MEDICINE
Doctor Pentium
Diseases will be there in the next millennium but the way we treat them will be different," says Dr Naresh Trehan, chief of Escorts Heart Centre and Research Institute. With technology transforming the practice of medicine, the field is in the midst of a mini-revolution. The training is getting upgraded and more and more specialised fields are emerging. "it is transforming medicine and those resistant to this change will get marginalised," predicts Trehan.

In six years since 1993-94, the total worth of the pharmaceuticals and healthcare sector had more than doubled to Rs 46,802.86 crore in 1997-98. Doctors will continue to be needed in all the basic areas of medical practice. It's their functional environment which will change. For example, Trehan predicts that in the next 10 years 30 per cent of the surgeries will be robot-assisted. Similarly, telemedicine will enable doctors to treat patients long-distance. Gene therapy is expected to become integral to diagnosis and treatment. The one to benefit most from these advances will be the patients.

DR SHARAD TANDON, 31
Delhi
Tandon is a cardiologist at the Escorts Hospital who specialises in cutting edge frontiers of medicine like telemedicine, echocardiography and gene therapy. "These are the new research and diagnostic tools which will define treatment in the future," he says. Tandon earns about Rs 25,000 a month.

ADVERTISING
A New Course
It is crucial for corporates to have a well-planned advertising campaign. So media planning and buying are the hot jobs in the field. "Media itself is a very specialised area. Now the focused functions within it are becoming crucial," says Anita Nair, media director, Ammiratti Puris Lintas. While most advertising agencies have media-buying divisions, they are now deputing work to specialist firms which can add value in terms of better insights into business, providing packaged services and also wrangle a bargain because they handle large volumes. Since 1990-91, the capitalised billings of the advertising industry increased four-fold to Rs 28,460.69 crore in 1997-98.

With a surge of foreign brands has come the need to sell them innovatively. Retailing is catching on with the entry of big players like the Piramals and the RPG Group. By 2005 organised retailing is expected to become worth Rs 160,000 crore. The thrust on packaging, presentation and display has meant that visual merchandising and exhibition design is also getting a push.

P.K. DEEPA LAXMI, 26
Mumbai
After studying pharmacy, took up media buying. Works with Carat India. "The learning curve is sharp," she says of her job. Earns about Rs 15,000 a month.

INFOTECH/TELECOM
Tomorrow's Career
The new millennium will be the information technology (IT) millennium," declares Dewang Mehta, president of NASSCOM. That's because IT touches each and every profession. If you're a doctor or if you're a designer, IT is something that you will have to learn. In the past five years, the turnover of listed IT companies increased more than three times to Rs 32,619 crore for 1997-98. Headhunters expect the manpower requirement in the sector to double in the next five years. According to NASSCOM estimates there are about 2 lakh software professionals in the industry and it can absorb about 55,000 additional professionals every year. The emerging area is IT-enabled services, better known as remote processing. According to NASSCOM estimates, more than 25,000 people are currently employed in IT-enabled services and are generating close to Rs 1,000 crore in revenues. By 2008 this area is tipped to generate more than a million jobs and Rs 81,000 crore in revenues. The other area of growth is e-commerce. A 1998 KPMG Peat Marwick Electronic Survey states that in 1996 the worldwide Internet commerce revenues were almost nil and by 1998 it had touched $50 billion. It is expected to hit $200 billion next year and will touch $300 billion in the next two years. Headhunters say that in India in the next five years, 30-40 per cent of the total business will be conducted on the Net.

REYNOLD D'SILVA AND VERNON FARIYAS, BOTH 25
Mumbai
A hotel management graduate and an MBA in finance, the duo run a web design hot-shop called I-Magic. Both make about Rs 20,000 a month.

FASHION
Catwalk to Success
More and more Indians are becoming fashion conscious. With models and beauty queens becoming icons for the youth, fashion is a thriving sector. According to CMIE estimates, the textile and gems and jewellery sector had a sales turnover of Rs 44726.5 crore in the organised sector in 1997-98. The fashion industry itself is estimated to be worth Rs 200 crore. Headhunters expect to see a 10-20 per cent upswing in manpower requirement in the next five years.

The biggest influence on the sector has been the influx of MNCs and free market policies. Designers now have to keep pace not just with the local and domestic trends but global ones as well.

Free availability of foreign brands has led to a greater consumer awareness and emphasis on quality products. Fashion is no longer just dress designing and modelling but also about the right packaging and presentation. This, in turn, has augmented the job scenario, throwing open many new opportunities, like quality control managers, export managers and retail merchandisers. As in every other field, it too has had an impact on fashion. "We have to teach designers about computer-aided designs (CAD) and e-commerce, otherwise we will lose out in the global market," says C.V. Saptharishi, executive director, NIFT.

DEEPA VERMA, 23
Delhi
She was studying journalism but switched to professional make-up. "The job is well-paying and glamorous. It has helped me in taking charge of myself," she says. Verma earns approximately Rs 7,000 per face and wants to start a training institute.

FINANCE
Looking Up Once Again Though the finance sector has been affected badly by the economic slowdown and the recession, things are expected to turn for the better in a couple of years. "Now on, we will either see corporate performance perking up or a serious shakeout," says V. Raghunathan, professor of finance and accounting, Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. Raghunathan points out that investors are becoming more aware about corporate governance and that corporates are under pressure to conform to international accountancy norms. This would determine the employment opportunities in the area of financial management. The turnover of the banking and finance sector touched Rs 1,37,592 crore in 1997-98. The hot-track jobs are expected to see about 40,000 vacancies within the next five years.

AJAY YADAV, 28
Mumbai
He graduated from IIM (A) in 1994 with a degree in business strategy and finance. Now working with Lazard Credit and Capital as senior manager, mergers and acquisitions. "I want to influence key business decisions and help industries and companies be more competent and competitive," he says. Company policy doesn't allow him to disclose his salary.

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