Exclusive: 7-8 years of changing career goals is not advisable, says Sagorika Kantharia, HR Head, Radio City

That’s what Sagorika Kantharia, HR Head, Radio City, pointed out to Centre For Management (CFM) students at the recently concluded Ignite, CFM’s annual festival on innovation. In the video, she says, “Today, you have to be very sure of what you want. If I have a CV which is a mix of content, marketing, sales, HR… I wouldn’t look at that.” The awful truth is, while the initial years of one’s career does allow for a certain degree of experimentation, you could run the risk of making the wrong impression on a recruiter. “I have to think from my organization’s point of view. If I decide to hire this person, after two years what stops him from leaving?”

This is why, says Ms. Katharia, it is crucial to find a career you are passionate about because ‘only then will you be able to give your 110%’. At Centre For Management, students are put through psychometric testing and counselling at the very beginning of their course to get a clear understanding of their strengths and weaknesses before they decide to head down a chosen career path.

In the video, Ms. Kantharia also talks about the Radio City School of Broadcasting which she helped set up. Revealing that she has been recruiting management school graduates as radio producers for the last two years, she lists the 6 competencies she takes into account while recruiting talent – commitment, achievement orientation, team spirit, attention to processes, planning and organizational skills.

As a founding member of the Emotional Intelligence Learning Forum, Ms. Kantharia strongly supports the CFM philosophy of making students emotionally aware of themselves. She says, “To be an effective employee at an organization, you need to understand yourself to understand others. And these two skills are very important to know your true potential and get along with people.”