News on the Pharma sector

Driven by high growth witnessed by chronic therapies — anti-diabetics, cardiovascular, vitamin and neutraceuticals, dermatological and to some extent anti-malaria drugs — the domestic drug market continued to grow at a healthy 15.6% in July. For the 12-month period ended July, the Indian drug market grew at a robust 17% to touch R66,357 crore, according to pharma market research firm Aiocd Awacs.

“From a therapy perspective, chronic therapies have done continued to do well for the month of July, with anti-diabetic (29.7%), cardiac (21.5%). The vitamins and nutrients market, neuro drugs and derma segment have clocked over 18% for the month, while the anti-malaria market for the month registered a fast growth of 30%,” said Hari Natarajan, head, pharmaTrac, Aiocd Awacs. He said companies with a strong chronic drug portfolio have expectedly experienced high growth for the month of June. In contrast, anti-infectives have grown by 8% in the month.
Sun Pharma, one such company with a heavy tilt towards chronic therapies vis-à-vis acute therapies — prone to seasonal fluctuations — has grown 27% in July. 

Are you suffering from Affluenza

Wikipedia has this definition of Affluenza 
Affluenza, from affluence and influenza, is a term used by critics of consumerism. Sources define it as follows:

affluenza, n. a painful, contagious, socially transmitted condition of overload, debt, anxiety and waste resulting from the dogged pursuit of more.

affluenza, n. 1. The bloated, sluggish and unfulfilled feeling that results from efforts to keep up with the Joneses. 2. An epidemic of stress,overwork, waste and indebtedness caused by the pursuit of the American Dream. 3. An unsustainable addiction to economic growth.

Proponents of the term consider that the prizing of endless increases in material wealth may lead to feelings of worthlessness and dissatisfaction rather than experiences of a 'better life', and that these symptoms may be usefully captured with the metaphor of a disease.

Oliver James the writer of the book "Affluenza" describes it as:

an obsessive, envious, keeping-up-with-the-Joneses - that has resulted in huge increases in depression and anxiety among millions. 

His book has some interesting points which give us a picture of the bane we are facing around the world where we are expected to perform in our workplaces and become what is perceived as successful by the world at large. Being perceived as successful becomes so important to us that we start to neglect a lot of things which could actually make us happy, like staying home with our kids, or painting or travelling the world, and creates untold stress in both us individually and in the society. He gives examples of highly developed societies with gender equality to a great extent (like Denmark) where women are forced to leave their kids home and go to work because they are expected to. That is what fulfills them. This he argues, is a wrong notion of fulfillment on the one hand, and on the other, women are over stressed because they end up doing everything in the house and out. His solution is that dads take more time out and devote it to their kids. Only if mums and dads share the burden of childcare, will the working solution be also a happy one. He also advocates being happy with what one has and not aspire to more, as "more" never quite ends. He also warns of having our kids pushed into schools and day care centers too early, something which most of us, including myself, have no choice about.

Another book about this subject is Affluenza: When Too Much is Never Enough is a 2005 book by Professor Clive Hamilton and Richard Denniss. According to them most Western society is addicted to over consumption and it is costing them their relationships, happiness and health. Lifestyle diseases are an inevitable outcome of this.

So how do you know if you have Affluenza? Here are some questions which Oliver James poses in his book. If you answer "Always" to any of these you are highly affected.

• Recently, have you felt so down that no amount of anything made you feel more chipper?
• Have you felt irrationally worried about things?
• Recently have you been so irritable or jumpy that feeling relaxed is impossible?
• Recently have you felt pathetic or useless or incompetent?
• Is living your normal life exhausting?
• Have you recently cursed yourself for being stupid, fat or lazy?

Book Review: Camilla Lackberg- A study of Gender equality and paternity leave in her thrillers

Camilla Lackberg is the best selling Swedish author specializing in crime fiction. The specialty of her books are that all the books are in sequence. The characters develop over the years and over her books. Not all her books are available in English and even less in India at present, but hopefully that will change, for finally, after Agatha Christie, I find myself loving a series in this genre again!
How is this series different from most other Scandinavian crime writing? Say for eg, Stieg Larsson? Lackberg, like Christie, uses domestic settings for her crimes, friends and neighbours, local police, local detectives, the snoopy neighbour who provides clues. Even when she goes beyond the immediately domestic, say, in :The Hidden Child" where she deals with the Nazi threat on Sweden in the 1930-s and 40-s, it is still rooted in the characters surrounding the locality.
The books available in India are- The Ice Princess, The Preacher, The Stone Cutter, The Stranger, The Hidden Child. (The Drowning has not yet come to India)
The protagonist is Erica Falck, a writer by profession, who moves to her native Fjallbacka in the first book where her childhood friend is found dead in typically horrifying conditions, frozen in the cold in her own bathtub with her wrists slashed. Here we see Christie once again, the blood spilled red on the pristine white bathroom floor, the ice in the bathtub and the particularly beautiful murdered young woman. Erica gets involved involuntarily in this investigation and with the investigator, Patrik Hedstrom. Of course I had started with a later book, and by then Erica and Patrik are already married. By "The Preacher" Erica is pregnant, and in Hidden Child she is married to Patrik and pregnant for the second time while Maja, her daughter is one year old.
I could go on about how great her books are and how well her characters have developed over the series, but this is not the platform for that. What I did want to discuss here are the practices used in the workplace in Sweden as becomes quite obvious in the books. Erica is a writer of course and writers are the same lot in any country. A statement made in The Ice Princess says- writers are not a well paid lot, and Im sure lots of writers around the world will agree with that.

But what becomes stark in the books is the practice of paternity leave. Sweden has the practice of giving fathers 60 days off specifically, and 480 days off per child, which can be shared between father and mother. Here is what the Baby Project blog http://www.npr.org/blogs/babyproject/2011/08/09/139121410/parental-leave-the-swedes-are-the-most-generous has to say about paternity leave and about Swedish practices in particular:

In the U.S., federal law allows men and women to take three months. Some work places will allow for more, unpaid. But the law doesn't mandate that companies pay anyone time to spend with their babies — and many people simply can't afford to take time off... Of course, the time allotted varies country to country. Some places, like the United Arab Emirates and Tunisia, give new moms 45 days or fewer.As NPR's Phil Reeves reports tonight on All Things Considered, Sweden has some of the most generous parental leave laws in the world — and the government not only considers the mother, but also the father.

Parents are allocated a total of 480 days per child, which they can take any time until the child is 8 years old. They can share these days, although 60 are allocated specifically to the father. And they are entitled to receive 80 percent of their wages, although this is capped at a certain level.

Paternity leave around the world is harder to chart than maternity leave. In some cases, fathers can tap into the same benefits that mothers get. In other cases — such as Sweden, Norway and Iceland — they have time specifically dedicated to them. Yet in many countries, fathers don't have any time allotted to them at all. A few examples of paternity policies are listed by the International Labour Organization (see page 46).

In Sweden, Reeves reports that dads seem happy. He spoke to men who say the law has really helped them bond with their kids... Still, Swedish men still tend to be better paid than women; this means the family loses more income if fathers take the leave. This helps explain why, according to Swedish government figures, women still take 75 percent of the allocation.

The bit about paternity leave in Sweden rings true in the books. Patrik takes his paternity leave and though he is pulled to work by interest, he is repeatedly told by his colleagues that he should not be coming in and he should use the time to bond with his daughter. 
This is the time when even Erica gets back to her writing having spent a year taking care of the baby. Gender equality glares me in the face, especially due to the lack of it in India. India of course has 3 months paid maternity leave and no paternity leave. In fact, even now, fathers are not expected to be equal in child rearing. Their role is quite limited to taking kids out on weekends and paying for the tuition. (Though I have a colleague who devotes half the day to his sons, and has become an equal partner in spending time with his kids, very few men can even afford to do that, even if they wish.) If the mom has to devote her time to rearing the kids, the dad automatically becomes the bread winner, and his responsibilities ensure that he cannot take time off. It is too risky. However dads do know how to change diapers nowadays (the dad of my daughter does not, his excuse is that I do a great job anyway, so why try to fix something that is not broken) and would willingly take over part of child rearing. Times are changing in many families, and dads would love to have an equal opportunity in seeing their babies grow, be there to watch them take their first step and say their first word, even if it is MAMA!

Gender equality and the difference in the generational attitude towards it is also evident in the mystery series. And these are things you wont find in statistical anlyses. The older generation thinks some jobs are meant for men- in the church, for example, or in the police force. This is reiterated in many places. However our generation (or Erica and Patrik's generation- they are 35) think differently and women do join everywhere and do a good job of course. The Ice Princess also describes how the woman preacher does a much better job in holding the attention of a non believer by her positive sermon, than the older male preacher who scared the religion out of the child Erica, by his account of hell fire. In Hidden Child a lady police officer has joined the tiny Tanumshede police station, and she is gay, to boot. The much older, previous generation head of the station is initially against a woman on the police force but changes his mind in the course of the book. And the way he handles the gay situation is commendable and shows a real development in the character at this point in the series. 

However, on the negative side of society, the Neo Nazi movement is touched upon, and shows how foreigners are targeted by these groups and the threats posed to them in the workplace. This is probably the case in most countries where underground extremist groups target another group of people. India itself is full of extremist groups targeting "difference"- in caste, religion or language. Shiv Sena in Maharashtra, which recently targeted Biharis and other North Indians are not even underground. 

Being mostly domestic, there is not too much information about workplace, but the potent ones which comes out, are very clear and expressive of the open and equal society in Sweden.

Get Hired 3: What not to tell your consultant

There are good consultants and bad consultants, and how do you know the difference? Apart from the names which are well known in the market, or if you are going to someone with a reference, then there are some straight points which will tell you if you can trust your consultant to get the best for  you.

1. Their website: will be world class, will give you list of people they have and their expertise

2. Their clients: will be usually listed on their website. A good consultant will have a mix of all industries and all types of clients, but will definitely have clients who demand the best out of their vendors

3. The seniority of candidates: this might be biased coming from me, since I am an executive search consultant, but here's the truth. A placement firm provides CVs to the client by the dozen. An executive search firm usually checks your background, does the due diligence, and then calls you to ask your opinion on the job. Only when you are fully convinced, is your profile sent to the client. As such this is a much longer drawn process, taking up to a working week, and hence, the number of profiles sent to the client is very less, sometimes 2-3 at one go. But your profile will no doubt be relevant to the position on offer. Thus, this very detail makes the process to get hired one step closer.

4. Communication- written or oral: A good consulting firm will have impeccable mailing and communication procedures. The documentation will usually be templated, hence all details are neatly arranged for quick reference. Oral communication is supposed to be clear and lucid, detailed and informative, as well as transparent. Confidentiality MUST be assured.

Once these basic criteria are met by the consultant, one must keep in  mind that one must not keep anything secret between you and your doctor, lawyer and consultant. It might come back to haunt you later. A good consultant will send an analysis of your profile to the client company to give your match to the role and culture of the company. Hence you have to answer all questions. A good consultant will make it clear that nothing confidential need be told at this level. Hence all figures (present company turnover, department revenues, client size, client names etc) may be approximate and names may not be revealed. 

A few days back I got to interview a lady from a big IT firm living in Hyderabad, wanting to relocate to Mumbai. She was at a Senior Manager level. I mention this to show the seniority of the person. We usually ask the family details of the person, male or female. If the person is married, what the partner does, if he/she has children. This is not just for curiosity, if there is relocation required in the position in question, these details become imperative. Like it or not, a person with 2 kids of school going age might not want to change cities, while a singleton who is married with no kids, might find it easier. Kids' age matter, since school going kids will have more problems relocating, than toddlers, due to more than one reason, finding good schools,  or getting torn from established friend circles.

We have asked these questions to every one till date and very few people do not understand that as a consultant it is important for me to know your family history. In job interviews in colleges, students are sometimes asked about their parents, their interests, even the type of music they have listened to. This establishes the cultural and social background of the candidate and will determine the match of the candidate to the over all ambiance of the company they want to join.

Anyway, this particular lady who is 40 years old, took offence when I asked her if she is married. She told me " I am 40, I better be married". Taking offence at being asked about marital status is very feminist, however her statement clashes wildly with feminism. How is being 40 equated with marriage? What will the 40 year old single women of the world have to tell her? I assured her that I am not trying to be personal, it is part of our evaluation process. I should have stopped there. But I went ahead and asked about kids. For the next half hour I had to hear a one sided tirade about why I should not ask this question and how offensive it is. I told her, "Maam if you find it offensive, please mention that and you dont need to answer it."
Truth is, these informations are necessary for us to overall understand how difficult a case of change and relocation a candidate will have. But the option is always there to say that you would rather not answer it since it is against your principles. Any good consultant will whole-heartedly respect this. But no consultant will want to hear about your principles for half an hour. Its a waste of your time, and her time and energy. However I did apologise to her on the phone and by sms afterwards, also assuring her that I would take the topic up with my management. If it had stopped there I would have even supported her point of view.

But this is not where it stopped. You might think she was just against personal questions. But next day I called to get her work details on the kinds of clients she has closed sales deals with. She is doing BPO sales, and she has applied for a Sales job and it is MY job to understand if her experience matches the requirements my client has- aggressive sales to large companies and quick deal closing capabilities. She said "why should I give you that information". Whatever answer I expected this was not it. It took me some time to tell her "Because I am your consultant"

So in the end she refused to give me any detail and went on another tirade about how I ask stupid questions which are not necessary. At the end I had to tell her that I would like to disconnect the call. She called up 5 minuted later to tell me not to forward her profile, but by then I had already decided that she was a danger to be presented to our client. 

Morals of the story:

1. Your consultant is looking to help you, not hinder your prospects for the job.

2. When your consultant assured you of confidentiality, it is in your best interest to trust her. You have no option once you send your work details anyway.

3. Please LISTEN. You might be missing the point.

4. Please for heavens sake. DONT BE RUDE. That really does not help anyone's purpose.

5. If you dont want to answer something, please mention that frankly. It will be appreciated, and you will not be pushed.

6. Your work details are important for being profiled for a job. Please share. No one will ask you confidential client details.

Stress and the Woman

There was a time when the man was the bread winner and the woman was the child bearer and nurturer. Roles were defined and everyone was happy. And then we, the women, decided we can do whatever we put our minds to. And we put our minds to being independent and having control of our finances, along with our homes, bodies and minds. And so we reached a state where we handle the home and hearth, the kids and we go to work to earn our daily bread. That's actually doing 3 peoples work single handedly. No wonder we are stressed all the time.
A 2011 study by Nielsen shows that:
"An overwhelming 87% of Indian women said they felt stressed most of the time, and 82% had no time to relax.  The survey, conducted early this year, covered 6,500 women from 21 developed and developing countries like Sweden, the US, the UK, France, the BRICS economies. It was conducted online among women (over 18 years of age) and cut across social and income class."
While women all over the world work unthinkably hard, Indian women have it worst. Social expectations have risen to a point when women with a level of education are "supposed" to work. But in India, this happens without the accompanying support system of family, husband, good childcare systems, nannies or creches. Apart from that most women are expected to prepare the household food, care for the children, do the shopping, over and above their hours in office. I know of women who wake up at 4 am to prepare breakfast for the family (in South India, that means Dosa/ Idly etc), lunch boxes for kids and husband, lunch for in laws, then prepare their kids for school, then go to office. They return in the evening at about 7 pm and then prepare dinner for the family. I have seen many women in local trains cutting vegetables on their journey home, to keep the work a little ahead.
Even for those who do not have to cook and clean at home, or who dont have kids, the stress of doing everything is catching up with us. The old adage that to get half the distance, women have to work twice as hard, is true, since the mentality of people both at home and at the workplace have not changed. Ambition seems to be a dirty word if it is used for a woman, but the truth is more and more women are option to go the hard way and do it all, than sit at home and let their education go to waste.
So how do we deal with stress? Here are some tips:
DONT TRY TO BE PERFECT: Perhaps something we need to tell ourselves everyday. It is not required to be perfect in everything we do. The clothes can wait on the line overnight if you are too tired. The ppt need not have that exact shade of sky blue. The child can have one portion fruit less today. It will not matter tomorrow, or for that matter, after an hour. Learn to give in to a bit of imperfection.
EXERCISE: However busy your day, take an hour out and so something physical. Run, walk, cycle, take the baby out to the park, dance, whatever squeezes some sweat out... exercising in any form releases happy hormones in the body which can then unwind from extreme stress easily. It will also give the much required me-time that, as a busy working mother, I realise I absolutely need. Also if possible, do YOGA or MEDITATE.
SLEEP: this one needs no explanation. Sleep is a natural healing time for tissues and for the brain to recharge. 6-8 hours sleep is absolutely essential.
DONT SMOKE OR DRINK: Too many people Ive seen smoking provide the easy excuse of stress release. However, smoking or drinking just masks stress and does not ease it. In fact, that may lead to other complications and health problems which might make things worse. A civil engineer wouldnt want to have to spend the day on site, inspecting the buildings in scathing sun, having to cough away due to too many cigarettes smoked.
WORK SMARTER: I find that planning my day even before I get to work, makes it a lot less stressful to start off the day with. After that, regular jotting of things to be done, and ticking them off (in itself an act which provides such satisfaction that I divide my to-do list to the bare smallest tasks.) is a good way to keep tab of your time.
STAY CONNECTED: Delegate, share work, share ideas. Or just take a break to chat with like minded people if you feel you are getting too stressed.
DONT STAY CONNECTED 24/7: Keep regular hours and dont work late more than 2 nights a week. Take 2 days to unwind and forget about work. Try not to answer work calls on your off time. Everyone should know and respect your time off. Otherwise its not a worthy place to work. When you give time to your family or child, give 100%. They will be the ones to stay. In 10 years time this job will not be what is important. Know your priorities. You only work for the money, it does not define your life.
VOLUNTEER AT THE LOCAL CORPORATION SCHOOL: social service has been found to be the biggest stress relief. The thought of doing something for the good of someone else, gives us a sense of purpose and makes us happier. It helps put things in perspective too. The feel good factor gives a huge high which may last through the week. Little acts of kindness, like helping an old man cross the street or giving up your seat to the pregnant lady, or even feeding the hungry little kitten which has lost its mother... all small acts which makes one truly happy and gives a kick to the day. Another means is to have a hobby. I read... sometimes till the wee hours but I love it so much that I wouldnt give it up for anything. Some people garden, some feed cats, some cook, all sorts of people do all sorts of things, but a hobby helps you unwind at the end of the day or week and recharges your mind.
THINK SOLUTION NOT PROBLEM: If your job is under threat, think of your exit strategies and prepare for emergencies. Dont sit and worry. Utilise the time to research other companies and jobs available.
BE POSITIVE: Know your limitations but be positive about it. Know when to stop. Know to say NO. All this is acceptable if done with a positive frame of mind. Nothing will go wrong if you fail. The world will not stop. Your child will not stop growing, you wont lose your job. Stop worrying all the time, go out, smell the flowers, watch the clouds. Force yourself some time off during the day, take a nap. Anything which works for you. Learn to control but dont become a control freak. You can rise 5 minutes early to get that elusive 8 am bus, but you cant stop the rain from falling. You can work to keep your job, but if the company goes under, its not in your control. Let go and learn to live.

More women required in the Indian workplace

More on my favorite subject... here is an article from Business Standard which shows that good things are in store for tomorrows women workers.

Various companies, including Vodafone India and Mahindra and Mahindra, have begun focussing on getting more women at senior leadership position.

“We are out in the market recruiting senior women talent. Gender diversity is a focus for us. We are working through availability, location and choice of role aspects,” said Ashok Ramchandran, director (human resources), Vodafone India.

Ramachandran adds women at the top of various management levels bring plurality, different thinking, different focus areas and leadership styles and values. So, while Vodafone strives to hire from outside, a major task at hand is also to build talent within the company.

Currently, women in senior management positions at Vodafone India form six per cent of the work force. The company plans to raise the number to 15 per cent in two years.

At automotive major Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M), a 50: 50 gender ratio is being considered. “A diverse work force is important, as harnessing the potential of diversity produces powerful business results, enables deeper discussions among work-teams and produces richer results,” said Rajeev Dubey, president (group HR, corporate services and after market), M&M.

Head-hunters reckon it is the services sector that has been very active in hiring more women for senior positions. “There are more women in the labour market, and more females pursuing higher education. So, there are more women contenders for senior posts. However, this kind of participation is absent in sectors like oil & gas and manufacturing,” said E Balaji, managing director and chief executive, Randstad India.

Business schools have not only been preaching this concept, but practicing it as well.

For instance, at the Indian School of Business (ISB), the percentage of women in the management programme rose from 25 per cent to 29 per cent in the last five years. The batch of 2012 had 167 women students, accounting for 29 per cent of the batch.

“Women today have a lot more opportunities than in the past. There is increasing acceptance in different quarters about their abilities, and the value they bring to the work force,” said Ajit Rangnekar, Dean, ISB. He adds while this percentage is high compared to other Indian B-schools, it falls short of the figures in global B-schools such as Wharton (45 per cent) and Harvard (39 per cent).

“Currently, our workplace reflects a healthy diversity, with almost 50 per cent women in the staff. We must just replicate this in our classrooms, too,” he said.

At the Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode (IIM-K), director Debashis Chatterjee has been saying women make better managers and they have learnt to be more competent in a diverse set of skills and attitudes. The institute has been increasingly emphasising on more women students in the campus. In the first post-graduate programme at IIM-K in 1999, there was only one woman student in a batch of 42.Consequent to the changes in the institute’s admission policy, the 2013 batch has 36 per cent women.

In its International Business Report, global accountancy firm Grant Thornton had recently said businesses in India had the least number of women in senior management (14 per cent), compared with the global average of 21 per cent. It added economies such as India, Japan and Mexico had low female economic activity rates, with the India’s proportion of female adults in the labour force at 33 per cent.

Get Hired 2- Women's special

On the occasion of Women's Day, why not have a special on our blog too. After all Spearhead Intersearch is 60% female, and that too, now, after the conscious effort to have "gender balance" the other way round!

It is a well known cliche that women have to work twice as hard to go half as far as men. One of my earlier blog posts deals with disparity in pay among women and men workers in India. In the organized sector women still usually get roughly 60% of the salary that men get doing the same job. There are still lot less women in higher positions than even equal opportunity providers would want. Even in companies with woman CEOs, there are so few women in the pipeline for the top jobs, that it is unnerving.
It has been noticed that there are three kinds of women who get into the workplace as far as career goes.

• The first is the women who would like to work till they have kids and settle down. These form the bulk of the working women's population.
• Then there is the kind who work for some time, take a break for kids and then come back to work. For them working is more of a financial or personal necessity, after they have taken care of their responsibilities.
• Then there is the third kind, the companies' dream woman-worker- the careerist- who keep to their job with sincerity, with the driving ambition of rising to the top. This is the kind of employee who is encouraged to achieve, in quite a few companies today. The drive and ambition of these women are an inspiration for young girls around the globe.

But everyone is not made of the stuff Indra Nooyi has. Therefore, what about mortals like us, who have to handle home and hearth, children, shopping, and almost everything one can think of?

• One of my daughters friends mum is a mother of two. She works in a software firm in a mid-management position, where she has reached after 8 years of hard work. Now with a child in Std 2 and another is UKG, she is struggling to cope with the pressures of motherhood and work. She told me to look for a job for her which would allow her to work part time, or work from home. It was only saving grace that her husband works on UK timings and is usually there to bring the kids home from school. Today she was there at 3.30 pm at the school and told me her company has shifted her timings from the usual 9- 6pm to 7 am to 3 pm three days a week. Now she can be there to get her kids home and be with them for 3 of the 5 working days too. She loves her workplace, she wants to rise in her career, but she does not want to let go of the joys of motherhood either. Her company must be commended for keeping all her dreams in place.
• A friend of mine joined a bank from campus, and in the last ten years has quickly risen to the position of VP. The birth of a daughter came as a blessing and joy to the couple, but without family to support them in Delhi, she quickly had to decide to take a break till her daughter is old enough to put in play school.
• My cousin, another bank employee for about 15 years now, is a branch manager in Bangalore. Was, I should say, for the only way she was going to work in a city like Bangalore was having her parents from Dehradun over to look after her 4 year old. It was only a matter of time before they all realised it was not feasible any more, and now she has taken a sabbatical till she can rejoin.

Here too, these women are valued employees in a very woman- friendly environment. Their jobs will probably be waiting for them when they get back, probably they would have missed out on a couple of promotions and increments, but still, they have made their mark and they will survive.
I was lucky enough to be in a company which allows women to work from home when they have problems. But what if my company didnt allow me to work from home. With no family in Chennai and a small kindergarten going child, I would have two options- leave my child in the care of help at home or in a creche, or to leave my job and stay at home till the time my child was old enough to fend for herself. I would not have chosen the first option. What if I just needed the time off to recover from an illness.

• One of my candidates had to leave her job after her rat fever would not let her work for months. Now after 6 months of rest and recovery she is back to searching.

What if I just need the rest after having slogged for years, after all, any woman does the job of three men. Wife, home maker, mother, cook, cleaner, driver... name it. What if you just need the holiday to recahrge your batteries for a year.
So what is in it for women like us all over the country. How do we get back to the workplace after 2 or 3 years of break. Here are some tips:
Be positive: It always helps if you approach your renewed search with a positive frame of mind. It will clearly show in your interviews and reflect in your communications. A confident attitude will impress any panel. Whatever you did in your sabbatical, you know what you bring to the table and the company should know it too.
Take a course: There might have been something you would like to brush up on while you had been on a sabbatical. An online course would be an added qualification and send the message to your prospective employer that you are not just wasting anyone's time.
Prepare your CV anew: Nowadays most employers appreciate the need to take time off for ones children, to upgrade skill sets. But it should reflect in your profile. Update your profile with relevant skill sets for the company or industry you would like to present yourself to. In other words- customize. You should write a clear opening statement which would state that your time off has given you the opportunity to think of the growth path you need to take and hence you are looking for that kind of an opening. It does not matter if this statement is the whole and indelible truth.
Get your references in order: A good reference in often the clincher for a job. Make sure you have the best references you can offer right there in your profile. Keep your references informed that they might get calls from consultants or company HR. The words "Available on request" will not help, trust me.
Be aggressive in your search: Approach consulting firms. Call old colleagues, friends and people in power, whoever would be able to help you. Repeat after me- There is no shame in linking with someone after a period of time in order to get a job.
Start off temporary if you wish: Maybe your child needs you half the day but you can take the morning to work. Look for temp jobs if they are available instead of waiting for the time when you will get the whole day off. This will be a hue positive in your profile when you want to get back full time.
Know that it will take time: It would definitely take more time than, say if you were actively searching for a job while you were working. Take it in stride and dont lose hope. A probable time line would be about 6 to 7 months.
And then just follow the steps to get hired that I have enumerated in my earlier blog.

Get Hired- How not to get lost in the resume crowd and to get the job

Are you a dynamic sales professional who has worked in the finance industry for the past 14 years and worked your way up from trainee to Regional Manager? Are you an IT professional who would love to get into a start up kind of environment to use your 15 years experience to build a company as an intrepreneur? Are you looking for a job change, and felt that monster.com would be the right place to start?

Well, guess what. A million other people had the same bright idea.

Have you ever been to the monster/ naukri/ jobsahead-s of the world? As consultants we have. And if I am looking a for a dynamic sales manager for a leading bank to handle regional level sales- chances are that I might find you but the chances are much higher that I never will. All those "highlighted" or "premier" profiles included.

If you have something unique to offer, if you value your experience, then, in a pile of resumes is the last place where yours should be. By all means, post your profile (At senior levels, its a different story altogether, we will tackle that in a later post) but there are ways to get a much better result for your job search efforts.

Head hunt the Head hunter: If you are at mid management level waiting for your next big break, then search out those who will be able to give you the break. There are the placement agencies who usually have all levels of jobs at most companies. There are some specialised agencies who deal with particular segments, like there are some firms who deal only with insurance companies. There are executive search firms who deal with senior level assignments. The last usually have fewer options, but usually they have the best options and would deal with your resume in the most professional manner.

Where will you find them? Usually a google search will suffice. Otherwise, look out for editorial articles in business papers and job supplements. They have quotes from consultants and search company managers and heads. Find them out on the net, call into their offices and ask to talk to a consultant in their office. Sometimes a company will have consultants who are experts in a particular industry. But often any consultant will help you out at this step, either by pointing you to the right person or asking about your details.

Choose how many places you would like to send your profile: If you are desperate to move, I would suggest choose the top 10 consulting firms from every metro city, especially if location is not a constraint. If you are keen on any city, target the top 10 firms from that city. If you are taking it slow, 2-3 consulting firms, the best available in the cities, should be targeted. It is wise not to limit yourself to one or two consulting firms overall. No firm would have their finger on the pulse of every good company in any industry out there.

Be clear in your communication: It is important for the consultant to immediately know the following: your industry, number of years of experience, designation, company, city, age, more often than not your ctc, and what you are looking for. So if you are a Regional Head of Sales in ABCD Bank, XYZ division, in Chennai, with 12 years experience at 16 lakhs ctc per annum, and you are looking for a bank or any financial institution at a national role which will give you required growth in career and ctc, and you can move to any metro city: all this needs to be mentioned.

You should be asked to send in your profile. Please mention that it needs to be confidential and any further action on your profile needs to be taken with your go ahead only. Give all details on your profile as to your requirements (location, role, CTC) in the very beginning in a short note addressed to the consultant. For eg: if you dont want to go to Delhi, please mention in on the profile itself. That makes it much easier to remember you and chances of your being contacted for a Delhi job are minimised. If you dont have any such hassle, dont mention anything. If you have a limited period choice, mention the time period. Eg: "Cant move out of Chennai till 2013. After that, location not an issue." Always mention date in your profile.

Follow up, Follow up, Follow up: You need the job. You need to be seen, to be remembered. The buzz word here is "top of mind recall". Whenever I have a finance opening, I should think of you. The trick is to keep yourself in the mind of the consultant without becoming irritating. I would suggest calling weekly at the beginning and then sending weekly mails and calling up occasionally. Hopefully, you wont have to wait for that long, but the average time to get interviews after one starts searching aggressively is 3-4 months. So stay in the "top of mind" till then.

Be honest with your consultant: The three people you should hide nothing from: Your doctor, your lawyer and your consultant. Complete honesty is not just advisable for your benefit, it is also necessary for the consultant to fight on your behalf. Believe me, your consultant would love it if you got the job. She gets the bonus on your joining. Make friends with her and she will fight your case for your dream job, even if you took a two year break in between to go see the world!!

Ensure that your profile is treated with due respect: Make sure that you will be asked and consulted with before your profile is sent to any company. Ensure that full confidentiality will be maintained. You dont want your boss finding out about your job search. If you are not sent the Job Description and company details in a mail after the consultant calls, drop the consulting firm from your list. It is your career on the line, and any good consultant would respect that more than anything else.

So dont just wait for some random person to catch you on the internet. Get out there and start making your own opportunities.

What is the age for entrepreneurship- 25 or 45?

Mark Zuckerberg started Facebook at age 19, Larry Page and Sergey Brin started Google when they were both 23. But the image of the young entrepreneur is just that... an image, as new research suggests. Turns out, the average founder of a high tech start up is not a brash brilliant young-un, but a mature 40- something.

Vivek Wadhwa is a Duke University scholar who studied 549 technology ventures. It turns out that a 40 year old engineer or businessman with family is just at the right age to get tired of working for another company and starting off on their own. And they have better success rates too. They are the ones who have the industry and domain knowledge in the fields they are starting off in. They also have a wide network which they can put to good use, including financial support and capital.

This is from Time magazine which reported some time back that in US, the highest rate of entrepreneurship has shifted to the 55- 64 age group, with people above 55 almost twice as likely to found successful companies than people in the age group of 20- 34.

In India, a study by National Knowledge Commission, done among 155 entrepreneurs had one fourth under the age of 35. The median age at which they became entrepreneurs was 27. Usually in US as in India, older entrepreneurs deal with complicated technological companies in IT hardware, biotechnology, heavy engineering or energy. Whereas younger entrepreneurs will have tech start ups with hugely popular software or hot apps or other easy to understand products. In the Indian study ‘Idea-driven’ motivators were found to be more significant for entrepreneurs above the age of 35 and exert a minimal influence on those below 35. Further, ‘market opportunity’ was a far significant motivating factor for the below-35 age-group compared to those above that age.

There is a huge advantage due to this for our rapidly ageing demographic. Whereas across the world the population is ageing, India's population is still relatively young. (50% of its population below the age of 25 and more than 65% hovers below the age of 35. It is expected that, in 2020, the average age of an Indian will be 29 years, compared to 37 for China, 39 in USA, 45 in European Union and 48 for Japan) And that means, as this generation ages, innovation will increase and hopefully, there is likely to be a boom in entrepreneurship and business in this country in the next 10-30 years.

Ten buzzwords to avoid in your profile, Linked-in or otherwise

Long awaited, why-didnt-I-think-of-it-before moment. Linked-in, the professional network which has 135 million members now, has come up with the most overused words and phrases in members linked-in profiles in 2011. The top ten overused words in the USA are:

• Creative
• Organizational
• Effective
• Extensive experience
• Track record
• Motivated
• Innovative
• Problem Solving
• Communication skills
• Dynamic

Apart from being heavily cliched, these words actually say nothing about a persons professional capabilities and yet we keep using them, sometimes all of them, to show the world how good we are at work. I am personally guilty of using creative, motivated (mine was one step further "self motivated) and problem solving and communication skills. 

Having seen thousands of profiles till date, I can vouch that these words do not really work in themselves. They dont improve your value on paper one bit unless you give examples of how creative you were or how you solved some problem with an innovative idea. Isnt everyone effective really? It goes to really saying that just like everyone else on this planet, you are actually doing your job and finishing whats to be done. Extensive experience and track record: Anyone doing something for more than 2 years will have extensive experience in that subject. Anyone would have a track record. Those words dont add a thing to the sentence and is slightly irritating, because I know somewhere that you have run out of things to say now. And what about dynamic. What exactly does it mean in the context of your work. If you are a bank manager are you dynamic, does that mean you can jump around everyone's cubicles all day? Or if you are a sales manager, does that mean you have a lot of energy? Is that not why you are a sales person in the first place? Once you break dynamic into smaller parts, thats when you will come up with the exact words you would like to use in your resume.

Worldwide the number one buzzword in various countries were

• Creative: Australia, Canada, Germany, USA, Netherlands, UK
• Multinational: Brazil
• Dynamic: France
• Effective: India
• Problem Solving: Italy
• Motivated: Ireland
• Managerial: Spain
• Track record: Singapore

The job market is getting more and more competitive and for senior managers, any lax in their effort at providing the company with a well formed and worded resume shows lack of motivation and effectiveness (chuckle). Therefore, the trick is to keep the words beside you and think what they mean. If there are specific examples of the traits these buzzwords describe, it would be best to line them up. Leave out words like motivated and effective and dynamic altogether, these are things which are very well expected from a senior experienced professional.

Using examples and specific instances makes your profiles unique to you and describes "you" and not another million people on this planet. And it is "you" you are trying to sell to a prospective employer. 

The fall and fall of Education in India

To add to my post on "Education and Employment" earlier on this blog, here are some more startling details which have come out today. Mint reports:

" A global study of learning standards in 74 countries has ranked India all but at the bottom, sounding a wake-up call for the country’s education system.

It was the first time that India participated in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), coordinated by the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). India’s participation was in a pilot project, confined to schools from Tamil Nadu and Himachal Pradesh.
only 12% of students in Himachal Pradesh and 15% in Tamil Nadu were proficient in mathematics against an OECD average of 75%; when it came to scientific literacy among students of class X, the proficiency level in Tamil Nadu was 16% and in Himachal, 11%, as against an OECD average proficiency of 82%.

In Malaysia, 56% of students were proficient in reading and 41% in mathematics. Similarly, in the United Arab Emirates, the mathematics proficiency levels was estimated at 49% and for reading, 60%. Like India, both countries participated for the first time."

India which has prided itself historically in its education system, has to wake up and soon. There has been a lot of talkin the last year about how the US education system is faltering and how the "east" is taking over. Examples cited are from China, Japan, S Korea, even places like Malaysia and Philippines. No one talks of India. Maybe the reason shows. Mint also reports:

"Not everyone agrees. The study may not be based on an apple-to-apple comparison, says Vipul Prakash, managing director of Elixir Consulting, a recruitment process outsourcing firm.

“If you look at the entire people entering the workforce, you may find lack of quality. But if you take the top 10% then they are perhaps the best in the world. This 10% is quite a large number which is giving India a competitive upper hand.”"

Its not about having the top 10% being talked about. The top 10% of the country will end up leaving the country to pursue greener pastures on foreign shores. The rest of us will enter the job markets here. And it is the next 50% which will form the army of the biggest companies in India, the field force, the sales teams. 


The Times of India was reporting in the last few days about the lack of International Schools in Chennai, and how that has pushed Chennai into the last few cities in education standards. In any city, are International Schools then, the answer to our prayers? Starting at 12 lakhs fees per annum for a kindergarten seat, an international school is out of reach of almost everyone apart from business families and CEO kids. At least the middle classes can send their kids to private schools with no worry about the basic infrastructure. But what about government schools? Tamil Nadu's chief minister made history by providing free laptops to students recently. A great thought, no doubt, but how sustainable and repeatable is it? Will they do this to everyone every year? Can it be repeated across the country in all the states? 


And how good are teachers who we send our kids to? Recently in both US and UK, a large percentage of teachers failed basic tests. Is this country considering testing out teachers too? Which bright mind wants to come down to teaching students at a school level? With the pay structures as it is, is it surprising that not one of the bright kids I once knew have actually gone into teaching? They are bank managers, or consultants, or if any, they have gone into professorship into private MBA schools. If we dont have good teachers how do we get good students?


 Is it time the government woke up to quality of infrastructure in schools, increasing number of schools, and getting better teachers? A lot has been done for sure, providing mid day meals, monetary incentives, etc, but how much of it is tangible benefits for those who it is meant. How useful is an incentive of Rs 1000 for 100% attendance in the year (as reported in TN in today's paper). 


Organizations like Eureka Child in Chennai are working along with the school system of the government to provide students in 100 villages of Tamil Nadu a more holistic education. They build their own material, go to the village schools and create a parallel learning system along with the school syllabus. Maybe it is time to create more organizations like Eureka.

PIOs returning - India providing the right pull? (or Recession forcing NRIs to return?)

Last month I got a call from a PIO (Person of Indian Origin) finance professional from US, to talk about opportunities available in India that would suit his level of seniority and who would provide him an attractive remuneration, not comparable to what he gets there of course, but at least at par with market standards here. The reason he wants to relocate is manifold- the next big break in the US looks less lucrative at the moment, his parents are in Chennai, and he would love his children to stay at close quarters with grandparents, and of course both he and his wife, an HR professional were bound to get good opportunities at present in this country.

The Link, an Indo Canadian web news paper reports

"Krishna Kumar and Savita Murthy, a couple working for a financial institution and a telecom service provider respectively in New York, were in Bangalore in November to attend job interviews because of uncertainties in the US job market. “They mailed their CVs in early September and headhunters could line up some decent interviews for each of them. The husband has attended seven interviews and the wife attended four. Both are currently finalizing their respective new jobs and are expected to move back to India soon,” said K Shivaram, a close relative of the couple.

Another couple currently working in Berlin and Paris is moving back to Pune with their 12-year-old daughter. “The wife who works in a French bank has been pink slipped and her term ends on December 31,” said an acquaintance who did not want to be named....

What is significant is that these Indian-origin executives who are now looking to return home are coming in at salaries similar to what they were getting abroad. There are, however, certain sectors which have generated more traction than others. For instance retail, FMCG, financial services, IT, mining and power have benefitted from these highly-qualified Indians looking to come home.

Kishore Biyani-led Future Group is the midst of one such recruitment action. “We are improving our systems and processes, an area that as an organization we are focusing a lot on. The expertise brought about by these people at the back-end and supply chain management areas is something we required,” said Sanjay Jog, Chief People Officer, The Future Group, India’s largest retailer which runs stores like Big Bazaar and Pantaloon. The retailer hired a number of key executives, all of them Indians who have come from international markets, in the last couple of months. While Manoj Agarwal came from Procter & Gamble’s US operations based in Cincinnati who is now heading the project management office at the group, Anurup Pruthi was earlier with Burberry, UK, who is now the chief executive for Digital Services and heads the captive BPO and technology services for retailer. Another Indian to have joined the group is Prasad Menon from the UK operations of Nokia who is heading Product Information Management Services (PIMS) for Future Group."

Just today I got a call from a 30 year old from UK. After completing his degree there he has been working on a contract basis with one of the top 5 accounting firms. He is confident his contract will be renewed but he is currently open to check out what India has to offer for his area of expertise. And truth be told, I suspect, he wont have long to wait.

Article in Mail Today on Cyrus Mistry: Jyorden comments

Behemoth can do without surname By Lalatendu Mishra in Mumbai

THOUGH he does not have the illustrious Tata surname but Cyrus Mistry is certainly no outsider plucked from obscurity. The elevation of the 43- year- old engineer to the top post of the Tata conglomerate will only add to the salt- to- software brand value.

Cyrus, in the capacity of the member of the highest decision- making body of the Tata group and a distant relative of the Tatas, is the son of Pallonji Mistry — who owns 18 per cent of the Tata group.

Brand and marketing experts said the choice of Cyrus as the successor would in fact help the brand grow stronger.

“ It is a good choice. He is young and is very appropriate for a young country. With him in the drivers seat the Tata brand value will be enhanced,” said Jagdeep Kapur, chairman & managing director, Samsika Marketing Consultants.

“ What is important is the ability of the person to steer the group to the next level. Cyrus is a good professional and certainly has the acumen to do that,” he said.

Some analysts also believe that the Tata brand has grown so large that it does not require the surname to support it any more.

“ It has become an international brand and does not depend only on a surname that can add value to it. The name

Tata is synonymous with trust, reliability and ethics. If the new person with a different surname imbibes these values, then it would have more positive effect on the brand,” said Rajesh Srivastava, a marketing expert.

He said there will be no kneejerk reaction from either the industry or the market, as they view the development in a longterm perspective since a lot of thought has gone into the selection of Cyrus.

“ Today Tata is known as international company with Indian origin. Because the candidate has been selected merit, it has given a very strong signal of continuity of Ratan Tatas legacy who has transformed the group in the last years,” said Jyorden Misra, managing director ( India), Spearhead InterSearch.

Chandrajit Banerjee, head the CII, applauded Wednesday's announcement, calling it exemplary move that speaks volumes about the norms corporate governance at Tata.

“ CII commends the leadership in the Tata Group for setting standards which would be benchmark for large global corporations,” Banerjee said in statement

Women make better recruiters than men?

Greg Savage in his blog "The Savage Truth" finally put in words what Ive suspected all along, at the cost of being sexist. Really, otherwise, why would the majority of recruiters in any agency at any level, in any market be overwhelmed by the number of women working there vis a vis men?

The reasons Greg enumerates are quite simple

Here is why;

• I have found women are far better listeners than men. They are more empathetic. It helps, because they get deeper into the candidates true motivation, the client’s real needs… and they make a better match. Bluntly put, many woman recruiters simply care more about the human element. It might not sound ‘commercial’ but actually it means they end up with more satisfied customers, and over time, that pays.
• You are not going to like this guys (and before you lynch me, remember, I am one of you) but women are more resilient than men. Sure, often they show frustration and emotion much more readily than the average guy, who tends to suck it up and try to tough things out. But actually I have found a steel backbone in so many women in this business. They cry a lot, but they bounce back! They keep going. Maybe it’s fear of failure. Maybe it’s just pure inner strength. I can’t count the guys who have lasted 6, maybe 12 months and dropped out, telling all and sundry as they leave to go back into banking or accounting, that “recruiting is not a real job after all”.
• And then there is the money. Mostly, recruiters get paid on results. The more you bill, the more you earn. And in a world where women routinely earn less than men doing the same job, that’s very attractive indeed. Indeed, women have told me straight out. “In this job I can earn more than the person sitting next to me, man or woman, because it’s a level playing field. I bill, I earn. It’s transparent. And I love that!”
• Its all true of course, all the above reasons, and in very equal markets that may well be all. There is another reason for a market like India for this to be true. There are lots more women than men studying HR in various business schools. And they all come out into the job market, and there are so many executive search firms/ HR firms which do temping or recruitment/ placement firms out there, that it becomes a very viable career option. So at the onset, the number of women entering the workplace in this industry is more. Men would probably rather go into sales or "banking or accounting".
• There is another factor in Indian recruitment firms. The industry is almost uniformly less paid than any other. Once men have a family, if they are the primary bread earners, junior or consulting positions in placement firms might not be a viable option for them. An HR Manager role in an IT firm, for example will be more lucrative, though infinitely less interesting as a job. Unless s/he has his own company, or s/he is at a senior or partnership role, it often does not make sense for an individual with high ambition to keep going in this industry. Often it is women with families, who prefer a more friendly work environment and flexible hours, which are usually provided given the nature of the job, who make it for long years. And of course it is a job which suits them, communicating, creating relationships, handling difficult personalities and ego-s, come to women naturally due to our social conditioning.
• For the full blog from "The Savage Truth": "Sorry guys, women are better recruiters than men"

Education and Employment: How large is the gap in India

How much have we heard about the number of engineers, masters degree holders, PhDs, doctors etc India produces "every year". Here are some statistics:
·         In 2008, it is estimated that 3.5 lakh engineering degrees, 23,000 engineering Masters degrees and about 1,000 PhDs were awarded in India. The number of engineering graduates in India produced annually: 350,000. Compared to India, the United States produces 70,000 engineering graduates. Europe produces 100,000 engineering graduates.
 India also produces 60,000 MBAs every year.
·  The number of doctors registered by different state councils stood at 6,68,131 during the year 2006 giving a doctor to population ratio of 60:100000. Total number of doctors in India about 4.5 lakhs.

However this figure for engineers at least included “diploma engineers” who were not true engineers at all. India actually had only 102,000 real engineering graduates in 2002. This went up to 222,000 in 2006 and may be double that in 2011. India does have some excellent engineering schools, but McKinsey estimates that only 25% of Indian engineering graduates are good enough to work for multinationals (and only 15% of finance graduates and 10% of those with degrees of any kind.)

These figures are reflected in an article in The Economic Times: To read the full article go here.

      The increase in our education levels has been accompanied by a decline in quality, creating a growing pool of unemployable collegegraduates. 

The India Human Development Survey, conducted by the National Council of Applied Economic Researchand University of Maryland, provides a striking example. In this survey of over 41,000 households conducted in 2004-05, each cohort is more likely to finish college than the previous cohort. Among males born in 1930s, only 4% completed college. Among those born in 1970s, 13% completed college. 

However, even on rudimentary skills such as ability to converse fluently in English, these new college graduates appear to fare more poorly than the college graduates of their fathers' generation. 

Of male graduates born in the 1930s, 53% are fluent in English compared to only 31% among those who were born in the 1970s. This does not mean that the number of English speakers in India has gone down since rising education levels make up for some of the quality decline. 

However, had these new graduates retained the same skill levels as those born in 1940s, India would have had 50% more English-speaking college graduates. Since English fluency brings enormous economic returns, and increases wages by at least 12%, this increase in English speakers would have had enormous economic dividend. 

We have few other markers of skills to compare across generations. If we were to give mathematics tests to adults, it is most likely that we would also see a decline in simple skills such as dividing fractions or solving basic algebraic equations. 

What accounts for this decline? Part of the answer lies in the speed with which enrolments have risen. Rising demand for higher education can no longer be met with traditional colleges and a host of creative solutions ranging from private colleges to distance education are being embraced with little attention to quality. While students must meet some minimum standards to pass the examination, rote learning to prepare for the examination has become the norm. 

But the other part of this answer is even more intractable. As enrolments rise and education is no longer the preserve of the elite, greater demands are placed on educators to teach students who are first-generation learners.

Unequal pay for equal work: Will women ever get paid at par? My suggestions.

1976 is the year in which Indian Government decided finally that women and men will be paid the same amount of money for the same amount of work. This happened in USA in the 1963 and in UK in 1970. A recent study in UK has shown that women in 2010 were paid 17% less than men at similar level. In US the difference is 13 %. Women in UK have complained that they are perceived to be flippant about ambition and drive and are seen to be just waiting to get married and have kids. It is estimated that at mid management level in the financial sector, the wage difference in London would be around 40 to 60%. That is like working half the year for your employer for free if you are a woman, and anyway, it is a well known fact, that, to get the same amount of respect in the workplace, women need to work twice as hard.

Talk of unfair.

Lets see where India stands. The Equal Remuneration Act seeks to address the issue of payment of unequal wages to men and women. It makes it compulsory for employers to pay women wages equal to those paid to men for performance of the same work.  Section 4(1) states:

"No employer shall pay to any worker, employed by him in an establishment or employment, remuneration, whether payable in cash or in kind, at rates less favourable than those at which remuneration is paid by him to the workers of the opposite sex in such establishment or employment for performing the same work or work of a similar nature."

India has the distinction of being the lowest ranked in gender parity among the BRIC nations. This was revealed in the Gender Gap Report of 2010.


"According to the Annual Survey of Industries of 2004-05 the gender pay gap for regular workers in the formal or organized sector was 57%, which is much higher than among casual workers in the formal sector which was over 35-37%. And in agriculture, where an estimated 60% of all operations are handled exclusively by women, the hourly wage rates vary from 50 to 75% of male rates. In case you thought the gender gap is restricted to the lower levels of workers, a survey done by the World Economic Forum (WEF) last year showed that there is a yawning gender gap in the corporate sector too. The average annual income of a woman is $1,185, less than a third of a man's $3,698 in corporate India. The survey, based on responses of 60 of the 100 best employers in India, showed that women employees held only 10% of the senior management positions in two-thirds of the surveyed companies. The government is no better as an employer. Two of its much touted welfare schemes, Integrated Child Development Services ( ICDS) and National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) — rely on the underpaid work of lakhs of women who are paid "an honorarium" well below the minimum wage." (Times of India article)

Initiatives like www.paycheck.in, by IIM Ahmedabad, has a "salary survey" gives people like me a chance to check my salary vis a vis, industry, region etc. When I tried it, it was not working, but I hope it will work soon and I can check my status. Maybe initiatives like this will be a way to track salaries across industries and levels, as well as cities.

As an ambitious hard working woman who handles home, child and work, while the husband goes to office, comes back and is tortured by the hard choice of lounging on the sofa or bed, I feel terribly short changed. Did women really bite off more than they could chew when they decided they could handle it all, alone! While men had the added benefit of a second income and could go about buying the expensive camera or phone? And what about the men in your own workplace. Could you imagine taking maternity leave for 3 months or a sabbatical and then getting back to work and getting a fair deal out of it? All my girl-friends who have quit their job to have babies are afraid they will be out of the rat race when it comes to the next promotion or salary increase. So some of them are too afraid to quit and continue to work, leaving a 3 month old with a hired nanny, which means guilt, heart break and tears. Men dont have to deal with that. Its not even an option.

Here are some of the companies which have been voted to the top 50 for four consecutive years as "best for women"

• Accenture
• Barclays
• J P Morgan
• KPMG
• Microsoft
• PepsiCo
• PWC
• RBS

So, what if you are not working in a company which takes care of you anyway. According to me here are some pointers a woman can take if she is serious about not being treated unfairly.

• Find out what your market worth is. Job vacancies for similar positions online etc can help.
• What does your company pay: Many companies do not reveal their pay, but if yours do, go for it. Ask HR.
• Take a stand: OK, you are serious about your job and know you do it well. Talk to your line manager. Keep financials on your fingertips. If you are handing a Rs 2 crore project, talk about it and negotiate. Think like the boss. Why should he/she entertain your proposal? If you are bringing something unique to the table, you should be remunerated for it. Have a talk on your ambition and that you will not leave the job once you have a child. Talk about your seriousness and sincerity at the workplace.
• Emotion never takes you anywhere. Believe in yourself, your work and your proposal.
• Learn to negotiate: with numbers, not emotion. Never threaten to resign, you might be asked to do it. Be level headed and remember, your boss can only say "no". 
• Go well prepared into a meeting: Think of what arguments your boss may have against your raise. Prepare answers to them.
• Always do it face to face: An email will only complicate matters and create misunderstandings.

If you, as a woman, feel that you are being short changed in your organization, and your voice is not heard, you might want to get support from your female colleagues facing the same situation or even resort to the law, if push comes to shove.