I returned to Germany from my India after 1.5 months of vacations in Dec,2019. During this vacation time, I traveled across :
NCR (Delhi, Gurgaon, Noida),Chandigarh,Agra,Jaipur,Bangalore andChennai.
At all of these cities, I met with professionals who are looking to make an international career.
Some of the key interactions were :
Chartered Accountants (Delhi, Noida) : Fresh CAs are being offered salary packages in the range of 35k-40k INR per month. I was shocked to hear that this is the value that the CAs are getting. While this might not be the candidate’s market, this is just pure exploitation of the professionals. Justifications for this salary level ranged from :
you are a fresher, so cant offer you more,
an MBA in Finance comes at a comparable salary or even lower,
there are others in the queue who will jump at the chance of this offer,
Rankholder CAs are not being hired as there are cheaper options available,
Hospitality students (Chandigarh) : The 40–50 students I interacted with told me their experiences of doing internships. They are in high demand during the peak season, as interns or part time jobs. But what they are paid is peanuts. This was in case, they got paid. In addition, they are looked down upon as servants rather than professionals in the industry. Their motivation was :
more professional culture,
respect and value of their services,
equal standing in the society,
Maternity leaves (Gurgaon and Bangalore) : I met 2 friends - a batch mate and an ex-colleague, who had taken maternity leave.
One had more than 8 years of experience before going on leave. After the leave, she is competing with the freshers, for roles way below her skills set, experience and knowledge,
The other had 7 years of work experience, worked in Netherlands for a global brand and came to India for maternity. Post 3 years of maternity leave in 2013, she got an offer from one of Big 4s equal to what we started our career at in 2007.
Kid’s quality of life (Bangalore, Chennai) : 3 professionals that I met with wanted to move for simple reason - future and quality of life for their kids. They were tired of being stuck in traffic, having to put in long office hours and not being able to spend quality time with kids.
one of them informed me yesterday that his JSV (for Germany) has been approved and he is through 2 level of interviews for a German company,
another is applying for the Canada PR process (the spouse is a business man, so it will mean a huge change in their persona life),
Professionalism (or lack thereof, all cities) : In all the cities, all the people I interacted with were amazed when I shared the details of the German working culture. For them, it was surprising that :
the reporting boss did not micro manage,
that one is treated as a mature professional capable of working independently.
that one could leave office once the work is done for the day,
that one did not usually need to work after office or on weekends,
that the boss did not call, mail or message you after office,that the office hours are usually 8–9 working hours,
that one is encouraged to take their annual vacations,
that the companies actually accommodate if you need to work 4–5hrs due to kid’s day care,
that the focus in office is work and not so much n gossip and politics (varies across different companies),
I actually got sarcastic laughs when I shared these details with them. It sounded to these professionals (average experience of 7–8 years) that I was talking to of some utopia rather than an actual country.
These professionals dont want to leave India, but the life that they get after all their sacrifices.
It always helps to have a mentor, who has worked and lived in Germany for some of the best brands. For personal consultation with Arun Mahajan, book a time with him.
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