Dear Student,

I am pleased to connect with you on the subject of your career. I am sure you are doing exceedingly well in your job. At the same time, I am also alive to and aware of your pre-occupation with the question –
What next?
How do I change the orbit of my career?
What will turbo-charge my career and help accelerate my ascent?

Having personally mentored and coached many a thousand, I feel it an important part of my duty to initiate this dialogue.  It has helped many.  If it helps you too, I will be most delighted.


Early experience is valuable. Put your best:
Early experience is invaluable. The kind of job or the size of company does not matter.  Blue chip sounds fine but remember, start-ups are in vogue too.  This is an era of disruption.  Start-ups disrupt. Small and unknown companies give way too much of great exposure to be ignored.  So, please don’t chase known names for the heck of it.

Stay true to your job and Maximise your learning. Build great reputation through your contribution.  Don’t shy away from the day to day challenges.   Don’t jump jobs randomly. Stay put. Go deep. Learn all that you can.  It will stand in good stead as we work on your master career plan.

Stay restless. Stay impatient. Search for next phase:
Youth is about energy, restlessness, impatience.  All these are your strengths. It is important to channelise them well. Stay restless.  Keep thinking about what will lead to your orbit change.  You and I get outdated if we don’t keep re-skilling ourselves constantly.  Higher education and global cross-cultural exposure are two important routes to orbit change.

Higher education crucial.  But, aspire high.  Don’t settle for a ‘tthappa’:
There is no scope to live in denial. Just an under- degree in Engineering or Math or Economics is not good enough.  Your peers are moving on and adding additional qualifications and skills.  The industry wants ready-made professionals.  They are willing to pay more if you have readymade skills.  It is the hard reality.   An engineer or an Eco-grad who gets Rs 4 Lakhs or so, as a beginner, jumps to Rs 12-15 lakhs, should he go to a top IIM.  All of us are aware of it.

There is a catch, though.  As a working professional, you have to factor in the opportunity cost of quitting your job and going for a GRE or GMAT or CAT.  Any random institute is not a goal.  Any degree or “MBA ka Tthappa” is not worth it.  Aspire high.  Aspire for a place that changes your career orbit.

In fact, I have advised hundreds of young professionals to aim for nothing less than the top-4 IIMs. Or may be, one or two more.  You can and must also consider GMAT as a worthy option.  The apparent cost of MBA education at a college in Singapore or Europe or Shanghai or US might appear high…..but, you know that it is not about cost alone.  It is about Return on Investment (ROI). It is about the crucial question – what is the payback period ???

So, stay open minded. Blue ocean strategy works (Google it, if you have not heard that one).

The World is your stage.  Don’t be myopic:
The world is your stage. No blinkers, please. Doctors are becoming managers. Civil servants are becoming entrepreneurs. Indians are investing abroad. Europeans and Americans are coming to India and Asia for on-the-ground experience.  Where do you want to go?  What is your plan?

Stay awake. Get started. Stay restless. If you are thinking of an orbit change through any route – MBA-2016 or 2017 or GMAT or GRE for higher-education abroad or entrepreneurship or even a job change, just write to me at satya@careerlauncher.com

A career path can be worked out together. Happy to be a part of your next orbit change. Happy to take your query

Satya Narayanan R
Founder CL
IIMB Alumnus