Exploring, Discovering And Choosing At Every Stage Got Me Here - Navin Rammohan, Global Head, Marketing (Finacle, a banking software brand), Infosys.
After my engineering, while working as a Shift Production Officer in a chemical factory, I realized that this is not what I want to do in my life. I hadn't thought much about my career till then. In school and college, it was always about moving from one examination to another. I did engineering because most of my classmates were doing it. I chose chemical engineering because I scored 99 in chemistry (only to realize later, that you needed more than chemistry in chemical engineering).
Life in the chemical factory was quite mechanical with shift timings governing my days and nights. The job, however, helped me discover my people skills. I managed a lot of people in the factory. Getting work out of the most difficult and highly experienced factory workers was a new and very different experience for me. My extracurricular experiences in engineering college where I conducted multiple events and was involved in many social activities came in handy. The big takeaway from working in the factory was the realization that I had good people management skills. When I assessed this ability with my interests in design, ideation/ creativity and managing events, I knew an MBA was my next step for a career in management.
MBA & early work experience
The MBA experience, its content coupled with the peer interaction it provided, helped me a lot in shaping my career. I learnt the value of group/ team work here – how multiple perspectives to the same problem helped arrive at more effective solutions overall. My first job was in advertising. Having to deal with clients, and to understand their business challenges, honed my analytical abilities further. I gained more depth in my communication skills, learnt to generate ideas for brands, this time, working with a completely new set of creative people, i.e., those with design, visualization & copywriting skills.
Overall, my first stint in advertising was most helpful for me in my current role – where I look at bringing people and ideas together to create great brand experiences.
Requirements For A Career In Marketing
For a career in marketing, first & foremost, one needs to be a 'student of life'. You can bring the world around you to your job every day and gain from it. Curiosity about the world around you is a great asset. With marketing you can venture into anything that interests you, be it sports, music, technology, healthcare, environment – every industry needs marketing. So start focusing on your interests early in life.
Second, marketing is about people. You need to be able to mix, interact and get involved with people. So develop people skills and start becoming comfortable in groups and make lot of friends. In school and college, participate in extracurricular activities, quizzes, theater, sports, and planning events (right from getting sponsorships to executing the event). Take up summer jobs in retail outlets, food joints. All of this will help in your future marketing career.
Three, a marketing person needs a broad range of skills - communication skills, analytical ability, idea generation, design and visualization, planning etc. So from a subject stream perspective, it does not matter which stream you take - engineering, medicine, arts, commerce, finance - a career in marketing can be pursued after doing any of these provided you have honed a broad range of skill sets. A post graduation in marketing from a good management institute helps you get the right start in marketing with the right kind of organization.
Finally, be inquisitive about the world around you and most importantly, 'stay current’/ updated in your knowledge about the happenings in the world.
Navin Rammohan's Education and Work History:
- 11th & 12th – Science
- Graduation – B. Tech (Chemical Engineering)
- Post graduation – MBA (Marketing)
- Post Engg. 1st yr: Shift Production Officer at Gharda Chemicals Ltd.
- Post MBA, 4 yrs: J Walter Thompson, (previously HTA), grew to become Account Supervisor
- Last 8 yrs: Brand Manager, Infosys. Handled marketing for regions like LATAM, Europe, Middle East & Africa. Currently: Global Head-Marketing for Finacle, Infosys.