Wake up (from) Sid!

Siddharth – or Sid as he is liked to be called now-a-days is the first baby of our family (I know he will hate this description but can’t help!) – He is my elder sister’s elder son who is about to complete his engineering degree. Last month I traveled to Bangalore for some work. Coincidently, Sid was doing his internship with one of the leading multinational IT companies based in Bangalore. As I had some time on hand, I decided to catch up with him for lunch. I must admit that I always have to remind myself that Sid is now a grown up young man and I have to treat him that way….

“So how is your project going on Sid?” “Cool!” – this is one word, I guess, I will never fully comprehend. Sensing my confusion he was kind enough to offer a few more words “Well, they can actually give me a pre-placement offer based on my work which could be anyway between 6 – 9 lacs”. “Wow! That’s nice” I really felt proud “But at least I know that I do not want to do a career in IT Services Company”. That was interesting …. Having grown in the IT industry for almost my entire professional life, I was curious. Well, though I am distinctly aware that it is no longer the ONLY sought of industry, as it used to be some years back, I still wanted to know his thought process.

“You know, I would like to work on some product where I get some feedback from end-users. It really does not matter what products I work on. For example, right now I have developed an Application with my developer license and I have about 800 downloads in first few days. Some of them have criticized it – but I am kind of enjoying it. I see lot of people around me in the company who wait for week-end for their enjoyment and talk about work-life balance. I want to work in a way where I enjoy my work and not wait for week-end to live my life” …. I was listening almost in awe and almost felt jealous of the clarity he had at the age of 20. “So, what are the plans Sid?” “Well, I need to figure out the right course for post-graduation that will give me some chance for research. Till I get that I will perhaps work in industry for a year or so rather than sitting idle. I don’t mind working in a small boutique firm which employs people to develop some Apps”

Generally, with my HR profession I break into career counseling mode very easily but I could see that he needed no such help. There was not a hint of any anxiety about the campus placement or the “multinational brand” to work with. His ideas were clear and more importantly he was rational in his thinking than being just dreaming about it.

Lot is talked about the changes that will affect the future of the work. If one has to go by the young man in front of me, I guess the younger lot will be more and more aware about their needs rather than anxious to prove their worth to the world ….. With the world getting connected with technology, individuals with ideas will be comfortable working as collaborative force rather than cog in the wheel of some bureaucratic system …. The way we engage with each other at work place could change dramatically …. The focus will no longer be on the lowest layer of Maslow’s Hierarchy – the physical needs defined by ‘assignment abroad’, ‘campus salary’ ….. May be the younger lot will be more interested in living life on their own terms …. If we don’t align our management structures or practices to accommodate these changes, we will be irrelevant!

It was a sort of wake-up call from Sid! I almost resisted asking him “What do you think I should be doing?” ………