Govt jobs back in fashion as private cos cut jobs

It should be a simple choice. A highflying private sector job, with a sixfigure salary and rapid ascent up the corporate ladder or a government 

How to stay afloat in your job  Pink slip blues

job that is secure but doesn’t offer much in terms of pay and promotion? Till recently, it was a no-brainer . Few young graduates wanted a staid public sector career when they could earn serious cash in the corporate world. 

Then the slowdown happened. Suddenly , the spectre of being laid off just when you’ve put your children in that expensive boarding school and have a huge EMI to pay off took the sheen off the private sector. And sarkari jobs, without the 24x7 stress and the stomach ulcers, began to look much more appealing. Better safe than pink-slipped , reasons 22-year-old Showkat Bhat, who is busy swotting for the Kashmir Administrative Service examination . Two years ago, Bhat moved from Anantnag to Srinagar to do his masters in finance. 

“It was the hottest career then,” says Bhat. Little did he know that by the time the course ended, the tide would have turned and corporate jobs dried up. “Even if I do get a job, there will be constant insecurity and I don’t want to live with that. I’d rather the certainty of a government job, even if it means frequent transfers and slow growth.”