3 best-paying jobs

This is a competitive job market, and unless you’re actively looking for ways to maximize your potential, you will not have that extra edge over other candidates or stand out as a must-keep employee. To begin a good career, one must first choose the right industry. It is always an added plus to be hardworking and reliable, but you also want to roll in the dough.

Here is a list of the three best-paying jobs in the fastest growing industries:

1. Network system jobs/ Data Communication Analysts jobs – This category would also include jobs such as web designing, analyzing, testing and assessing systems for maximum performance. As computers and the internet have only become a more integral part of our lives, it has brought with it an increase of over 50% more jobs.

To get into this industry, a bachelor’s degree is generally a must-have. Some courses are only two years in total. If you’re pressed for time, you may want to look into such courses as a two-year degree in computer science, IT or other such related fields.

2. Dentist jobs/ Dental hygiene jobs – The job of a dentist, and those in this industry can be quite diverse and can range from the upkeep of patients’ teeth and gums to more modern aspects such as cosmetic dentistry, etc.

This industry grown by 30.1% since 2006. To get into this industry, you may want to look into an associate’s degree or a certificate in dental care/ hygiene.

3. Computer/ software engineer jobs – Tying in with point one, thanks to computers and the internet become a critical and integral part of our lives, this industry has picked up exponentially. This industry alone has seen a 44.6% increase in their job availability. This has been predicted to last until 2016.

To get into this industry, you may want to look into a bachelor’s degree in software engineering, computer science, etc. Having work experience on your side, helps too.

"One pay hike comin up!"

On the 22nd of October, Economic Times posted an article on pay hikes in the coming year. Apparently a survey showed that “companies in Asia are set to offer bigger pay rises next year as the region continues to rebound from the global recession’ and that too, ‘notably in India where base salary levels are poised to jump nearly 10%.”

According to a survey by Hewitt Associates, “salaries in Indonesia and China will also surge by 8.7% and 6.7%, respectively, whereas workers in Japan can expect a paltry 2.1% pay rise”.

This survey covered over 2,000 local as well as joint venture companies in the Asia-Pacific area. Hewitt said that “salaries — or annual guaranteed pay — this year in Asia’s fast-growing economic powerhouses, China and India, at 4.5% and 6.3%, respectively, were the lowest since 2005.”

“Salaries barely grew at all in Hong Kong and Japan, this year as companies cut staff. More than 60% of companies surveyed in Hong Kong, Japan and Singapore froze wage levels, compared with only 26.1% in India and 30.8% in China.”

“Next year, only 6% of companies in India and 8.3% in China expect to freeze pay compared with 12-14% of companies in Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong and Australia.”

So, it looks like it’s just about party time for us in the Indian market! The recession is on its way out and pay hikes will be all the rage in just a few short months. Hold on to your seats! Here comes your salary hike.

Has 2010 brought a hiring boom in India?

Mr Elston Pimenta, HR Head, Cybage Software Pvt. Ltd. hosted a Live Chat session on the possible hiring boom in India in 2010. It was organized by TimesJobs on Jan 20th, 2010.

Some highlights/ excerpts of the chat are as follows:

“Recruiters need to be innovative all the time by looking for cost – effective ways of hiring. Some suggestions:

1.Check ROI carefully.

2. Use referral systems.

3. Network.

4. Have strong internal databases.

5. Keep in touch with all the past applicants/ employees.

6. Use sites to attract attention of prospective candidates, etc.”

Other highlights of advice that Mr. Pimenta gave to candidates include:

“Branding is vital for any firm. Work on this aspect and grow through networking.”

“Look at how “employable” you are at the moment. It has always been a challenge and it will always remain so. That is the “spice” of work-life. If you have kept abreast with technology advancements, you will not face a problem.”

“Unfortunately a boom is never forever. It will iron out in due course of time as…the “demand” and “supply” stabilize.”

“Do not compromise on quality and at all times maintain internal equity first, before being influenced by the industry.”

To read the complete chat transcripts, click here.

• Printable version

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Salary hikes predicted for 2010!

Good news is back as it looks like salary hikes will be used by HR managers as a technique to retain their work-force, and reward their employees for sticking with the organization during the financial market-slump.

Recently, livemint.com published an article in which they estimated that in 2010, industry-wise salary hikes could likely be as:

“Auto/ auto components, consumer goods, pharmaceuticals – 12%
Information technology/ telecom – 11%
Financial services, manufacturing – 10%
Others – 9%”

They quoted their source for these findings, as: Mercer India Monitor – October to December 2009.

There are reports that some companies are planning to up the pay hike till as much as a 20% increase. “Brokerage firm Motilal Oswal Financial Services Ltd, for instance, plans to give an average raise of 20% to its 1,250 employees in April. Sudhir Dhar, head of human resources (HR), said most brokerages would offer 15-20% increments as the business was doing well on the back of robust stock markets.” livemint.com said.

While employers and HR managers get busy with assessing current salary packages and industry pay-norms, employees are silently rejoicing. This upcoming pay-hike will make up for the lack of increments they have been facing over the last year and some change, as well as tide them over in the rising inflation.

However, it may be as a preemptive measure, that companies are promising such generous salary-hikes. With the market boom rearing its promising face, organizations are steeling themselves for the expected oncoming attack of attrition. Employers realize that for the want of a small salary hike, their talented employees may just switch jobs. Hence, they are willing to provide their employees with this awaited increment.

How far will you go to 'eat' that problem?

I was talking to a friend of mine just yesterday. In the course of our discussion came up the topic of Customer Service Jobs and how taxing they must be when one is faced with an irate customer.

Luckily, when working at a BPO job, I had never been faced with an angry client, but the reality is there, and one always has the chance of seeing it first hand, as happened when I was visiting a restaurant yesterday.

The restaurant was swarmed with people, and the atmosphere was noisy. A table in the absolute corner had ordered – and paid for – a plate of vegetarian paneer tikka. Instead, they’d been served chicken tikka. Oddly enough, they ate halfway through the plate of it before realizing it was most definitely not paneer tikka. With irritation that could’ve won an audition for some of Shakespeare’s plays, they annouced to the employees that they would not rest till the General Manager had heard all about it. I for one, had better things to do on a weekend, than wait around to see the end of that.

As I was relating this experience to my friend however, he mentioned how he’d spoken to someone working in a pizza joint who had an interesting story along these line. The guy with the pizza job told my friend the following story:

A customer had ordered a vegetarian pizza. As there was only a single pizza knife for both the veg and non-veg pizzas, a sliver of chicken had accidentally landed up on the new customer’s veg paneer pizza.

Holding up the piece of chicken, the irate customer stormed up to the counter and told the employees what they’d done. He demanded that they explain to him why he’d found chicken in his paneer pizza. He also informed them that he’d called the press, and that they were on their way. One employee asked to see the chicken piece.

As the customer handed it over to him, he promptly put it in his mouth and promptly declared that it wasn’t chicken, but in fact a piece of paneer.

By the time the press arrived, I’m told the conversation went something like this:

“There was NON-veg chicken in my VEG paneer pizza!”

“Very well. Can you show the evidence to us?”

“No! He ate it!”

That quick-thinking employee certainly saved the day for his company and I’m sure he was aptly rewarded.

How many situations can be solved with not only quick-thinking employees, but from employees who are quick to take action to resolve negative situations. Are you a quick-thinking employee who is willing to ‘eat’ that piece of problem before it turns nasty? If you are, you’re a resource your company is depending on and you have a skill that will keep you recession-proof.

We know that not every situation can be resolved by eating it. What are some situations you have found yourself in and what means did you use to get yourself out of it? Write about it here and let others learn from your experiences.

Job-hunt on TechGig!

Imagine if you could have a site that had amazing features on one site that was created just for you. If you can, you’re pretty quick. The TimesJobs team created TechGig to suit your specific needs. Check out their brand new site. With TechGigyou can:

1. Get Premium Tech Jobs. You can get exclusive IT jobs available to only you. With jobs from top employers all in one place, the goal to find a better paying job is attainable.

2. Personalize your space. You have the liberty to customize your personal tech space as per your key skills and experience. Additionally, you can receive regular blog/ news updates with ease by adding feeds of your favorite IT blogs to your personal space.

3. Advance your career. As a job seeker, you can advance your career in unique ways. You can see which top skills are currently in demand, get to know how much your batchmates are earning and in which industry, post your resume for employers and more.

Be an active job seeker, gain success!

Do you procrastinate when it comes to searching for a new job? Are you discontent with your job, and yet you’re just sitting idly watching those chances go by? If you are comfortable enough with seeing other around you jump for new opportunities, while you make no effort to grab your own, chances are, you’re a job-search procrastinator.

You may be wondering what exactly it means to be a job-search procrastinator. Dictionary.com says that the word ‘procrastinate’ means “to defer action; delay: to procrastinate until an opportunity is lost” or “to put off till another day or time; defer; delay”.

So to be a job-search procrastinator, all you have to do is to keep telling yourself that you will job hunt, but you’ll do it tomorrow. There’s an old saying which says: “Mañana (tomorrow) never comes”. Therefore, you know you are a job-search procrastinator if you deliberately dodge better possibilities, or try to make yourself believe that you’ll do it ‘tomorrow’.

A procrastinator may display characteristics such as being an introvert, shy and/ or expect nothing from their career as they are content to just stay wherever they are at. They are not risk-takers, and as such, will not move ahead like those around them.

If you find yourself in this category of people, it’s time you wake up and kick-start your move ahead in your professional life. You can be transformed into an active job seeker with just a few simple steps.

One of the best ways to reverse this vicious cycle is to make a task-list and endeavor to achieve it. It will serve as a map for where you want to go and where you are headed.

There’s no place in the halls of success for those who procrastinate. If you’ve been laid back and still expecting the miracles to happen, you’ll find that you’re wrong. Get up, get moving and grab success by the horns.