This is a bit unlikely post from me, since I consider myself more technical person and most of my previous posts are technical, but being a cognitive person as well, I could not help noticing this social change in Indian society. I wrote this just for fun.

SUITABLE BOY by Vikram Seth is the story of four families in India in the early 1950s after British occupation has ended and the India/Pakistan Partition has taken place.

However here I am trying to explain that type of a boy, with whom parents would love to see their daughter go out with. This guy is a short-after bachelor in contemporary Indian society, who has created a stable career/income for himself and is, tamed enough to get married.

Though I am not an expert in this field, I feel many will agree with on this topic. If we see the way Indian society changed since pre-independence in terms of what is meant by a successful person and their respective preference of profession in their respective period are as follows:

Before Independence (before 1947) LAWYERS –

Anyone and everyone was seen to peruse a career in Law. (I got this impression from my grandparents and the stories they told to us).

After Independence (1947-1965) ENGINEERS –

Independent India needed engineers to re-construct India. We were lucky that our government during that period somehow managed to touch the right cord amidst all the other pressing priorities, unlike our neighboring countries, we started to industrialize our country to whatever extend possible, remember it was mostly government initiatives, only a handful of big business family were privileged to take part in this phase. (I saw this sentiment in my father and uncles, they were proud to have contributed their bits in the nation building, they all believed that having a government jobs as engineers was the coolest thing at that point)

Between 1965-1980 ACCOUNTANTS –

I was probably starting my primary schools at that time, I saw my elder cousins and other relatives who were about to start their careers, were all talking about becoming chartered accountants, cost accountants etc. something to do in finance. (Probably after industrialization money was flowing in and we needed experts to handle it)

Between 1980 – 1990 MBA –

I believe there was a period when we were growing up and about to select our career path, business administrators were in demand. (Probably after industrialization, and subsequent flow of finance, proper utilization of resources was the need of the hour). Moreover a new trend I observed was that it was no more cool to have a government job but high paid private MNC jobs. I have seen many of my seniors to have got a central government job and a private company job but preferred to join the private company. Job security only was not enough to make a choice.

Between 1990- 2000 IT/SOFTWARE PRO (Ragtag IT Pros) –

I was somehow able to place myself in this group, and managed to curve out a career for myself. Probably all the previous generation’s efforts lead to the creation of huge amount of data and information and now the world needed to make sense of this information. Remember most of the demand for IT pros at this period were not from within the country, but from outside the country. At that point Indian government and Indian private enterprise’s romance with IT was limited only to data entry of voter list and accounting packages like Munimjee. The sector was pretty informal, anyone who missed the big bus of success, who could not get through the Joint entrance/ Medical entrance / CAT exam, or could not keep themselves motivated enough to complete the charted accountant/ cost accountant exams, saw hope in computing training institute like NIIT, Aptech, CMC etc. In other word government did not played much role in skill development, this generation of IT pros were self-taught and highly motivated to prove themselves. It is because of this generation of pros India got the cost advantage and outsourcing started to flow to India. It is because of this generation that India managed to create the brand India effect.

Between 2000-till date – Consolidation of IT and Brand India (combination of Engineers and MBA) –

In this period we saw government opening up of laws and channels to formalize the skill development along with government and private sectors. Prior to this, engineering colleges were limited and all were government colleges, but during this time private engineering colleges were allowed. And the IT industry was maturing in India, we moved from simple coder and data entry operators to designers, architects, and process innovators. We are no more a cost competitive destination for basic IT jobs, countries like China, Vietnam etc. has taken up that role. We have moved up the IT value chain. We also saw private sector companies taking bold steps my acquiring foreign companies like Arcelor Mittal, Tata Corus, Jaguar etc. And small Indian business men, who does not belong the big Indian business families, managed to create giant Indian MNC like Airtel, Infosys, Wipro etc. and floating IPO’s in foreign stock exchanges.

Going forward (The next generation will be for ENTREPRENEUR) –

Going forward I believe we need more job creator and less of job seeker. I have seen in many occasions in my own family, that a person is evaluated on what post he is holding (particularly the designation), like my son is a Manager, General Manager, Director etc. A word like, oh his son is a consultant in so and so company, but her son is a project manager. But they overlook the reality that in today’s world, a 6 years’ experience consultant in latest technology commands a much higher salary than a 10 years’ experience project manager.

I have seen many budding entrepreneurs who has dared to start their own, is under pressure in social gathering to indicate their financial status, because they feel that is going to give them social acceptance. This attitude will change in future because, I feel going forward it will prove to be more profitable and rewarding (not just financially) to be an independent consultant over a secured salaried job.

Like at one point in our father’s generation, it was cool to have a government job over a private company job. But we changed it and in today’s Indian society it is cooler to have private company job than a sedentary/ stagnant government job. And it is not so far that our society will see a person to be coolest and smartest if he is earning on his own as an independent consultant or a founder of a small one man army company having one or two overseas clients.

I think this phenomenon has already started, many of my friends have started this approach, and maybe I may as well end my career and retire as an entrepreneur.

Let me know your opinion.