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Anjana Chandramouly

If you think young BPO workers splurge their earnings, look again... Youngsters fresh out of college are realising that a BPO job can be their ticket to higher education.

When Nandhini Raman completed her B.E. last year, she immediately set about looking for a job, much against the wishes of her parents who wanted her to study further. "Why should they finance my higher education? I want to fund my own studies," was her argument. Though this was her plan, she had no clue how to put it into action. That's when she heard about her friends joining a BPO and the kind of attractive salaries they offer. "Since my aim was to work and save money for my post-graduation, BPOs sounded ideal to me," she says.

For freshers like Nandhini, who would find it difficult to land a job in a prestigious company yet prefer to be financially independent, BPOs are a good start. However, there are a few adjustments to be made too. The remuneration in a BPO pales in comparison with that of a software company. But these youngsters are not disheartened. The pay may be less, but so is the work pressure. They need to work only nine hours a day, which means there's time to prepare for entrance exams. Some manage to save a tidy sum. Manivasagam, who till recently worked with a Chennai-based BPO, was able to save up to Rs 7,000 a month. For Nandhini, who is a customer services representative in a Bangalore-based BPO, monthly savings are slightly lesser at Rs 5,000 "after paying hostel, food and telephone bills". She feels that people staying with their family would be able to save more. Nandhini has her plans in place. She wants to enrol for an MBA programme with the Symbiosis Institute of Management, Pune, through the institute's distance education programme. "Getting into the HR stream is my aim," she says. The programme starts in June 2005 and she hopes to save enough before that. Manivasagam has his sight set on a course in SAP, which he thinks holds the key to a lucrative job in a software company. "The course costs Rs 40,000. I didn't want to depend on my parents for the money. Nor was it easy for me to pay it all at one go, so working with a BPO helped," he says.

Mahesh belongs to a different group altogether — he is among those pursuing an education while working in a BPO. Now, that calls for real hard work. "It is really difficult. But it's not impossible," he says. As K. Dinesh, a senior help-desk engineer at Sutherland Technologies, Chennai, says, "If you want to study, you can do it. And it is only up to you to find the time. It's true you have to put in hard work, but that holds good for anybody who wants to achieve something in life. And as far as people employed in BPOs are concerned, it all depends on how much of your sleep you are willing to give up." Dinesh has a couple of courses lined up for the immediate future.

For S. Ravinder, also a senior help-desk engineer at Sutherland, afternoons are when he finds the time to study. According to him, BPOs usually don't have many day shifts. "I manage to get at least two hours every day to study and do other reference work for my MBA course," he says.

Rajshree Gopalan, who works for a Bangalore-based BPO, also juggles the study schedule for her Masters in Human Resource Management, depending on her shifts. If it's a day shift, she studies in the evenings, and vice versa. She adds that it is only during the weekly "off days" that she finds the maximum time to study.But how do they manage to take time off for their classes? An hour's permission from work or working your schedule with clockwork precision should do the trick, Mahesh says. Nandhini agrees. "Wasting even five minutes could make a vast difference." According to Ravinder, a good relationship with team members and peers is essential. "It's difficult managing study and work at the same time. Sometimes, our work hours clash with our class timings. In such cases, we get permission from our supervisors and managers — but if you don't have cordial relations with your team, then it would be very difficult to pursue other interests while working," he says.

However, financial aid isn't very far, either! Ranjit Pisharoty, Senior Vice-President, Technology, Lason India, says many companies have schemes for enhancing the technical or managerial capabilities of employees. These are either fully paid or partially subsidised. Some even set aside one per cent of their revenues on "employee growth programmes". According to him, industry-institution partnerships for post-graduation programmes, like MS (IT), is a reality. Companies sponsor and grow employees from "green belts to black belts" for mutually beneficial results. By and large, free lunches are "out". Corporates are realising that this is one effective way of retaining trained employees. "I know of a BPO company fighting attrition that has tied up with an IIM. The customised MDP programme is imparted by the IIM faculty two afternoons a week at the company's campus. In case the employee leaves during the course or within a certain period after the qualification, the training cost is recovered," he says. Rather than a `disincentive to leave', the aim is to build a symbiotic relationship, a loyalty of sorts, as a delivery/management team.

Picture by Mohammed Yousuf

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