Ementor

Heart to Heart

Recently, our company closed down the IT department which I had been heading for the past three years. I have 20 plus years of industry experience out of which 15 years have been in the IT department.

When I had joined the company, my educational qualification was 10th pass. Then I had joined as a trainee worker. Later, I got confirmed as a worker. Meanwhile, I completed my education upto SYBSc (Electronics). The company gave me promotion as a staff. We have three staff categories—I passed through all three catagories and became an officer.

I have a sound knowledge in Oracle and other Oracle products. Even though I have not completed my Bachelor’s degree in B Sc (Electronics), I have honed my skills and feel I am professional like qualified engineers. Please suggest what problems I might face in my search for other opportunities.

—Ganesh Mahurkar

Satish Doshi: It is good that you want to prepare yourself for the worst by understanding the problems you may face in your search for new opportunities.

Being jobless, when searching for a new job opportunity is an avoidable hurdle. It works negatively because you are in a hurry to finalise and join and hence willing to make compromises if required. Further, as the time of being jobless increases, it puts a tremendous psychological pressure to accept whatever opportunity comes along—even the family starts feeling uncomfortable having you at home all the time. The job search is best handled during the notice period than after leaving.

As a potential employer, I would have many questions linked to your performance. Why did your existing company, where you have worked for 15-20 years and where you have the complete domain knowledge, not consider you a valuable asset to find a solution to retain you? Why did the company decide to close the IT department, when many companies are using IT to become more competitive—was it because as an IT head you could not bring business benefits?

Educational qualification is another area of concern. In your earlier company, it was easy to be accepted because most better qualified and experienced people in the department would have been hired after you, so you had the advantage of knowing the company, which helped you to be effective in your role as IT head.

However, when you join a new company, better qualified people or existing employees will find it tough to accept you, and as an employer, I may not be willing to risk loss of existing known employees for an unknown poorly qualified IT head, unless you have a performance track record, which is known in the industry.

Being a single company employee for 20 years would also raise a different set of questions as an employer. Would you be able to adapt at about 40 years of age to a different company culture? Would you be able to learn new things fast enough?

Sure you have many positive achievements to your credit. The ability to grow through so many promotions despite not being a graduate surely speaks of your perseverance, your ability to give results, your positive outlook. But since your question was to understand the problems you could face, I have mentioned above different questions, which some of the employers might have when considering your candidature.

You must also remember that you don’t need to look at employment opportunities alone. Even if the above forces you to look at entrepreneurial opportunities, it may work out better in the long run, even if it does not look attractive today.

Heart to Heart

My programming skills are dead. My mind seems to be paralysed. Nothing moves....cannot work with my intelligence...it just happened in the last three months. I work at MIDC, Andheri, Mumbai in a software firm in a fairly senior position. I was the life of the organisation now I am the corpse. I cannot weep nor can I laugh. I do not know how long they will tolerate me. My colleagues do not believe my state as I am generally extroverted and talkative, but now it is an effort. I have no stress at home or work. Kindly help.

—Balu K

Harish Shetty: You could be suffering from depression as you appear emotionally paralysed. You cannot experience and express emotions and that is also a symptom of depression. This can strike anyone at any time without any apparent reason. Mind is like a fuse and can go off without reason. Duri-ng such a state attention concentration and intellectual tasks get affected. The neurotransmitters in the brain which help brain cells to communicate with each other play truant. The mind responds differently and one can feel excessively guilty, hopeless and worthless without reason. One could also be severely agitated, angry, restless, or also at times lazy, slow and dull.

Many around would ask you to be strong, think positive, etc, which will make you very angry, upset and sad. All along you will feel that no one understands you. Very few know that when one is depressed thoughts come just like an audio tape whose switch is not in one’s control. A depressed person does not invite negative thoughts but it comes without his permission. Such a fracture of the mind needs to be immediately treated. See a psychiatrist immediately and bounce back in four weeks time.

Training

I am an engineering graduate having three years of experience in chemical process industry. Presently I am working as a chemical engineer in IG Petrochemicals, New Mumbai. IGPL manufactures Phthalic Anhyride using technology from Lurgi GmbH, Germany. I want to make a career in the field of ERP. Will my domain experience make it possible to get trained in functional area? Can I be a functional consultant? Which module will suit my domain profile? Should I work as a technical consultant? Please let me know the details of Oracle Apps 11i ERP package. How far the manufacturing module suits my domain in chemical engineering (production)?

—Sathi Babu K

Prabal Mall: Your experience in the chemical process industry is suitable for you to get trained in using Oracle Manufacturing, which is part of the Oracle E-Business Suite, an integrated set of business applications that delivers complete process automation and complete information. Whether you implement one module at a time, multiple modules, or the complete suite, Oracle E-Business Suite helps you make more informed decisions and improve your business operations-while reducing expenses.

Oracle Process Manufacturing provides precise recipe-based manufacturing capabilities, allowing you to efficiently manage the dynamic processes found in food and beverage, pharmaceutical, chemical, metals, paper and other industries. You can formulate products to individual customer specifications, manage variability, optimise capacity, and drive continuous process improvement. Oracle Process Manufacturing also allows you to manufacture in compliance with new electronic signatures support, improved quality assurance, and regulated document handling. In the chemicals industry, you need to balance growing economies of scale with the demands of personal customer relationships. Oracle helps you make the best use of available resources while delivering products that meet customer demand. With your domain experience in the chemical process industry you should be a functional consultant and get trained in Oracle Process Manufacturing, which suits your experience and is being successfully used by a large number of chemical industries.