Working Post Retirement: 71-Year-Old Safdar Zaidi Made A Profitable Career In Corporate Training

Most septuagenarians find comfort in their rocking chairs. Not Saiyid Safdar Abbas Zaidi. At 71, he is still taking on freelance corporate training assignments, and is a published author to boot.

From an early age Zaidi showed an inclination towards teaching and training. “My father was also a teacher and I wanted to follow in his footsteps. So, in 1961, after completing my education in Lucknow, I moved to Mumbai in search of employment,” says Zaidi. He quickly landed a job teaching English and Hindi at a small institute in central Mumbai. Over the next three years, he continued teaching on a parttime basis, while pursuing a bachelor’s degree in education.

A chance glance at an advertisement in a newspaper, regarding job openings at the Union Bank of India, made Zaidi rethink his career path in 1964. The bank job was not only more lucrative but also more secure, so he applied for it. “I was selected after I passed the qualifying exams and interviews. My bank job took me to different branches in the country, including Allahabad and Kanpur,” he says.

Then, in 1970, Zaidi got an opportunity to get back to his first love: training. “As a part of routine staff development training, which is mandatory for all bank officers, I took part in a debate. Impressed with my debating skills and confidence, my seniors offered me the job of a staff trainer, which I readily accepted,” he shares.

Zaidi dedicated the next nine years of his life to training Union Bank of India staffers on soft skills and banking procedures before switching to the Bombay Mercantile Cooperative Bank (BMCB) in 1979. “I got an offer to head BMCB’s staff training college as principal. After putting in two years of work, I accepted a new challenge in Dubai. I was asked to set up a staff training centre for the Bank of Oman (now the Mashreq Bank) in Dubai,” he says, adding, “I joined as head of training and development, and quit as assistant general manager 18 years later.” His last job, before hanging up his boots, was with the Commercial Bank of Dubai. “I worked there from 1999 to 2005, when I retired as head of career development,” he says.

Though Zaidi quit work, he had no intention of giving up his passion for training. “I had gained a lot of respect in Dubai over the 25 years I spent there. So I decided to take up freelance training projects to keep myself busy,” he explains.

In the aftermath of the 11 September 2001 terror attack in New York, many countries rushed to have stringent anti-money laundering laws in place. “The UAE government was no exception and there was an urgent need to train banking staff on the new regulations. So, in 2001, I volunteered to train the staff at the Commercial Bank of Dubai,” he says. The research he conducted and his experiences on the job sparked off a new idea—to write a book. “However, I was very busy with my training assignments and had to put this plan on the backburner,” he rues. 

When he was 65 years old, Zaidi finally decided to slow down. “In 2008, I returned to Mumbai, where my family was based. I figured this would give me the chance to realise my dream of writing a book,” he adds. However, before he could do this, he needed to renew his contacts in order to reestablish himself in India since he had been out of the country for too long. “Many of my colleagues from the Union Bank days were either retired or at senior levels in various banks. It took me nearly six months to touch base with those who were still working, and through them I started getting corporate training assignments in India as well,” he says.

Zaidi now gets training assignments for bank employees on a regular basis. “I conduct training on subjects like banking operations and credit appraisals. In Dubai, I used to make $1,500-2,000 (Rs 64,000-86,000 at that time) per day of training, but in India I charge nearly Rs 6,000 for two hours,” he says. Despite this fall in earning, he has no regrets. “I earned well while working in Dubai and now do it simply because I love teaching. I still make Rs 25,000-30,000 a month from my hobby,” he adds. In September 2010, Zaidi was ready with his first book, a collection of articles he had penned on managerial skills. “I did not commercialise this book and merely distributed it among my friends,” he says.

His dream of becoming an acknowledged author came true in July 2013, when his second book, Anti-Money Laundering/Anti-Terrorism Financing and Know Your Customer—Bankers’ Handbook hit the shelves and sold all the 1,000 copies that were published.

These days, Zaidi is busy working on the second edition of his Bankers’ Handbook. “This is the reason I have cut down my training assignments to just four or five a month. Besides, I am working on my third book, Foreign Trade and Letter of Credit Operation (Beginner’s Guide). Both these books should be out soon, ” he says.

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