Q: I have completed my postgraduation in commerce and worked in the field of accounts and taxation for about three years. At present, I am pursuing MBA (evening) from Jadavpur University and also pursuing a one-year full-time postgraduate diploma in HR and labour welfare. I have decided to take HR as my major paper but am still undecided about the minor subject. I have two options ? finance or systems. Which subject will complement HR? Is it true that a combination of HR and systems has an edge over HR and finance? I am very confused and in a dilemma. Please advise.
Name Withheld
A: The right combination will depend on the type of job you would be handling. A systems combination would come in handy if you are engaged in developing software for the HR service line in your organisation and a finance specialisation will come in handy if you are in the compensation and benefits stream. It would also depend on whether you would like to be in a line function or you would like to be a consultant. I would prefer a finance specialisation as it helps in the compensation and benefits stream and would also be of help if you were to be in a consulting organisation. But all this will really depend on you and what you prefer. I would say that you opt for a subject which you think you would like and be comfortable with, since both specialisations will help your career in one way or the other.
Q: I am 26 years old. I have two years? experience in sales and customer support. I am a BCom (honours) graduate and have a computer diploma from NIIT. At present, I am working with a premier website company as a search engine optimiser. I find this job very interesting. Could you please tell me about the prospects that are open in search engine optimisation? Will it be prudent for me to do an MBA simultaneously?
Avinash Singh,
Howrah
A: I am sure that your job is interesting, but I am afraid you will face a career ladder problem as the years pass by since this job is static and the job contents will not undergo any major change over the years. It would be prudent to go for an MBA although, you are already 26 and by the time you qualify, you would be 28 and somewhat old for entry into the corporate world. After qualifying, you would have to start as a fresher and will be competing with much younger people. But better late than never and I think you should take the plunge immediately.
Q: I am 34 years old and working as a purchase officer in a leading biscuit manufacturing company based in Guwahati. Initially, when I had joined this company in 1997, I was appointed as the senior supervisor, EDP. I am a BSc with economics, statistics and maths and hold an honours diploma in systems management from NIIT, Guwahati. Have I taken the right decision by shifting to inventory management without possessing any basic qualifications? I feel that it will not help me in my career growth. Therefore, I want to take a course in inventory management. Please let me know about some good institute where I can enrol for a course in the distance learning mode. Also, I am thinking of shifting to some other organisation as my present company?s financial health is not very sound. Should I take up a course in IT like Oracle & D2K as I am already acquainted with these tools and possess some working knowledge and then look for a new job in IT companies? I am in a fix. Please advise, taking into account the facts that I am married and have a child to support.
Banajit Phukan,
Guwahati
A: You have put yourself in a strange situation. I would say that your decision to shift to the purchase department was a wrong move as you basically do not intend to carry on in that field and would rather be employed in the IT function of an organisation. In the process of this change, you have lost two years. These years would have been valuable if you had been in the IT function itself. Now you have five years in the IT function and two years in the purchase function as experience.
Age is also not on your side for more experiments. I would suggest that you decide on the function you would like to base your career on and accordingly, do either an inventory management course or a course in Oracle.
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