How to Choose a Job!

Also published on Techstory  and Women's Web

This was one legendary milestone crossed inadvertently, and the episode is, now, graved in my mind forever for having taken the step, despite the circumstances that there were. 2016 has been one hell of a year and as it slowly comes to an end, the adventure seems to be quadrupling. I forgive God for being tipsy while writing these chapters of my life, but he kept me sane all this while, so that’s a reason enough for not going entirely ungrateful.

Irrespective of the reasons, I confess I accepted a work offer, registered my attendance the first day and resigned the next. There’s a reason why they say learn from an experienced and not from an oldie! I am here to share the capsules of my wisdom thus acquired so you don’t repeat what I did wrong. Moreover, there is no feeling of remorse for having taken the step that I did, so yay! It is still a positive sign.

Choose your place of work wisely: You’re going to be giving around 40% of your entire day to this place of work for the coming many years, so you better be sure if you really want to do this.

The atmosphere matters more than the actual work: Work atmosphere is a primary factor that determines your productivity. Therefore, do not compromise on the quality of the atmosphere where you’d obviously try to give the best of your abilities.

The vibes: Trust me, they work wonders if they start working in favor of you. It works quite strongly in my case, so I kind of blindfoldedly give full marks to what vibes tell me about any person, place or circumstance. The first impression, the first notion or that sensation that runs through you when you set your first foot in your workplace should actually determine whether you should continue spending any more time there.

The scope to grow: There’s nothing wrong in thinking more about yourself more than you do about the organization you work for. Any place of work you choose must guarantee a scope of honing your skills, becoming a better professional and leaving your mark in the bigger picture. The organization, too, thinks of you as a propelling tool to become bigger and better and you doing the same is no crime.

3 Ps: Thanks to my husband for giving this piece of valuable information to me, for this solves all the major confusions for me regarding choosing from job offers with just a simple mathematics. Place, Position and Package – if any two of these factors better your stand in the market from where you currently are, you must give that offer a hug. Place means the brand; position, obviously refers to the designation you’re offered and package needs no definition. Therefore, a simple mathematics and voila! You know your next move.

I would say it’s better to wait for the right opportunity than to jump on to anything that comes your way. I agree desperate circumstances call for desperate measures and that’s why it is better to clear your stand while you are still in a job. There are times when we are bereft of any good offers and we seriously start to doubt all our knowledge and expertise, but I would still suggest to take it easy. Things will eventually fall in place and all that you need to do meanwhile is keep preparing for the time whenever ‘that’ opportunity is going to knock at your door. Stay positive and never let your identity bleed away with the challenges you face. Stay strong and keep that trust intact!   

How Demonetarization Could Save the Indian Publishing Industry

Also published here: Cheena Chopra on LinkedIn 

This article is in response to a recently published piece in The Indian Express: http://www.newindianexpress.com/nation/2016/dec/06/publishing-industry-still-to-overcome-shock-of-demonetisation-1546213.html

Almost everyone related to the publishing industry, be it authors, publishers, marketers, distributors, retailers or even book cafes were waiting for a miracle to save the industry from sinking and before they'd given up all the hope, we have the PM who has emerged as a savior.

Before I go ahead elaborating how this move should come across as a welcoming one by the Indian Publishing industry, let us look back on how black money was eating up a major share of the authors’ or the publishers’ income. India has an economy which loves to wheel on discounts and these discounts were getting further greased by black marketing. All over the country, there are plenty of markets which are famed for selling pirated books; for instance, Dariya Ganj (Delhi), Nayi Sarak (Delhi) or Avenue Road (Bangalore). You could get a 1000-rupee bestseller for as low as 200 or even less, all payments in cash, mind you. Not just the markets, you would find a lot of websites, too, which would be giving away the PDFs of popular books for free! This could be a nice method to earn through the ads they would be sporting on their websites, but a very bad move for the author, alas!

A lot of publishers face these problems with their bestsellers; I remember one of the international publishers, who I was working with, wreaked havoc inside the organization when they found out the pirated version of one of their recently launched bestsellers selling for half the price they were offering! Further, there was absolutely no way out stopping the copies from getting distributed amongst the students.

Now, considering the big move the Indian government has made, the publishing industry is finally hoping to regain their lost share of profits and reconsider their thoughts of adding other sources of generating revenue to their existing platter. With less cash in hand and even lesser options of getting it, people are left with no alternative but purchasing books from authentic sources where they could swipe their cards (the places which guarantee a percentage of the selling price to the publishers).

The ecommerce market has developed as a mecca for all the booklovers who are now compelled to use their Credit/Debit cards to make the payments. Popular online booksellers like Amazon, Flipkart, Paytm or Snapdeal are speculated to see their sales figures in the books segment improve. True, even the brick-and-mortar bookstores like Crossword or WH Smith should notice a bullish trend in their sales in Q4, 2016. Not that this was their first choice but readers are left with no option other than saving the new currency they might have obtained standing outside the banks for hours and paying in white.

Furthermore, there has emerged a new medium of book reading, which was previously ignored but now is being rooted for – eBooks. Their easy availability, on-demand service, smooth payment gateways, interactive UIs and paper-like qualities have made them a new hit among the book lovers. The fact that eBooks are, on an average, 30% cheaper than their print counterparts has bagged them cheers from everyone who had never even tried them before.

So, to sum it all, demonetization should make bibliophiles look out for the options where they are not supposed to spend whatever little tenner, fifty or hundred-rupee notes they are left with and, therefore, the dawn of digital reading or online ordering should finally set in! At least, they should now no longer even look at the pirated content which was earlier fueling black marketing in the publishing industry and shrinking the earnings of everyone from the publishing family.