This is not a new one. Its a story which has been going on for a long time now.
I keep getting these offers from management institutions across the country to come and deliver guest lectures, workshops and talks. Without mincing my words, let me put it this way, that while inviting many of these professors and the PROs of these colleges don’t even know what they would like to invite someone for.
Sir, why don’t you come, you are an entrepreneur and it will be a great motivational factor for our young management graduates!
Almost every-time this is the pitch which many management institutes give and I am forced to halt and think, if this is how we are making our management graduates go through random guest lectures, various people coming from the industry speaking on random topics, which lets be honest, not all students might find of relevance.
How Critical Is It?
Higher Education is in two words “not kidding”. You are creating the future of a nation and only an informed and proactive, ready to be employed as smart workforce future can make India, the superpower we are expecting it to be.
Education has become a business, yes, in one way as it was supposed to get organized, my view is that it is becoming a little dis-organized. Students taking courses are not really aware and present to why they are investing into a particular stream, is it the salary prospects or their personal interest?!
Who Is the Culprit?
Both the management, faculty and the students. Management of an institute must ensure that they have the best talent available in the market to create visionary leaders and students must ensure, they are pro-active enough to collaborate with their peers as well as add real value to their institute by sharing ideas of the present generation.
But Where is The Issue?
I have been working in the industry for a couple of years now and now being the CEO of a fairly well doing venture, I echo the same voice as many other professionals do, that our academic institutions don’t produce employable and billable quality.
Let me put things in a very easily understandable perspective now. Every student investing an average of INR 6 lacs and above over two years of his/ her management degree, sets expectations. And these expectations are not abnormal, they are purely on the basis of something which we call: Return on Investment.
The student sees his/ her investment of time, effort and money and arrives at the conclusion that now the career is set, at least he’d get the average salary of an X amount and be happy forever.
Have we ever realized that the flashy brochures and websites of our educational institutions which boast of 100% placement with smiling students who are made to stand in the best spots in the college with sample laptops in their hands and profiled, to attract fresh batches are essentially creating a ripple effect.
Every Business Needs to Deliver
As a business every educational institution must deliver and so must these private institutions. They must stand upto the first commitment of creating value for all stakeholders involved and mind you, stakeholders in the education business is also your own country and its future.
When Does the First Reality Check Happens?
When these finished products from the educational institutions come to the industry, for them its a first of its kinds experience, but for the corporate, its a rude shock. Many of these fresh boarders are far from being practically able to start executing from day 1.
Many of these individuals are not ready to be billed by the client for upto 6 months.
What Can be Done?
Though there is a long way to go, but someone somewhere has to make a start.
In my view, the educational institutions must invest into the powerful future called India while being profitable businesses themselves. And how?
Recently I spoke at a major conference in New Delhi, India, on how technology can help the Industry and the Academia connect together. And sure the audience were amazed to see intelligent use of technology to create future opportunities
- Training Students in Soft Skills and Selling Skills while sharing with them Global content relevant to their field of expertise
How about a student sitting in Delhi, pursuing his/ her majors in marketing, collaborating with his/ her peer in London while studying Global content. Some very simple and highly effective and cost effective technology tools have made it a reality today.
To know more about these tools, I’d invite you to drop a mail at: business@untilroi.com
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This blog post is surely one of the closest to my heart! And before going ahead with it, I must thank the people in my life who have made it possible for an ever middle class, traditional, safeguarded by Jobs background individual (which I was) to be a dreamer, an entrepreneur today!
There are many, though to name a few, My Folks, My Life 
, Avinash, Neha, Sarika, Rajiv Sir and a host of others who have always been a support!
Entrepreneurial life is something, which can only be read about in books and blogs, but felt the high of, only when you leave a comfortable job, to find your dreams, when you give into your eternal calling and make a way for yourself.
How I got My Wings?
I remember how I was the happiest soul on earth when I had received a good offer from a major Indian IT company to work in their testing practice at Bangalore, I was sure that now the career is set. It was a different kind of a high! BUT still, what was a bigger high for me, as I remember those moments today after a couple of years, was to sit on a plane, the first ever flight of my life. I had never been on a plane all my life and that one journey from Delhi to Bangalore on a plane, got me my first wings!
After delivering a highly successful project, I felt a void, some sort of a calling. When everyone else used to leave office at 6-7PM, I used to sit at the library, get books, loads of them, and sit through reading stories of established people. A Ratan Tata, An Ambani, they were all dreams that time. And finally I decided its time!
I Quit my First Job after 9 months
Obviously everyone in the friends and family said, you have lost it, why do you want to come back to Delhi when you have all the chances of going onsite and have a good life? I still remember, when I packed my bags from Bangalore and got onto the flight, with nothing in hand, I was a little unsure as to what will I do next after landing in Delhi.
Finally landed in Delhi, quite some humiliation and frustration, but finally when the dust settled everyone accepted the fact, that I had quit a safe haven only to do something of my own. And I started my search for something.
My Ex-boss From My Part Time Job from Class 12th Called up
I was working since class 12th. Did road shows, Joined a Start-up BPO unit which today is pretty established while I was pursuing full time college. My Ex-boss called up, when he got to know I’m in Delhi and we said lets work again.
And to everyone’s utter amaze, I became a Relationship Manager with an insurance company. The job was simple, go pick your bag each morning and come back to office with a cheque in your hands and be happy till you are performing.
The targets, the pressure of performing, the heat, dust, cold weather, abusive people in Delhi, I faced it all. Iv knocked at people’s doors, just to be shooed away under the name of insurance agent.
I was performing though, but was not satisfied. Though till today I think this was one of the most steep learning phase of my life, when I got to know how to sell! YES! I could sell… taking a cheque worth a lakh of rupees in India, from a lala sitting in a Gandhi Nagar, Kapda Market, is no less than a feat.
I moved on…
I submitted my resignation to my boss, who was against it, telling him, Boss I will come back one day with my own company. There is a bigger calling for me in life.
And I started looking again and hit upon my first idea and floated a company called: “WeYouPoint – Together we make a point” it was an idea of creating an online platform to get the industry and the academia together. I did my research and started building contacts, by going to smaller colleges and delivering lectures and talks!
I became the second youngest Indian after Ankit Fadia, to deliver a talk at Symbiosis Pune! Where it was a mixed feedback I got, but for me, it was a high of sorts. I remember, how it was hurting to invest 3500 rupees to catch a flight to Pune and reach the college, but I had in mind that this could be the turning point.
But As They Say Life Aint That Easy…
The venture could not work out, due to two simple reasons:
- I was immature to really understand the dynamics of running a venture
- I learnt the art of building the right team of people
And I came back to square one, jobless, again an undecided member of the family, and someone who was not right as per the people around. At an age of 20-21 when I was discovering myself and following my heart, there was a lot which put me back, also I missed not having a mentor around at that time.
Finally to sustain myself, I had to go back to being in a job and I knew selling, so went back to the wealth management industry and started performing, with my eyes and ears open to all sorts of ideas and stories and everything else.
And Now I wanted to Know, How People Earn From the Internet?
YES! Internet was catching up at that time, and I wanted to know how people could just sit at home and earn. And my quest started, which pulled me into studying the internet closely. Closely such that one fine day I stumbled upon a major industry association’s Blog.
And to be honest, I did not know what a blog meant, till I saw it and this was in 2007 end.
I knew I could write and there was a lot in me which wanted to share and learn and grow and hence I contacted the administrator of the blog, with a blog post, who actually responded back and today he is a mentor, a guide to me! He came as a stroke of opportunity and it changed the game.
I started blogging and that is how Paritosh Sharma the blogger emerged. I got my motivation from the fact that people started liking my work and this kicked in me the view of taking it to the next level, which was to take my skills LIVE. And I started going to events, while LIVE blogging them.
People till today express amaze as to how fast can you capture the thoughts of a speaker, speaking LIVE at an event? And I say, its the love of the work guys, it makes you achieve things automatically!
I became the Official Blogger for One of India’s Largest Industry Associations…
While this happened, it opened a new chapter in my life with an offer from a start-up into Social Media Marketing, to expand the Social Media operations with the Co-Founding team! Though Social Media was fresh, very fresh 2 years back, we started dabbling into the same and made a name for ourselves.
This was a good learning period for me as it opened up a whole new world of opportunities, which spelled future!
And future it was, with the New Media industry gaining ground, I found my calling. I knew this is it. This has enough scope for exploration, freedom of expression, delivering absolutely innovative solutions and creating new possibilities for clients.
Becoming a Social Media Evangelist was a turning point in life and till date Iv never looked back.
Plugging Gaps in The Industry Which I Realized Early On, I Started Until ROI
Looking at the gaps in the delivery and expectations of the market, I again set out to plug the same and started a venture called Until ROI.
Its been 7 months now and we have been growing as a company briskly, with interesting offers of acquisition and the rest. I remember how it all started from a very modest small store room, a laptop and me. Yes, that was http://untilroi.com/ when we started and today we are a growing team of passionate people who are simply winning hearts with absolute client satisfaction and innovative solutions for the market.
I want to thank every client, every one who supported us through all the rough patches, these 7 months have not been the easiest months of our lives. For me personally its been like a new birth. Like a new life, which is of learning, exploring, knowing the various dynamics of creating an organization.
And today as I sit at a good looking, though a small one room office, at 5 AM in the morning, remembering old times, and taking new decisions, making new calls, I feel blessed, to be, to choose to be an Entrepreneur! With dreams of making it big for not just myself, my team, my people, and many others who I wish to touch with the possibilities of seeing dreams and reaching out to get them, today I feel good taking strides!
May God Bless everyone and give everyone the power to change the world for the better of everyone else
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In the ever cluttered Online Jobs portal domain, much of the niche domain jobs go un-noticed, which is what Sidhartha Bezbora, Founder, VASJobs.com says when I asked him the reason and the concept behind VASJobs.
A seasoned telecom professional, Sidhartha has been a key figure in the Indian Mobile VAS space and has over a decade of experience in the Telecom industry, globally.
VASJobs started as a portal, aimed at creating the right value for the Mobile VAS industry which is niche and hence demands top class talent, which becomes a time consuming activity in itself. VASJobs fills this need-gap in the market, Says Sidhartha.
With the VAS industry growing and the decreasing ARPU’s, innovation is bound to increase and there will be an ever expanding need for professionals who move with the times and own a good understanding of the domain. This is what we aim at leveraging through VASJobs.com, said Sidhartha, while on phone from Assam.
Commenting upon the existing platform, Sidhartha showed, some of the most noted names in the Indian Mobile VAS domain to be listing jobs on the site and says from his experience that the concept has been proven now, that there surely is an existing Gap, which will keep increasing and needs to be answered to, so that companies innovate and create services for the Billion Mobile users we will have in India int he coming years.
The start-up experience is nothing new for Sidhartha, but the excitement is still in full flow, as Sidhartha talks about how a team of 3 is managing the portal and he is looking at expading fast. Interstingly Sidhartha, also mentions how VASJobs is parnering with events, creating much value for them, providing access to the relevant market.
With the proven success story in WirelessDuniya, Sidhartha is on track with creating another online success with VASJobs.com and I wish him all the luck.
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