Recruitment to Assistant Manager- HR and back to US IT staffing - Am I on the right career path?

Dear all, I have an experience of 5 years in HR.I started my career as an Executive HR in a manufacturing company afterwards I got an opportunity to work in a BPO as Sr. Executive HR where my profile was majorly into Recruitment and ER. I worked with this company for 2 years. Then I got an opportunity to work as Assistant Manager- HR with an organisation where I was handling Policy making and implementation, Recruitment, Training and development, Grievances etc.

There was a team of 3 people who were reporting to me. But due to some unavoidable reasons I left this job. Now I have joined a US IT staffing company as IT Recruiter, the package, facilities, environment is very good here.. but I am worried where my career is moving towards..? As I had grown from Executive to Assistant Manager during the 5 years of my career and now I am again on the same position but with a huge difference in my salary. Please suggest me was it a right decision or not...? And what should I do do see my salary and position moving parallel to each other..?

Hello Rashmi,

The answer to your query 'Am I on the right career path...??' depends a lot on what do YOU THINK is the right career path.

Pl remember that there's NEVER a perfect answer for such issues--only MOST APPROPRIATE ones.

You mention that you are back to the Recruiter's role BUT with a higher salary than as an Asst Manager. If you notice/evaluate, the high salary is NOT DUE TO YOUR CAPABILITY ALONE. It's more to do with the industry you are in now [since the company deals with the US market & earns in Dollars, they can afford such salaries--much like the high disparity/differential between IT & Non-IT sectors, if you get what I mean]. You didn't mention the timing here--if you are into night shifts continuously, you may wish to consider that factor since not many can handle night shifts for extended periods.

You also mentioned reg 'what should I do to see my salary and position moving parallel to each other..?' Pl note that the USA culture is to have very minimum levels of designations in the organization hierarchy, unlike in India where we have a designation change almost every 2-3 yrs of service--so in effect you seem to be comparing apples & oranges. [If you keep track of the happenings in the Indian IT sector, you may have noticed that anyone with an exp of 3-8 yrs is designated as 'Associate' in many companies--basically the US way of handling].

Another factor that would most likely crop-up later in your career is this: when you put-in exp of over a year or so here, much of your exp would be USA-centric. So if & when you wish to change to another company in India, this COULD become a big disadvantage, since most companies would prefer Indian HR exp--even if it's recruitment. So, by & large, you would be limiting yourself to any future career shifts to similar companies only--sort of narrowing-down of your future prospects. Per se, this is NOT A DISADVANTAGE, since it depends on YOUR PRIORITIES, like I mentioned earlier. If you wish to settle down in this specific focused domain, YOU ARE ON THE RIGHT TRACK. But if you want to have many options open, this COULD be a disadvantage.

In a single line I would summarize as follows: pl don't take only CTC & Designation into account while making a career choice/decision.

I hope I have NOT confused things for you :-)

Rgds,

TS

Thanks Rashmi......your remarks are indeed satisfying that I did succeed to bring clarity in your thought process rather than confusing, like I feared :-)
Rgds,
TS