How is it so different?
Many people who started their career in Nepal are always perplexed about what is the right way to begin their professional careers. What is a good starting point? Is additional qualification important or more years of experience? Is it good to hop jobs or stick to one good company for many years? Is general experience good or is it better to get exposure outside Kathmandu or is it build networks in Kathmandu? In my professional life I continue to meet many people who are seeking answer to questions. Perhaps when one beings to start one’s career in Nepal, the world they enter into is so different than the world they left behind in their colleges. We learn interpreting laws in English, learn to understand corporate governance issues in English and suddenly, you are told that much of the official documents have to be in Nepali, a language you would have not dwelled upon beyond high school. We learn of responsibilities of boards and shareholders in terms of what does happen in the contemporary world and suddenly you have to live with offices of non-executive directors and chairmen who seemed to wield more powers than the Chief Executive. You are confronted with situations that you have never been taught to handle. Case studies have been always international, books written by international writer and how does one really apply all these in Nepal.
Our learning perhaps emphasizes too much on getting degrees and does not look at the overall issues of knowledge and education. Everyone is so engrossed in trying to see how you can get those initials behind one’s name without taking into consideration what is the competencies or capabilities of the people who holds these degrees should be. Therefore, we see stark differences when we put people who have MBA degrees from Nepal and other countries in the same room. During my teaching experiences here at management schools, I have noticed how people want to move from one semester to the other just ensuring that they will have that price of degree at the end of the final semester. They perhaps do not find finishing assignments or doing work equally important leave alone reading stuff that is not prescribed as course books. May be students are not only to be blamed, what is sort of faculty do we have here who actually teach the students? Is the teaching assignment a joyous activity of learning with students together or just another job that supplements one’s doing? Why are no Nepali case studies researched? Why don’t we talk about Nepali business successes and failure? Is that too much work or do we not have financial or human resources to conduct the same?
The importance of soft skills is something that people are yet to grasp in Nepal. Why is it important to have the right presentation skills and the right grooming? Why is it not good for a senior manager not to wear the same shirt in a row without washing? Why is it important to read newspaper, download podcasts and debate about contemporary issues? Why is it essential to be able to be a life-long learner, find mentees to be mentored and also mentor others? Why is it important to have hobbies, interest and contribute to the society through one’s skills see volunteering or be it writing and sharing one’s knowledge? Is it said that technical knowledge contributes only 15% in advancement of careers, rest depends on grooming, networking skills and other soft skills that the industry requires. Can we ever think of moving ahead rapidly by ignoring 85%. (Fucking No)
Nepalese are averse to travel and equating Kathmandu valley with Nepal is the biggest mistake many people do. It is important to understand Nepal as a country, a large country, and one that is larger than Portugal and have more people living than in Australia. Nepal is the fortieth largest country in the world in terms of population so to understand the country it is so important to venture beyond Kathmandu to understand the 85% people who live beyond Kathmandu. The future of Nepali markets and service industry will be determined by these people. It is also important to understand how Nepali consumers are different then their brethren in Southasia. For instance, the fashion here is now dictated equally by South Korean television and film stars of Bollywood. The nuances of understanding investment behavior, the strong land-economy relationship, the absence of consciousness towards brands, the sensitivity towards price and quality all lead to making managing in Nepal so much more interesting. The rent seeking behavior of people, the hopelessness with the future of Nepal, the constraint migration of Nepalis for past 150 plus years all make this a country that require skills sets that are definitely different than working in other markets in the region.
If we look around the success of people’s careers have really depended on people who have been able to understand the nuances of managing in Nepal.
Our learning perhaps emphasizes too much on getting degrees and does not look at the overall issues of knowledge and education. Everyone is so engrossed in trying to see how you can get those initials behind one’s name without taking into consideration what is the competencies or capabilities of the people who holds these degrees should be. Therefore, we see stark differences when we put people who have MBA degrees from Nepal and other countries in the same room. During my teaching experiences here at management schools, I have noticed how people want to move from one semester to the other just ensuring that they will have that price of degree at the end of the final semester. They perhaps do not find finishing assignments or doing work equally important leave alone reading stuff that is not prescribed as course books. May be students are not only to be blamed, what is sort of faculty do we have here who actually teach the students? Is the teaching assignment a joyous activity of learning with students together or just another job that supplements one’s doing? Why are no Nepali case studies researched? Why don’t we talk about Nepali business successes and failure? Is that too much work or do we not have financial or human resources to conduct the same?
The importance of soft skills is something that people are yet to grasp in Nepal. Why is it important to have the right presentation skills and the right grooming? Why is it not good for a senior manager not to wear the same shirt in a row without washing? Why is it important to read newspaper, download podcasts and debate about contemporary issues? Why is it essential to be able to be a life-long learner, find mentees to be mentored and also mentor others? Why is it important to have hobbies, interest and contribute to the society through one’s skills see volunteering or be it writing and sharing one’s knowledge? Is it said that technical knowledge contributes only 15% in advancement of careers, rest depends on grooming, networking skills and other soft skills that the industry requires. Can we ever think of moving ahead rapidly by ignoring 85%. (Fucking No)
Nepalese are averse to travel and equating Kathmandu valley with Nepal is the biggest mistake many people do. It is important to understand Nepal as a country, a large country, and one that is larger than Portugal and have more people living than in Australia. Nepal is the fortieth largest country in the world in terms of population so to understand the country it is so important to venture beyond Kathmandu to understand the 85% people who live beyond Kathmandu. The future of Nepali markets and service industry will be determined by these people. It is also important to understand how Nepali consumers are different then their brethren in Southasia. For instance, the fashion here is now dictated equally by South Korean television and film stars of Bollywood. The nuances of understanding investment behavior, the strong land-economy relationship, the absence of consciousness towards brands, the sensitivity towards price and quality all lead to making managing in Nepal so much more interesting. The rent seeking behavior of people, the hopelessness with the future of Nepal, the constraint migration of Nepalis for past 150 plus years all make this a country that require skills sets that are definitely different than working in other markets in the region.
If we look around the success of people’s careers have really depended on people who have been able to understand the nuances of managing in Nepal.
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