Discuss Outsourcing, Offshoring, Business, Development, Tourism, Education etc.

Friday, December 24, 2004

Future of BPO Careers in India

Hi,

In the course of my work I come across this question: How long BPO will survive in India? Isnt BPO too hyped up? Will it continue to provide jobs in thousands??

The BPO boom has just begun. In the beginning stages, the work that was being shipped overseas were very very basic - like Data Processing (typing, data entry etc), but over the last few months we find that the quality of the work being shipped is relatively higher order. For example, one leading firm is doing data analytics/mining in the real estate and mortgage segment. Well, nothing great about it, but we have to agree that even the best firms in India very rarely do this nature of work. Thus, the MBAs in India will find better opportunities in BPOs in this domain than what the MBAs from the premium institutes did few years back.

Another trend that I foresee - the people who get employment in the high end BPOs (Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers, Harvard Business School) will have great opportunities to work abroad in Wall Street in the coming years. The reasoning is - any Wall Street firm may want to hire ex Lehman/Goldman Sachs employees - wherever they maybe as long as they have something valuable to offer. The smaller Wall Street firms may not find it feasible to set up ops in India/Philippines so they will certainly maintain their research set ups in Wall Street. Similarly, the GS/Lehman trained professionals will find good work in say Melbourne, Sydney etc.

So folks: if you are working in GS/Lehman BPOs in India... hold on.. you have a great future ahead!


Catch up later,

Subir


Thursday, December 23, 2004

Destinations for the Christmas Holidays

Hi friends,

So what will I be doing this Christmas and New Year holidays ?

Nothing decided so far --- but most likely will be at home.. and lazing around, playing with my dogs, going for a few long walks or go biking.

If you ask me which are the best places to go from Bangalore : Goa, absolutely not (First of all you wont get any accommodation, and secondly all the places are highly priced at this part of the year). You can take a try at the Mangalore - Goa stretch. Places like Kundapur, Karwar, Malpe etc are really great places.

Apart from that another small place close to Bangalore and Chennai is Yelagiri. We had been to Yelagiri recently and find that it is a smalll place with a calm environment. There are a few small hotels and resorts - which is good enough for the modest budget traveller.

All other places within 300 kms /200 miles from Bangalore are completely sold out due to mad rush from Bangalore. Interesting aspect of this holiday is that increasiningly the Bangaloreans are celebrating the Christmas more than the Diwali vacations - much due to the vacations being followed by their US counterparts. So you have firms like HP who have declared holidays for their Indian team.

Bye folks,

Subir