Thursday, January 14, 2010

Potential Hot jobs in India in 2010!

Continuing my series of posts on how 2010 could be different, related to industries to watch in India, sentiments regarding salaries, and the possible motivation to change jobs, I attempt to list out some of the possible opportunities that would be in vogue during the near future.


1. With the increasing globalisation of management teams in Indian corporations, and more interest of MNCs in the Indian domestic consumption story, there is a demand for senior executives-with a strong "India" flavour and international experience -apart from the ability and experience of managing scale, complexity and geographical diversity apart from bringing global best practices to the table.


2. Given the economy, the constantly-changing consumer and marketplace, employers are and will remain reluctant to hire regular employees as enthusiastically as before. There will be hiring, but primarily for critical positions and to protect intellectual property. One can see increasingly companies sticking to their core competency, having shed off 'not so aligned' businesses in the recent slowdown.

3. Specialists would be in demand more than ever!!

IT industry

While I would personally rate 'Cloud computing' and ' ecommerce applications' as the drivers, here is a recent blog post that summarises the trends in the IT industry :

-employers focus not so much on filling jobs but on acquisition of critical IT skill specializations.The skills sets in demand will be technical but also heavily business- and consumer-focused, with many industry- and situation-specific flavors.

-one can see many options for filling critical skill gaps — from the inside (hiring, training); from the outside (contractors, consultants); “renting” via outsourcing and off shoring; or “giving over” by purchasing any number of managed services, which is a market building momentum fast.

-Related in-demand skills and clusters :information security; open source OS; Microsoft Commerce Server; Java; SOAP; Python, Microsoft Share point; SQL; Sybase Adaptive Server; business intelligence; business process improvement; architecting; and a variety of IP networking areas, including VPN, Metro Ethernet, and IP telephony.

Non IT industry

My gut feel here is that we will see a lot more specialists jobs emerging in this sector, emerging from the most challenging tasks for different growth stages in the life cycle of development.

-There would be a huge premium for those with 'collaborative' skills, as companies are banking on strategic alliances and partnerships -rather than build capacity from scratch! The IT, Telecom, Pharma and Auto industries already boast of benchmarks, and it is only a matter of time others follow.

-Hiring too is becoming increasingly strategic, with senior management on board- and outsourcing middle and lower management positions to get economies of scale and speed.

My bets would be on the following professionals with skills related to:

1. Land Acquisition : With thousands of crores of infrastructure projects on the anvil, it would all boil down to the ability of any company to tackle the issues related, ie Legal formalities, Local liaisoning, dealing with Government Authorities. In a country where land is owned by a large number of marginal owners, the grandest of the plans can remain just that!!

2. Carbon credit specialists: Notwithstanding the Copenhagen chaos, there is a lot of potential here waiting to be tapped. Those conversant with facilitating Verification and Certification of CDM Projects, following up and coordinating with the buyers and other line institutions for realizing payments. The crux is coordination with internal departments, consultants, regulatory bodies, carbon credit buyers and work in close cooperation with other disciplines.

3. Social Media Marketing experts : To use a cliche, geography is history!! With the entire world now becoming a market for every manufacturer and service provider, it is increasingly imperative to have a virtual presence and be omnipresent! Isn't just about increasing awareness, but engaging the prospects and converting at a rate much higher than before. Companies that get on to the bandwagon first-to combine internet marketing and content creation in general, would stand to benefit. Social Media, blogosphere, updated social networks, SEO, SMO, PPC, managing communities will the buzzwords!

4. Fund raising experts: With increasing uncertainty, and multitude of projects that chase limited capital in a cautious investment climate, the financial wizards who can conjure up innovative instruments will be the ones to watch. And more so, in the aftermath of the financial excesses, and the glare of corporate governance, the challenges arent exactly enticing!

I shall be glad to be hear from you with your predictions!

2 comments:

Dhruv Shenoy said...

Would you consider entrepreneurship as a hot job?

AK Menon said...

Dhruv

That's an interesting query!!

As per the dictionary, an entrepreneur is "a person who organizes and manages any enterprise, esp. a business, usually with considerable initiative and risk."

In the day to day parlance too, most clients of mine do refer to wanting ideal job aspirants to be 'taking ownership' and be 'entrepreneurial' too!!

Considering that 'lifetime'jobs are just a myth these days,I would like to believe that not taking risks is in itself a bigger risk:-)!

Hence I reckon entrepreneurship as an bouquet of hot jobs!! Cheers