How have career prospects in your city changed?

When a personal development compelled me to move cities at my previous job, I was worried. Not because I was afraid it would stall my career growth, but because I’d be away from my team and because I’d have to work from home for who knows how long. Having worked in an office forever, the idea of not having a place to go to every day for work was overwhelming. 

This was six years ago. After just over a year at my new job, a similar predicament dawned. Except that this time there were millions of professionals moving to a remote work model, all at once. Today, my team is scattered across three cities, with some colleagues having temporarily moved back to their hometown to work from the comfort of their own homes. Zoom meetings are usual now and many of the concerns about working remotely have all but disappeared.

With organisations adopting the remote work model and the pandemic triggering a reverse migration of sorts, have prospects of jobs and career growth across cities changed too? 

LinkedIn’s latest Workforce Confidence Index finds that employees in urban centres of Ahmedabad and Pune are among the most optimistic right now about the job security, financial and career outlook.  Based on a survey, which covered eight cities, the index finds that Mumbai and Hyderabad score the lowest, while Chennai, Kolkata, Delhi and Bengaluru are in the middle of the pack.

One reason for this could be that Pune and Ahmedabad are likely to see captive and shared services centres of global banks and finserv companies while Chennai is likely to see the same for pharma, chief commercial officer Roopank Chaudhary and senior consultant Anustup Chattopadhyay of Aon say. Mumbai, meanwhile, relies heavily on sectors like hospitality, real estate, where revival sentiments still trend low.

Optimism in smaller cities could also have been driven by greater adoption of the remote working model, allowing employees to work for large companies without relocating. But will this trend sustain? “It’s good to say that one can work from anywhere. But it’s difficult and people are tired of working from home. I’m hopeful more people will see value in WFH in the future,” says Nathan SV, partner and chief talent officer, Deloitte India.

How do you see career opportunities in your city right now? Check out this poll and vote here.

At a broader level, however, optimism levels of professionals have increased over the last quarter, the index finds, with roughly one in three individuals expecting an increase in job openings in the near future. Job security confidence of employees was the highest in December since the start of the pandemic, with a similar trend noticeable in perceptions about their career progression over the next one year. Among job functions, those in information technology, education and human resources were found to be most upbeat about their career outlook over the next year while those in arts & design and accounting figured on the other end of the spectrum.

HR expert Prabir Jha says HR and IT functions have been at the helm of the efforts to bring back business continuity. With COVID-19 creating a supply shortfall for digital talent, IT firms too have upped their hiring targets for freshers, with the top four Indian IT companies - Infosys, TCS, Wipro and HCL Technologies - looking to recruit around 91,000 graduates this year.  With global companies in finserv and pharma looking to set up shared service centres here, demand for support and HR will also pick up, Chaudhary and Chattopadhyay say.

Aon projects an average of 7.3% increment in salaries this year for India Inc, up from 6.1% last year, which too may get spruced up as the economy recovers, markets rebound and vaccines become a reality. 

“Salary revisions will surely happen this year, even if not every firm or industry makes up for the last year. ,” Jha says.

How do you see career opportunities in your city right now? Share your comments below.