Many chuck cushy MNC careers for government jobs

“I was deeply involved in mergers and acquisitions and would take home an annual salary package of Rs 50 lakh,” Mishra, originally hailing from Andhra Pradesh and an IIM-Ahmedabad MBA graduate, told Deccan Herald.

Recently, he cleared the Union Public Service Commission-conducted civil services examination and was posted as assistant collector in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, with an annual salary that is less than one-tenth he drew at Goldman Sachs.

Mishra is not alone. He is among a cohort of youngsters who have quit well-paid jobs in multi-national corporations, that also accorded them comfortable lives, to join the civil services. For instance, Mishra’s course mate while undergoing training at the IAS academy in Mussoorie, Sandeep Nanduri, chucked his job at Hewlett Packard (HP), cleared the UPSC examination in the first attempt and then took charge as assistant collector at Virudhnagar in Tamil Nadu.

Call it what you will -- a temptation for power, the lure of perks that babus enjoy or even a belief in serving the people -- the 2009 IAS batch that passed out of Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration in Mussoorie has many young officers, several of whom studied in some of the southern cities, including Bangalore, and gave up their MNC tags to join the great Indian civil service, once the steel frame of the British empire.

Many are from South India, with their hometowns in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. Academy Director Padamvir Singh told Deccan Herald that there are at least 35 per cent officers in the 2009 batch who left big corporates and other private sector jobs to join the IAS.

Many want to be the agents of a solution and a part of the problem, pledging to weed out corruption in everyday government functioning and ushering in functional administrative reforms that would facilitate the public.

Lead from the front

Talking to Deccan Herald, Mishra explained: “You can tackle any situation if you maintain an upright taintless image. One needs to lead from the front. Corruption breeds wherever there are ineffective systems of accountability and blemished record of officials in public dealing. This will have to change and I am here for this.” Mishra grew up looking for a corporate job.

After taking an MBA degree from IIM-Ahmedabad, Mishra went to the US to work for Goldman Sachs for two years. It was then that he realised he didn’t want to lead a corporate life. “The IAS is one job where you can impact the lives of many. The scope in the corporate sector is limited to making money with little job security and status. I could have only served a specific sector,” he said.

Nanduri, a marketing manager with HP, drew close to Rs 12 lakh as annual starting salary. He is now settling in his first government job as assistant collector of Virudhunagar. Nanduri quit his job, sat at home and prepared for the UPSC examination.

For this MBA holder from IIM-Bangalore, the quality of life, the respect that comes with the job and the kind of work one can do to empower people’s lives as a civil servant is a big lure, bigger than what fat corporate salaries can buy.

“My priority is now to ensure that public dealing jobs are hassle-free so that it strengthens the image of the administrative machinery in the state,” he says.

For Rohan Thakur, another MBA IIM-Ahmedabad degree-holder, it was the attraction of the global markets that made him take up a job with Tata Administrative Services, Mumbai. However, Thakur, an economics graduate from St Stephens College in New Delhi, found that he was attracted to the IAS.

Fulfilling experience

“I strongly feel that the civil services builds you as an individual and gives you a more fulfilling experience. There’s job security, status and it offers you enough room to make a contribution to society. Lifestyle is certainly a temptation,” says Thakur, whose mission is now to bring in some tangible results in administration delivery system.

According to Padamvir Singh, talent has always been attracted to the civil services and IIT students, MBAs and doctors have joined the IAS. “It’s heartening to see that young people are choosing the IAS over fat salaries and corporate lifestyle,” Singh said.

The rise in the number of aspirants vying for the IAS seems to corroborate his statement.
“From a decline, there were nearly 4.09 lakh applicants for the first leg of the civil services examination last year. Given that the number was 3.25 lakh in 2008, the jump has been steep,” sources said, Also, the revised pay packages have also made the job more lucrative.