‘Have long-term strategic view of your career’- Nandan Nilkani

While i was having tough time in deciding my next move because of external pressures and insisting, i saw an inetrview in ET. It seems so real to me and so relevent when he answered a question in the tough time of Financial tsunami. I thought its the most apt and readymade solution of my problems. Whenever one get a new good offer, (better than the exisiting one), compare the future prospects, if its better again, compare what dividend will you get and forsee what everyone cannot. Once you are done with this, you'll get the answer of million dollar question. True implimenting that is again a herculian task but think think and think and then decide. :) if you couldn't figure out what i am talking about till now, forget it and see the reproduced interview here... his advise wud be helpful to all of us at one point of time or the other.
Infosys cochairman Nandan Nilekani’s word of advice to the young B-school graduates: ‘Have a long-term strategic view of careers.’ Tech bellwether Infosys, as part of its academic initiatives, held the finals of its B-school quiz under its ‘Incorporate’ programme. This year’s edition saw six teams competing for the winner position selected from 1,700 students across 15 business schools. Mr Nilekani, in an interview to ET,dwells on the various facets of his company’s engagement with the campus. Excerpts:
As a first-generation entrepreneur, what advice would you give to B-school graduates today?
I personally feel people should have a long-term strategic view of their careers. There is a bit of a tendency to say who is the highest salary payer and I feel that can be a bit tricky. When we started our career, we focused on how we can learn and become better in our jobs. That I feel—our early investments—is now paying dividends. Take a long view of life and do not merely take the best paying job coming out of campus.
In the current economic environment, what role can B-school graduates play?
One good sign is that there are a lot more entrepreneurs from B-schools. Today, the world is much more integrated, globalised and complex. The graduates who understand this, can provide their organisations the right kind of leadership with the ability to take bold decisions in challenging times.
What about Infosys’ academic initiatives?
We are constantly holding several events and all are part of enhancing engagements with B-schools. We have many alumni willing to participate in these relationship building efforts. It also gives these graduates the chance to acquaint themselves of the various opportunities we provide. Infosys is an attractive place for the young business graduates as they can play various roles in the areas of consulting, project management and client-facing activities. For all these, the Bschool graduates are very suited.
Besides, we have other programmes like ‘campus connect’ involved with faculty training. We are part of the Knowledge Commission and have worked with AICTE. In general, we have engagements at multiple levels to build good relationship with educational institutions and raise their standards.
What challenges do you see in the area of higher education?
Higher education—which is under-governed and over-regulated—is desperately in need of reforms. We are at a point, where India is going to reap its demographic dividend but a very small percentage of the students are getting access to higher education. We have to move urgently on this, otherwise, we are going to miss the boat.