Professionals from RIL and other oil companies flock to IOC due to stable job and PSU tag

NEW DELHI: With a job at Reliance Industries, LG, Haldia Petrochemicals or even Saudi Arabia-based SABIC, what can be a good career move? For 170 young executives, the obvious choice was to work in Panipat for a public sector company that often reports quarterly losses - Indian Oil Corp.

Thousands of executives, including graduates from prestigious engineering and management institutes, made a beeline for the state-run firm when it sought applications for positions at its new naphtha cracker that was being built to add value to its Panipat refinery.

The executives were eyeing a stable job with comparable salary, the tag of working with a government company and a steady career progress until the age of retirement, which add up to a relatively comfortable position.

"Most of them are between deputy manager and senior manager ranks, where IOC provides salary packages comparable with its private counterparts," says IOC Director-Human Resources Sudhir Bhalla, who started his career with Voltas but switched to the state-run firm after a year.

Panipat, a sleepy town known for three battles that changed the course of Indian history, has also made its mark as a corporate springboard. An engineer who left a high-profile private company for IOC said professionals from the PSU's Panipat refinery had made it big in the corporate world.

MOSTLY JUNIOR, MID-LEVEL HIRINGS
He cited the example of PK Kapil, who headed IOC's Panipat refinery before joining Reliance to lead and start up the Jamnagar refinery. Kapil moved on to become an executive director on the board of Reliance Industries. Another IOC executive, P Raghavendran, joined Reliance and became president of its refining business.

In the past three years, IOC recruited 42 petrochemicals marketing professionals, 46 plant supervisors for the naphtha cracker unit at Panipat, 79 experienced project engineers and two R&D experts from private sector.

"Trained professionals find IOC as one of the best place to hone their skills, which will enhance their CVs and improve their career graph," Bhalla said. The state-run firm hired people mostly at junior and middle management positions, where salary packages can be better than some private companies.

"Even our remuneration is comparable at the entry level. As you grow higher up in the ladder, there is a wide gap between our and private sector salaries," he said.

IOC pays an initial package of Rs 7.5 lakh to trainees compared with Rs 4-5 lakh offered by private firms, he added. The company normally does not allow lateral entry into the organisation but the start of a petrochemicals plant, new business, required trained staff from other firms.