How to enjoy a job in the Asian subcontinent? "Expats and NRIs turning desi".

Congratulations on your new job and home coming to India!

Welcome back. Times have changed and the economic landscape of India has shifted since the first few years in the 90s. Culture and lifestyle would influence your stay with your family in India to a greatest extent.

Over the last two decades Indians settled abroad, initiated Bollywood clubs, celebrated Dussera with Dandiya concerts and engaged in conducting Carnatic music and yoga classes as an aftermath of Brain Drain. Now, we have already started to experience the after effects of reverse brain drain. Gated communities, international schools, mall culture and celebration of mother’s day  are some trends that Indians imported to their country with years of international exposure. Having identified these traces, is it enough for you to pack your bags and move back to India? Is it as simple as it was when you went to a foreign country to establish your career? The answer may be no.

You may face some shocking, interesting and annoying instances, which could be joyous, funny and adventurous with a little bit of acceptance.

You should factor traffic time and not travel time. Leave early to work. You should be doing this because it gives a chance to beat the traffic. Traffic jams could be painful at times but with technology it becomes the most productive time slot. Use the traffic time to answer quick emails and cuddle your iPad or Kindle breezing through fantasies, news updates and self help tips.

Do you find Starbucks? Do you want to schedule a meeting in a coffee shop. Indians call this  CCD which is the acronym of Cafe Coffee Day. A popular and successful chain of coffee shops mushroomed across cities, towns and highways in India.

Did you hear someone say “I have to be at work on a Saturday”? Yes, a reasonable number of private and government offices are open and fully functional on Saturdays too. Don’t be surprised if a client, vendor or associate schedules a meeting on a Saturday.

Domestic help and assistance is a must. Don’t hesitate to hire domestic helpers, cooks and drivers. Indian employment has a vast spread. People make a great living out of these professions and you receive assistance for a smooth lifestyle.

India is colourful. Your HR manager or boss will send a list of holidays spread across the year. People celebrate many festivals all round the year in smaller bits than relaxing over longer vacations. Be prepared for holidays in bits and pieces.

Larger families and their involvement in your job. Though you have been used to small and nuclear families, be prepared to meet a lot of people over weekends. Companies have also recognized this cultural strand and have designed events for employees which involve their families too. Companies encourage involvement of employee families. You will find the same at your child’s school.

There are a lot more to share, but we do not want to give it all away. An element of surprise adds more excitement and thrill all through your move and stay. This exercise of understanding the cultural shift would have preceded with career planning and evolution. Having been a part of such phase, you may enjoy learning What stops people from changing careers and the recruiter’s role?

Opportunity to share one’s learning as a ‘Returning Indian’

We spotted an Opportunity that feels more like your heart’s calling. Especially to those who intended to return to India, bring back their years of lessons and share a slice of global exposure to the next generation. Here is how it reads...

Job Title: Passion combined with years of earned wisdom.

Job Description: We invite brave youngsters who stepped outside India few decades ago and have grown into wise men and women. Are you one of them? If you are, we invite you to bring back insights gained over your stint at different organizations. Here is an opportunity to stay in your own country and serve it in a noble way. We invite you to share our campus, grow with us and make a difference for our nation. We welcome you.

Share your skills and knowledge in your field of expertise. Your job involves responsibilities like:

• Shaping your country’s future citizens with relevant and up-to-date industry experience.
• Making the best into better beings
• Introducing discipline for perfection
• Adding hope to the future of nation
• Listening to virgin thoughts from youngsters
• Mastering the art of re-learning
• Mentoring dispassionately

Does this drive you to guess the job? If you were unable to guess it, but have been inspired to take up this job, then the description has achieved its objective. If you have guessed that this is something to do with teaching, then you already have it in you.

We will connect you to this institution, which is opening doors for three streams of education viz, Engineering, Management and Science. The institution is a vision being realized by a renowned company in India and is looking for faculty in these areas and for quality PhD candidates with teaching and/or industry experience. They are offering accommodation on campus with basic amenities. The campus holds a strong student base with CBSE background.

Feel free to know more about this opportunity [email protected] or share with someone who is looking for a platform like this.

Employment is an agenda of every political party. What about EMPLOYABILITY?

Amidst the political chaos in India, citizens won’t miss to hear about employment in the agenda of political manifesto. Here is a word that political parties could use which may excite both recruiters and job seekers. More than employment, the long term need is employability that needs to be added to the agenda. Each candidate hired needs to add value to a company’s growth.

In 2013, ASSOCHAM had proposed inclusion of employability in the manifestos of political parties. This received attention from the Rajasthan State government which further worked towards introducing skill development programs and entrepreneurship education. It create a great turnover which should be stated as an example to the nation.

Why is this the need of the hour?

With fast changing technology, immediate entrance of Gen Z  and increase in restructuring of workforce; employability is the most alarming subject to be attended to.

Obsolete workforce: Obsolescence of workforce is an issue, discussed extensively, since the inception of the concept workforce productivity. Problem of obsolescence still persists with higher rate of change in technology and the higher rate of adaptability required by the existing workforce in learning and implementing the ever changing technology. Though workforce has moved towards increasing their learning curve, it is not proactive enough to seek the desired results. For instance, people in occupations like teaching, accounting, marketing and so on.  This is seen right from freshers to employees who need to adopt and apply them at work.

Gen Z round the corner: It is not just business organizations but also, political parties who are looking upto adding Gen Z into their target audience. Gen Z is promising pocket of audience both as customers and voters. Such importance is again largely connected to how tech savvy recruiters are and what political parties understand about the needs of Gen Z. Business organizations have to answer if they are ready for Gen Z before harping about employability. Political parties on the other hand, need to study if their agenda is strong enough to conduct inclusive activity with the next generation citizens to improve employability. Gen Z come with a DNA to adapt quickly to the changing trends with bigger learning curves. This needs to be capitalized. Value addition of this ilk in the roles of customers, employees and voters depends upon their employability skills.

Increasing restructuring: Here is another reason why, employability is most required. With many public limited companies in India making headlines for generating pink slips and introducing voluntary resignation schemes, it definitely calls for some thinking. Have the employees contributed enough for companies to grow and have the companies motivated and provided enough direction for their employees to showcase intrapreneurship. Increasing restructuring answers these questions.

These trends reinstate the focus required by business and political ecosystem, towards raising the degree of skill and emancipating unskilled literate rate through better employability. It is not just about better adaptability and learning curves but is about inculcating entrepreneurial thinking by stepping out of a mere employee role. This not only helps the employer in gaining profits but also enhances and build an employee’s personal wealth by creating the ability to create more employment.

How about ‘Relocating’ to India? Am I making the right decision?

Relocating to India may be an exciting thought to many of you who have been away from your extended family and home country. With promising headlines heralded over the news, it may seem all the more promising to make that move now. However, this decision does not just involve your impulsive mood but other factors which need to be a part of your decision making process.

The Options Executive Search (OES) team has identified a few key areas which need to be evaluated before making that international move.

Purpose of movement

That moment, when returning trends and moves made by peers, meet your impulse, you would experience a surge to discover job opportunities in India and migrate back to your home country. But then, pause for a moment. Is this an impulsive decision or do you really want to migrate?

We have recognized that such decisions are either driven by rational or emotional stimuli. Neither of them promise anything as long as they are made into logical and thought through decisions. This requires you to assess the context of ‘what is in it for you?’ of moving back to India.

Here is a chart that provides a list of crucial factors that need to be weighed while you decide upon moving back. Ensure that you include the needs of your family, career and your Self while making this move.

Indian context has changed drastically over the years and you may be astonished to know more than what you have read in the newspaper and rss feeds when you hear it from someone who is actually living in India.

Changing Indian landscape

Lifestyle and living: You need to be prepared to face the shift in lifestyle. Irrespective of world class healthcare and increased access to international education standards, you need to create a world of your own that is closest in resemblance to your current lifestyle. Locality of your residence, schooling, housing and medical facilities are some aspects that need to be discussed with your family. While you are at work, your family will experience and will have to interact the most with this part of the environment.

Culture: Many years of acceptance to the western style of living and thinking may create trouble when you have to settle back in India. Dressing, festival, societal norms are way different from what you had all these years. Traffic and neighborhood culture could be appealing or shocking in this land of extremities.

While you settle down with the Indian lifestyle and culture, you need to orient yourself to the tax structure, social security schemes and investment avenues. Most of all, we will throw some light on the salary structuring and income considerations as per Indian standards.

The Indian Income Tax Act, classifies income being sourced from salaries, house property, business profits and gains, capital gains and income from other sources. The flowchart below sourced from Overseas Indian Facilitation Center (OIFC) provides a snapshot of how salary is structured in India.

Having lived in a foreign country for many years and having climbed up the arduous career ladder, you will be waiting for that winning moment to settle back in your homeland. To evaluate how smart or not this plunge is you can get in touch with Mr.Achyut Menon at <Clarity.fm> and discuss further about your professional career building opportunities and the road ahead.