India, Inc. hires from Ficci, CII

NEW DELHI: Interested in a career in the corporate world? Want to learn the tricks of the trade, especially those they don’t teach you in B-school? Join an industry chamber. Today, about 40% of new recruits in an industry association are management students, against a negligible percentage a few years ago.

It is the all-round exposure chambers say they provide, as well as a chance to interact with both corporate and the government, that make them a good training ground. While most youngsters leave after a year or two of ‘training’, chamber veterans with long stints behind them are the flavour of the season.

Recently, at least five people from Ficci left for greener pastures. These include senior director VK Gupta and head of the chamber’s food processing division, Parna Dasgupta. They have joined Reliance Agribusiness. While the head of Ficci’s entertainment division has joined Apollo’s media initiative UFO Movies, another Ficci official is said to have joined Infosys.

CII, on its part, has lost officials to Microsoft and HCL in the last one year. People from the chambers have also left to start their own consultancy services. The moolah and the pull of a big brand are good reasons to lure people. While chambers pay well by their standards, they can’t match corporate salaries, says a chamber official.

The chambers, too, are changing with time. They have changed their terms of recruitment and more people are joining them on contract, apart from the usual full-time/trainee recruitments. Industry chambers are also on a hiring spree, mostly MBAs, MIBs and MBEs. “We are following various policies to retain good talent in Ficci.

Consistent salary revision, providing good facilities and having a flat system in the hierarchy in the chamber are some,” said Ficci secretary general Amit Mitra. And chambers are also attracting men in fatigues to get their taste of the corporate world.

While initially they joined to head technical areas like IT and telecom, they are increasingly handling administrative and project management responsibilities. CII, has as its director general, SS Mehta, a retired Lt General.

Not just defence personnel, chambers have also found favour with children of diplomats and bureaucrats who have joined industry associations to gain exposure. Most of them work as consultants and as part of the international divisions.