Retd military men have good career options in IT sector

Let's allow the numbers to do the talking. The defence forces shed 60,000-80,000 personnel every year with a significant number of them being as young as 35 years old. It goes without saying that a mere pension is not sufficient to support them for the rest of their lives and they, therefore, need to take up new jobs for sustenance.

At the same time, we have the IT and ITeS sectors facing a huge shortage of quality manpower. Companies from these sectors are, therefore, hiring people from different industries to meet their requirements. In such a scenario, the defence personnel have a career option in the aforesaid sectors.

According to K S Sindhu, director general, resettlement, Army headquarters, there is a general perception that the defence personnel are good only with rifles though they are a repository of 968 skills. "We have, therefore, come out with courses with institutes like IIMs and IITs to give a profile of the industry outside the defence forces to our people," he said.

Sindhu also said that the defence personnel have qualitative factors like discipline and ability to do contingency planning. He, nonetheless, advised them to prepare themselves for the post-retirement phase at least five years in advance. Sindhu was speaking at a Nasscom seminar on the opportunities for defence personnel in the IT and ITeS industries.

Bipin Chandra, vice-president, India operations, Knoah Solutions Pvt Ltd, said that people from the defence sector needed awareness of the vagaries of the outside world before taking the plunge.

They need to be sure of the role they want to play and the industry that they would like to enter. Chandra was with the Indian Air Force and then moved to human resources and administration positions in various industries prior to his current designation in the IT industry.