Your Career Concerns Addressed Date:   Saturday , January 01, 2000 Does Creativity Count? I have a Bachelors degree from India. All I have is experience in the airline Industry as I worked as a Flight attendant in a major airline. Now I am living in the U.S and planning on making a career change. Currently I am taking up a computer course in Oracle, VB, Unix & C. I would like to know, what other skills I would need to be an IT Recruiter? And what is the salary range? I am willing to start at an entry level. - Shubz You are ready to go. I do not think you need any other additional qualifications. I have seen people recruiting in the IT industry with much less experience. The question is how will you get your break. For this you have to develop a lot of contacts. The opportunities for this type of work is quite abundant in the Silicon Valley. I do not think the opportunities are that prolific in other parts of the country. But to get your break you need to network a lot. Also, you have to develop your own sourcing channels. Also, I think recruiting in the US is quite different from India, so one has to learn the American systems. I know of some recruiter from India who jumped into the fray in the US and are now struggling. But once you get in, the rewards can be great. Usually IT recruiters are paid like sales people. You get a base around $40K to $50K and then there are commissions on placement which can take your compensation into the six figure range. Career Transition I have an MBA in the field of Marketing and International Business with a year and a half of work experience in marketing in India. I am interested in the dynamic area of web- development and have learnt Frontpage and the graphic software Photoshop. The job market requires that web masters and web- developers should have solid knowledge of programming languages like Java and HTML. My question is - do I need to learn all these languages to gain just an entry-level job as a web master? Can't I find a foothold in this market with my current skills without going into the intricacies of programming? - Aishwarya I am afraid your chances will increase only if you learn the programming languages. The software you have learnt gives the skills of a graphic artist and not necessarily of a Web Master. Web Masters have to technically design and develop Web Sites and pages and all that, so you have to know the languages. Go for it, with your energy and motivation it can't be that difficult to pick up these skills. Marketing Opportunities I am an Electronics & Communication Engineer with 19 years experience in various fields. I have worked for Hindustan Aeronautics Limited in the production of Jaguar aircraft cockpit and also in another company in the production of EPABX systems. Now I'm working in a university in computer maintenance section. I have a good experience in repairing computers etc. and am currently learning Java. I have made two Client/Server programs using Access at the back end. Next year I am planning to go to India and settle there. Even though I don't have real programming experience I wish to go in the programming side. Can you please suggest which line I should choose to get a job easily in India at the same time having job satisfaction - Amarnath It seems to your best bet is get into systems administration or network administration. Combining you extensive experience in equipment maintenance and such it seems to me that you are a natural for these positions. The demand for these types of people will remain extremely high what with more and more networks, servers and the like. This will naturally be true in India also. Also, this can be an exciting profession, almost like that of a doctor, you will be key to keep the pulse of any organization going. You will carry a lot of pagers and become quite in demand when there is a need to trouble- shoot and problem solve. Exciting, challenging and full of twists and turns. Therefore lending itself to a lot of job satisfaction. It will be quite easy for you to get a job in India. Also, these positions require a broad knowledge of software like Java etc. And you have been correctly learning these languages. So I see no problems for you just smooth sailing. Am I Prepared? I wish to know what is the competitive strength of Semiconductor Industry in India, and what opportunities are in store for professionals in this industry if they wish to go back to India. - Milind According to me, India is not really that huge in semiconductors. What I have heard is most of the effort in India in semiconductors are in design houses. Semiconductor manufacturing requires very large outlays of capital and solid infrastructure arrangements. Manufacturing in Semiconductors is highly automated therefore it does not require a tremendous expenditure of human capital, which India is famous for. But high level design requires engineering talent and there is plenty of that in India. Dr. Bhashker Biswas is the president of Integrated Personnel Systems, Inc. He has over 25 years of human resource management experience with various companies. Write to bhasker@corp.siliconindia.com.