X is going to resign her seven-figure salary job and work with an NGO for six months.
Is she deranged? No. Far from it.
She manages a team at a multi-national bank and is rated one of their best employees.
“So what happens after six months?” I asked her.
“I don’t know. I will decide then.”
She seemed at peace at what could be the defining point in her career. She is one of the many who are making conscious choices to leave the rat race and pursue personal satisfaction. 
I realize that we live in an age where the image of success is sometimes more important than actual success. However, people have started asking themselves: What is the definition of success? Do material possessions define life? Do we have to bear the drudgery of a job we hate?
They are finding that their definition of success is far different from others. However, they are not bothered; they do not fear being isolated from the mainstream.
So how do they do it?  They believe in:

• Appreciating themselves and their achievements
• Discovering  interests close to their heart
• Visualizing their future
• Developing realistic expectations
• Defining what success really means to them
• Choosing/changing their jobs/careers wisely
• Focusing on goals
• Not worrying about results

Are you dissatisfied with your current job or career? If not, retrain yourselves and choose another. For more advice on career change, read the resources given here. You can profile your skills, identify your training needs, and check the list of training programs given on the Individuals page at our site.
Find the work you love, train yourself and excel at it. Why leave your heart at home when you go to work?

We go to a doctor when we are unwell. What does the doctor do? First, the doctor asks us several questions on the state of our health, how we are feeling, etc. If required the doctor then asks to get some tests done such as X Ray or blood diagnostics and so on.

The same is true for a financial counsellor. When one goes to a financial counsellor to take investment advice, the counsellor first analyses the “as is” position – current earnings and current savings and then analyses our temperament – our risk appetite, our lifestyle etc. He then uses his knowledge of the various financial instruments, their behaviour, pluses and minuses and makes us recommendations.

In short any consultant or a counsellor does two things – one diagnosis and then prescribe solutions.

The same should be or is true for HR specialist. We are expected to diagnose and prescribe solutions to individuals and organisations. When an individual approaches a HR specialist for advice on career development, the HR specialist should be diagnosing the “as is” state of the individual’s career and its related aspects. These would include the kind of progress the individual has made so far, the capabilities one has built, the aspirations of the individual and so on. Then the HR specialist is expected to prescribe solutions for the individual. The prescription comes from the HR specialist’s knowledge of the talent market, the pros and cons of various options, industry analysis and so on. The prescription has to be tailor made to the individual’s psyche or personality and specific to the individual. What works for one will not work for another. For instance, one who is looking for security and stability and is risk averse maybe advised to look for options within one’s industry or even company.

1. Good analysis of the individual’s as is state – hard (for example achievements, experiences) and soft (temperament, aspirations)
2. Good understanding of trends and behaviour related to the market dynamics and
3. Tailor making prescriptions for the individual or organisations

HR personnel need to be real custodians of latest trends and market behaviour. In my view there is little conscious investment by HR folks in this area because of which they are not able to assert themselves in the same manner that medical professionals are able to do in the field of medicine and financial counsellors do in the field of finance. Talent should be nurtured as the core domain of HR folks and if they need to establish themselves as such then their richness, comprehensiveness and awareness of latest trends should be as it is for specialists in other fields.

New ebook on career planning for the Era of Talent

Reflections on Career Planning, written by G Ramu, is an insightful exploration of various dynamics on career planning to help the individual make the right choices in this era of talent – era of immense opportunities. A free download of the abridged version of the ebook is available in Training Orbit website.

Chennai, India – Feb 15, 2010 – Where am I? Where do I go from here? How do I prioritise? How do I develop? How do I decide? All these questions and more are explored in this book – Reflections on Career Planning written by G Ramu. The beauty of the book is its simplicity in presentation and yet powerful and insightful in thoughts. Meant for any adult at any age in any geography the book will engage the reader in a dialogue in a structured manner on his or her career.

The author has carefully analysed the key aspects which trouble individuals with regard to their careers and how people make decisions. From another perspective, it connects these internal dynamics within the individual to the dynamics of the world today. He likes to call today’s era an era of talent, which with the power of the Internet has opened up immense opportunities like never before, the magnitude of which is only beginning to unfold. With opportunities and choices, also come confusion and the book helps the individual overcome and leverage the opportunities with clarity. The author has created models and themes which clearly articulate the choices for the individuals, yet presented them with real life examples and in a manner anyone anywhere can appreciate.

Please visit http://trainingorbit.com/Books/Register to download free abridged version of the ebook.

About Author

G Ramu, is a management graduate with specialization in HR from XLRI, India’s premiere B School. He has had rich corporate experience in diverse industries including Heavy Engineering, FMCG, and Software. In 2005 he turned into an entrepreneur heading a placement services company – Yoganishta. He has founded 3D talent Services to create online HR services which has launched Training Orbit, a global portal exclusively on training for trainers, training companies and training seekers.

We do so many tasks during the day. In our job we are assigned projects that need to be carried out. We set out to plan for these projects and assignments. We prepare assuming things will happen they we plan. But more often things do not happen the way one plans. Good operations personnel understand this and have ways to overcome such unpredictable situations and deviation from the expected.

There was this colleague of mine who I worked with. He was a phenomenal guy in terms of making things happen. He had many behavioural traits which were his strength but then there is something I learnt and have tried to build in my own ways of working. It has helped. It could help others too.

The practice is of having backup or even better, backups.

We are talking of situations where we are doing the planning and not about those that we cannot or do not. Those situations are different from the ones we are considering. For example, one day we start to our office and take the route which we normal take to commute to the office but unusually we find that the traffic has got choked because of some accident. This situation is different. Take the case of something different. I am planning to go for an important customer presentation. I have worked for days and think I have made a world class presentation. I am really charged up to make the presentation to the customers. The morning started off well with nice cool breeze blowing. I walk into the room set my laptop. Suddenly the file would not open. Something has happened. I am fighting hard. The clock is ticking and my heart is beating fast and I am sweating badly. What was supposed to be an exciting day has turned out to be a nightmare.

What could have been done? I believe that I should have taken some kind of backup to carry my presentation. I could have carried the presentation in a pen drive or could have sent it the day before to a colleague to carry it with him or cut into a CD. Maybe it would have eased the whole thing.

 There are many instances in different areas such things do happen. Order from one customer is delayed. Approval which was expected to come has not. Material which should have arrived has not. Sample test which was expected to come has not come. Budget approval has not come for 100% of what was expected; only 90% of what was expected has been approved.

This happens often, sometimes on small and sometimes on large scale, sometimes at minor level and sometimes as highly significant level. Planning is not just about expecting things to happen the way we expect or want it to but to plan for contingency. What if? Let’s prepare ourselves thinking not just “Yes, it will happen” but also “What if it does not happen the way it should”. In one sense, i.e. psychologically this acts as a shock absorber in case we hit a road bump. Since we have factored the “what if”, we are not caught unawares when something untoward happened. Thus it helps us face the situation better. In another sense, i.e. practically this ensures that things move on. We after all have a backup to take care of the situation. Of course how many backups can we have? No hard and fast rule. But I would give a thumb rule of three. Think of two alternatives to “what if”.

Adapting to something unforeseen is being smart. Planning with assumptions that something will not happen the way it should is being smarter.

Lets get smarter. Lets have backup.