Reviving the blog -

I started this blog  on 29-Sept-2008, but it  is  dormant since my last post on 9-Sept-2013.

I was in Tokyo in 2008, and was considering career switch from Oracle Database Administrator to "something else". That "something else" was not very clear.  I was courting "HR" in various ways. Hence I titled this blog as "HR-Universe".

I blogged with more or less enthusiasm. Postings were sporadic.  Possibly due to "transition phase", plus I wasn't having much content to write that will fit for heading "HR-universe".

Later I could get admission to the executive FPM (It trains one to do research and qualifies  for entry position in higher education) at XLRI - India's  best known b-school.  It was like dream come true moment in 2009.

I developed keen interest in the organization behavior during my coursework - the way people behave in workplace, in groups/teams, as leaders, and in organizations. I fully enjoyed this journey.

Mean-while I returned to India in 2011 after deadly tsunami. I wasn't directly affected by tsunami at all, but it triggered "back-to-home" decision.

After settling back, I started hunting for academic job and could find a position at IBS Business school, Pune.  Selection was through demo lecture, followed by couple of interviews. In demo lecture I spoke on "Job Crafting", pretty new area at that time.

Over roughly last three and half years, I  taught organization behavior and human resource management at IBS. My hands-on experience in writing business plans at JMEC, helped me to work on developing entrepreneurship cell and facilitate entrepreneurship as elective course.  But more than "teaching" I was "learning" as a teacher, and as  OB student.

I learned mostly from students. IBS students always surprised me. They stretched my abilities as "faculty".  Their behavior, abilities pushed me to challenge some of assumptions about learning/teaching. I also learned from other faculties, from IBS as Institute, from its well proven, fine tuned  processes and culture.

I experienced "OB" and "HR" theories in practice at IBS!

Reflecting on these experience may help in learning!

I intend to write some of my experiences as a career switch to academia, as a doctoral student in OB area at XLRI, and as a faculty at IBS. It is more of my reflection on my learning journey. Stay tuned.

Do write in comments for your suggestions/feedback.  

     Image source: http://learninginhand.com/blog/2013/7/5/roll-reflect-with-qr-codes

How people set their Salary Expectations ?

(Image Source: Wikimedia)

How do people set their Salary expectations?

Particularly the one who are returning to job-market after a break, returning from other country or switching careers.

For instance when I returned from Japan, and was looking forward to my career shift, I asked. Many were tight-lipped. Even friends won’t share the details. And you will find them very diplomatic like “it depends”.

So when one more colleague is planning to return from Japan and mentioned he is expecting a salary of 20 Laks per annum as Project Manager in  IT firm.

I just explored casually (not some serious research though) …

One friend, who is senior architect in one of the leading software firm, & based in Pune mentioned a thumb rule at his work-place. 

We normally stick with 1.5 times experience. If he has 10 years of experience, reasonable expectation is 14 to 15 Laks per annum. And further this is moderated by skill-set, technology, certifications, kind of organizations, projects that one worked with and need of resource at that point of time.

Just couple of days back, I was talking to another friend. She was with consulting firm, and then resigned for some continuing education (not really increasing her marketability in corporate world). She mentioned that she is expecting a salary of 18 Laks per annum. I was little surprised and asked source of this figure.  Her argument...

Typically MBA receives the average salary around 7 Laks per annum. She has around 14 years of post-MBA experience.  So she added one Laks per year of experience and discounted for the two years of break.

Both the responses forced me to think.

Though there are salary surveys, ( here too ), user-forums, and reports on compensation trends, they don't really answer such special cases. 

More-over, these answers clearly underlined the entitlement philosophy of compensation, so for every year worked ,pay-raises are kind of expected.

Any thoughts or comments ? 

Image Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Smartcard2.png 

Sleepy students and early morning class !

Today morning when I met first year student in lift, she was not active as one should be.

I casually asked, so do you have class now?

And she cribbed - yes, this morning 0900 class is bad. And it was not good, even when it was at 0930 last term. We normally jump to conclusion that oh they spend night in futile stuff like movie, Facebook, mobiles, parties and crib in morning.

But still it made me think!

I have normally morning class once a week and I can sense they are drowsy, sleepy and not that alert in the class. They keep up popping in the class even after scheduled time. What I found (thanks to Google) is that ‘darkness hormone’ melatonin is the cause behind it.  The level of melatonin reaches high earlier as people get older. Thus for your faculty who is in his late 40’s or 50’s (or more!) this melatonin begins its effect at 10 pm, while for students – who are not so aged, the same melatonin shows its effect at 1 am.

Moreover when you keep your mobile at fingertips, browse Facebook, pumps up caffeine this further disturbs your sleep cycle at night. 

Irrespective of hormone or behavior, lack of sleep surely leads your behavior to moody, impulsive, and you show  poor performance in academics. I am proponent of  early morning routine and myself trying to go back to it with New Year resolutions round the corner. I hope students also should learn to strike a balance in their night-activities and morning-routines. Here are some useful tips to start with. 

I too try my morning classes to be more participatory and action packed , rather than mere lectures !

Your thoughts, suggestions and comments are welcome. 

Image source: http://www.com.cuhk.edu.hk/varsity/0401/Periscope/school05.jpg