From IT to HR: successful career switch

From IT to HR: successful career switch

The overcrowded HR industry has more competition with increasingly seasoned IT professionals switching careers to don the HR cap
Arun S Gopalan did his BE and worked in a reputed IT company for about 10 years. He rose to be a team leader, switched careers and today after seven years is heading the HR division of an IT product company that is a trade and risk management banking solutions provider.
His responsibilities include hiring entry-level technical developers and training them, in addition to identifying candidates for mid-level positions which require experience and niche specialisations. His is not a rare case. Today, several IT and telecom companies prefer to hire experienced IT professionals as their HRD personnel.
“Today, the HR function is increasingly being viewed as a key contributor to the growth of a company. Organisations, can also not afford to have long training periods and expect the recruits to learn fast and become a contributing member at the earliest. Considering all these factors, an IT person who is geared to people management and organisational behavior is clearly on high demand,” says  Puneet Aggarwal, HR head, eNT Data Management Solutions, a former IT professional who switched careers as early as in 2007.
The advantage this segment of professionals bring to the table is their ability to leverage their IT experience and identify exactly what the company wants and spot the right fit. Take the case of Usha Omanakutan, who made the switch from IT to HR successfully and today, has floated her own consultancy which specialises on senior-level recruitment.
“I went the IT route and have been working in various software & technology development positions for most of my career. In the course of my IT career, I developed an interest in using my knowledge acquired in my Organisational Behavior degree which I had got when I was in the US, soon after my marriage. This helped in translating the company’s vision and strategy effectively to my team,” says Omanakutan.
Recognition of this skill helped her in making a smooth career switch to HR. Today, she has flexi hours and is able to earn almost as much as she would have earned as an experienced IT professional.
Flexibility in work hours and IT knowledge are two key reasons why several women from the IT segment are opting to hone their skills in HR after gaining experience as an IT professional, says Simran Sharma, career counselor and guide, who has directed several IT personnel to gain suitable certifications when they decided to switch careers mid-stream.
“It is mostly your experience, passion and values that decide a successful career and as long as you can demonstrate these qualities, changing profession mid-stream needn’t really be a problem in today’s world,” says Sharma.
Issues in change
This is not to say that breaking into HR–especially in this economy–can be an easy sail.The world of IT and recruiting are very different.
“Experience matters right now since employers require niche talent, but on the flip side they also have their pick of highly competent and experienced candidates,” says Aggarwal. “The organisation’s interest in you delivering their manpower requirement according to their ethos and mandate has to be fast. Most of them want top rankers with low job hopping and excellent credentials at a salary which may or may not be bright.”
Often large organisations expect their HR to sell the company’s brand value to the candidates. This could be like a lateral shift in hierarchy for a former IT professional. This can mean the candidate may have to unlearn whatever he/she has learnt in their career so far and re-learn to focus on different aspects of the company. This could be exciting as well as stressful.
Some factors to be kept in mind to effectively make the change include:

• Awareness of employment dynamics of these two professions which are quite different

“Your background in IT make you uniquely qualified (in some ways) to be an IT recruiter, primarily because you understand the IT function and the needs of the IT industry better than a non techy. However, if you are not a people person, cannot read a candidate and lack the ability to develop processes, the chances are you won’t make it, “says Aggarwal.

• Compensation package

“IT recruiters are compensated differently than IT professionals. HR-IT recruiters are also brand/sales representatives, so their compensation is based on different performance parameters. These may include base + commission or commission only and not on level of technical skill or certification alone,” says Omanakutan.
Either ways the crowded field got that much more competitive today.

 

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