[adisan]

Fake MNC job racket busted in Bengaluru (Deccan Herald news report)

[irdevanand]

Mods,

Kindly move this post to the right thread or create a new thread on IT companies gifting cars. First the BMW 530D Msport https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/luxur...ml#post5294113 (Buying a used BMW 5-Series (G30)) now 100 Maruti cars gifted to IT staff in chennai
https://www.livemint.com/companies/n...690089220.html



Regards
Dev

[am1m]

Been listening to a buddy over the past week who got laid off because their company is in trouble due to the economic conditions in the US, and learned a lot.

This person is not even in the 'hot' experience bracket (5-7), has over 15+ years. So by conventional wisdom is pretty much in the worst situation to be laid off. But this person was so calm, I think I was more worried than them!

Some factors that helped (and I am learning from):

*This person has seen enough people affected by snap IT layoffs all through their career, so learned early on to keep x months expenses in readily accessible form.
*Avoided debt. Fortunately this person had cleared the one loan they had, and resisted the temptation to pick up another one to buy a bigger car or fancy bike.
*Had a working spouse in a different company. The peace of mind this offers is incredible. Can't come to terms with people (several of my friends included) who made their spouses quit after they had a child. It's asking for trouble. Support them with the child, get family help, hire a nanny. But it's good to have that second income.
*Watch the exec exits. If suddenly you see more people than usual disappearing from the company mailing list, you know something is up.
*Work your network quick. If it were me and I had enough savings for a few months, I'd have taken a break and then started looking. This person was on to their network as soon as the company informed them. There are still companies in other sectors and that don't depend on US customers that are hiring. And the "no notice period" is a great attraction to a recruiter already working to fill positions.

Was also great to see this person's network come together to help. Seemed like they were genuinely pushing the profile. I gather this person was really good at their work at their previous roles and they told me they made it a point to keep in touch when they had moved on. Not expecting anything, and not with everyone, but with people they really liked to have as friends. In fact the job offer they are close to getting (within 2 weeks of getting laid off!) was through a contact from a company they worked at 10 years ago! Be nice to your co-workers, you never know.

[JediKnight]

Have been laid off twice very early on in my career, it turned out to be a blessing in disguise as i took corrective action. As of today i am in a comfortable position due to my actions and know that i have enough to take care of the basics come what may.

My experience is for relatively high paying semi-conductor industry that i am part of. For service industry your survival strategy could be different.

Some lessons learnt.

1. Get financially literate. Start investing early on to get experience. Start with small amounts. Educate yourself. It takes time and experience to get good at investing. You cannot become good at it by just reading some articles or listening to main stream media.

2. Save and invest. Save and invest. Like a maniac. Especially in the early part of your career. I have kept my expenses less than 33% of my take home for close to two decades now. Remember the money you earn is Income - Expenses. Not Income only

3. Keep a check on lifestyle. This is the biggest waste of money. Do not let your lifestyle creep up with every increase you get.

4. IT industry is like cricket. Your experience increase your value for some time. After that you are too old to play. Keep that in mind before you splurge. Also remember we have no government social protection net. We have to fend for ourselves for medical expenses, retirement etc.

5. Earn as much as possible. Make hay while there is Sun especially if you are skilled and relatively young. Change your company after every three years especially in the early stages of your career. If you stick too long with a company your will be underpaid.

6. Be careful of the real-estate trap. Evaluate very carefully before you invest in real-estate. Many of my colleagues have become slaves to high emi with nothing left to invest.

7. Explore the option of living in low cost town. With remote working it is possible. On of my colleagues shifted with his family to Bhilai in Chhattisgarh where as he works for a silicon valley company. He saves a ton of money because of this while enjoying a small town life.

[adithya.kp]

Great points, particularly the 4th one. I agree on financial independence. (This actually is a must). But one would still be uncomfortable. Not being employed is never a good feeling. There is social pressure too. People in most of the other sectors work till 60. Politicians work till 90 or so.

The cricket analogy is very good. But what is the solution to this problem? I would love to hear your views. One thing I can think of is, do the minimum at work and stop caring about good rating, promotion etc. (Because eventually almost everyone would be made redundant no matter how good the past performance was). And in most of the cases, the actual job doesn't add any value in terms of learning etc. Use the free time to build something on your own. (One should be passionate about tech though).

Originally Posted by JediKnight

4. IT industry is like cricket. Your experience increase your value for some time. After that you are too old to play. Keep that in mind before you splurge. Also remember we have no government social protection net. We have to fend for ourselves for medical expenses, retirement etc.

[deehunk]

Originally Posted by adithya.kp

Great points, particularly the 4th one.One thing I can think of is, do the minimum at work and stop caring about good rating, promotion etc. (Because eventually almost everyone would be made redundant no matter how good the past performance was). And in most of the cases, the actual job doesn't add any value in terms of learning etc. Use the free time to build something on your own. (One should be passionate about tech though).

I recently quit AMAT after a painful stint of 5 years, but as you said everything becomes redundant after some time. My advice is to spend less on loans and save money during our prime age. I found a new passion for writing and pursuing a MA now in Kannada.

[xway]

The biggest trap every created by finance, builders, government nexus is real estate.

Simple, if you have job you can afford to rent.
If you dont have job you can move to your native and do not have to pay rent nor EMI.

Gone are the days when projects were launched at Rs.1200/1800 Sq Feet at less than half 5 kms away from the city. And they appreciated to double or even triple in some years giving good returns.

Now at launch itself the price is Rs. 6000/15000 sq feet, where the land owners, finance, governement (both over and under table) already have taken the margin which the end user might get after project delivery and locality development.

So all the user is left with is risk and paying before hand the price which has already been milked dry.

Risk is enormous with every second builder running away, no one loses money other than the end buyers.

Also, another point how finance planners ask you to keep buffer of 6 months or 1 year.

I believe the buffer should be double of that minimum, its just not running expenses but also other exigencies that one should be prepared for.

That being said, one can still buy real estate if he has the full money, though he can take loan and the money might be in shares, fds other assets, but should be convertible enough to close loan whenever necessary.

[SoumenD]

Originally Posted by JediKnight

Some lessons learnt.

3. Keep a check on lifestyle. This is the biggest waste of money. Do not let your lifestyle creep up with every increase you get.

This. I have been a victim during my 20s/early-30s. Realised it around mid 30s and have since tried to follow this. But when I try to educate my younger brother or guys his age(early 30s again), they don’t seem to bother. Guess one becomes wise gradually with age. Just hope its not too late by the time you do

Originally Posted by JediKnight

4. IT industry is like cricket. Your experience increase your value for some time. After that you are too old to play. Keep that in mind before you splurge. Also remember we have no government social protection net. We have to fend for ourselves for medical expenses, retirement etc.

Perfectly put. And there’s very little we can do about it other than keep upskilling which becomes tough as you age and have more responsibilities back home.

Originally Posted by JediKnight

6. Be careful of the real-estate trap. Evaluate very carefully before you invest in real-estate. Many of my colleagues have become slaves to high emi with nothing left to invest.

Yes the rates in tier-1 cities(not counting Mumbai, that’s in a different realm) have gone insane. Even in the outskirts of Bangalore I don’t see any 3bhk under 1cr which is preposterous. And what’s worse is lately people are lapping these up like crazy thanks to the insane salary boom in last year and a half. So there’s no way the rates will get reasonable anytime soon.

If the IT bubble bursts with the upcoming recession, probably the rates would get a bit normalised but the builder lobby is so strong that I have never seen them reducing prices. Some offers at best they would roll out. But then if there’s a recession, real estate would be the last thing on your mind. We 15+ folks would have bigger things to worry about

[download2live]

Originally Posted by adithya.kp

The cricket analogy is very good. But what is the solution to this problem?

Develop domain expertise
There always will be newer shiny stuff coming in IT. But unless there is a person who knows the field like the back of his hand these new things will never deliver value. AWS cloud consulting teams failed to create useful prototype at many clients location because of this reason. No matter what the technology, right questions and problem statements are needed. That is where a domain expert comes in.

Certifications
I used to have mixed feeling about them but now I realize that they actually help you to get the job done better. Though using them to woo recruiters is wrong approach imho. Then focus goes to clearing certifications (in a hurry) rather than learning and taking a stock of places where you can apply it.

[charanreddy]

+1. The one certain thing about IT / knowledge jobs is that nothing is certain. I know of VPs who are barely 32 years of age while people at lower rung of the organisation are 50+ years of age. When ever there are high profile exits , almost always one layer below gets replaced. In time other changes follow.

Relatively speaking folks less than 40 - 45 years are riding with the current, things fall into place more easily and predictably. After 45 years of age, only a few of the folks continue to make progress in career. The rest find it tough competing with younger folks / taking up jobs requiring much lesser experience than what they have. The below circle of creativity (credit : Paul Arden ) explains this well.



If one is in IT, please aim to get a handle on your life by the time you turn 45. No loans, reasonable investments, preferably a house to live in and some amount of money set aside for a rainy day.. if you are not knowledgable about financial health and strategy, employ the services of a fee only financial planner.

[sunbaj]

Mod Note:

Let’s not resort to crude analogies and maintain the quality of the discourse.

Thank you for your understanding.

[sukhbirST]

Great inputs and must be followed in principle. However, going through all car purchase experiences in TBHP threads, it appears car loan is the main source of money. There may be very few like me who save and buy. Surprising is the fact that, if someone has requested for a recommendation with fixed budget, many are giving suggestions to increase the budget. Driving and travelling can be done with basic requirements also. Everyone must understand between want and need. Today I am glad that my bike is 13 years old and car is going strong at 19 years. Regarding real estate decide what you want, home or investment.

[deehunk]

It will indeed be good if the retirement age is reverted to 55 years or made it 52 years.

[KuvamBansal]

Originally Posted by deehunk

It will indeed be good if the retirement age is reverted to 55 years or made it 52 years.

I personally don't think it is a good idea nor is financially feasible. With an improving life expectancy due to much better medical facilities and standard of living, I don't think our society/economy/govt can support a huge non-working population.

Indians generally start working late at age of ~22 years and retirement at 52 years will leave us with a working life is just 30 years. Not sure how sustainable that would be.

[deehunk]

Originally Posted by KuvamBansal

I don't think our society/economy/govt can support a huge non-working population.

Indians generally start working late at age of ~22 years and retirement at 52 years will leave us with working life is just 30 years. Not sure how sustainable that would be.

I beg to differ that medical facilities have improved which is not affordable, and the standard of living has been good up to the point of our parents. I am worried about the living condition of people like us who are in their mid-40s, it has to start somewhere to keep the youth confident. It is a debatable topic but we have neither controlled the population nor the migration of people nor created enough opportunities for the next generation.