The Career Sprinters Seminar - A Roaring Success!
- IQ
- Jul 24, 2024
- 7 min read
Introduction In line with our stated objectives of helping the transitioning military personnel in a smooth transition to the corporate as well as building a professional Network of the military veterans in the corporate the Forces Network decided to organize a daylong seminar at New Delhi on 14 July 2024 (Sunday). As always keeping our obsession with quality we chose a five star venue at the Aerocity, New Delhi. The Thought Behind We curated the seminar on the theme of accelerating your career progression. There are some whose careers are stagnant, while for some they are career stragglers. But there are a select few who are career sprinters – they are on a high octane growth path in the industry. We have invited a galaxy of industry leaders (the career sprinters) as speakers from across the various industries and verticals to share their insights and learnings. Each speaker was carefully chosen. The aim was to help our seminar participants learn from these career sprinters – what is it that they have done differently to stay ahead of others. Our seminar participants included a mix of military officers who are planning to transition soon to the corporate world as well as veterans who are already working in the corporate and maybe looking to upgrade their careers or switch industries. Our speakers were adequately briefed about the seminar background and the scope of their talk. We also ensured that we covered a wide swathe of industries through our speakers. We were also alive to the option that we encourage our members to also take up entrepreneurship. Accordingly we invited Hony Brig Dr Arvind Lal, Founder and of Dr Lal Pathlabs – a company with a market cap of ~ Rupees twenty five thousand crores. We were looking at learning from our speakers the following:
Impact of latest technologies and how will it impact careers and jobs.
What are the latest trends in the various industry sectors?
The Seminar Flow The seminar flow was designed to not only provide nuggets of wisdom from the speakers but also for peer level knowledge sharing. In addition we planned time for networking in the refreshments and lunch breaks. We also planned for a mentoring session for 1 hour after the culmination of the seminar at 5 pm. Registration All the delegates began their seminar by first registering at the Registration desk. Here they also got their name tags – which is a cool tool for efficient networking. Those delegates who came in early got an additional 30 minutes of networking time.
Setting the Ball Rolling
To kick start the proceedings of the day Iqbal Singh who is also the Founder of the Forces Network gave an introductory talk on the origins, philosophy, activities and the achievements of the Forces Network over the past 16 years plus. This was the 20th seminar of the Forces Network and we have done 10 Military to Corporate (M2C) Transition Workshops as well. However, the most popular and impactful training program of the Forces Network remains the ABCT Program- Any Body Can Tech. This program has changed the careers and lives of its participants. Many of its students who had complete non-tech backgrounds have been able to build careers in the technology world. Hear the inspiring story of such student Lt Col Jojo Jacob.
Setting the Ball Rolling To kick start the proceedings of the day Iqbal Singh who is also the Founder of the Forces Network gave an introductory talk on the origins, philosophy, activities and the achievements of the Forces The Impact of Generative AI On Cyber Security
The second speaker was the GM India region for Kaspersky – Jaydeep Singh. He delivered a truly fascinating talk. The session was extremely engaging and there were a lot of audience questions. The main focus of his talk was on the below aspects:
• To cover the new threats and opportunities that would arise. Also new career roles that would be created.
• Skills upgradation needed
Transition to Corporate as a Change Management
We had a Partner from Deloitte Abhilasha Kataria Shankar who leads their change management practice as a speaker. The question that was lurking in my mind was that can the M2C Transition be taken up as a change management project. And for this we decided to pick the brains of Abhilasha. What followed was an extremely interesting and insightful fireside chat. To all those who paid attention there were pearls of wisdom in that chat from Abhilasha.
Making Your Profile Stand out in a Competitive world
It is indeed an extremely competitive world out there as regards the job market. Who could have answered this topic better than the MD of Michael Page India Ankit Agarwala. Ankit shared some extremely valuable but rarely shared insights about how the executive search and job-hunting firms typically work while selecting a suitable candidates. Most of the transitioning officers found this session to be an eye-opener.
The Real Estate Consultancy Sector Opportunities
While most of associate the real estate sector with the residential housing and the small time local real estate broker there is an extremely big opportunity in the real estate consultancy sector. Most of us are oblivious of it and there are extremely good MNCs working in the sector and veterans are a good fit in the industry as evidenced by the fact that many veterans hold leadership roles in this sector in India. We had the privilege of having Sathish Rajendren, Head, Knight Frank India deliver this topic to us. It was a brilliant presentation and an even better talk by Sathish. Most participants found this talk to be extremely informative and useful
Welcome to the World of Entrepreneurship
In the last talk in the pre-lunch session we had Hony Brig Dr Arvind Lal who is a Padma Shri awardee and the Executive Chairman & Founder Dr Lal Pathlabs delivered a talk on how he grew his company to unicorn status. Today his company commands a market capitalization of nearly Rs 25,000 crores. Dr Lal is of course a billionaire. At the Forces Network we do not want our members to be mere job seekers but also job creators. Dr Lal laid a forceful case for the fact that veterans must ideally pick up opportunities in their civilian avatars and as per him today opportunities abound in India.
How to make it big in the world of security, admin and Facilities Management
The next speaker was an old member of the Forces Network. However, Capt Rajesh Sharma delivered his talk in an extremely unconventional manner. When his name was announced as a Speaker he was not be seen as he was sitting in the last row of the room. He not only managed to regale the audience but also informed and enlightened them about the opportunities in the Security, Administration and Facilities Management space. He asked quiz questions to the participants and even dished out prizes for the correct answers.
A New Age Sector: Fintech, Where Opportunities Abound
Since we also want our community members to not just look at the old and traditional sectors but also the merging and new age sectors with a promising future we invited a Fintech startup founder from Singapore. Shrikant Patil is the CEO & Founder of DigiAlly the fastest growing fintech in Singapore with operations in Philippines, Singapore and India. Shrikant introduced the audience to the exciting world of fintech – he stripped the talk of jargon and explained the nuances of the industry in a very simple and elegant manner. Each one of us walked out of the room with a better understanding of the Fintech sector as also the opportunities available in the sector.
Mentoring Sessions
The last session of the seminar was optional and involved selected mentors from various industries seated as mentors on a round table and mentees could sit across the table from them and ask them any queries that they wished. It was an extremely powerful session. Several of our speakers very kindly consented to stay back for the mentoring session. Imagine you want to know about the real estate consultancy sector and you have the Knight Frank India Head sitting across the table for you.
It happens only in the Forces Network!
Group Photograph
With a view to commemorating the seminar and locking the moment to cherish for posterity we had our traditional Seminar Group picture to conclude the seminar.
The Social Media Buzz
While the seminar ended physically the social media buzz about it continues even after more than a week after the seminar got over.
Shrikant Patil posted this wonderful post on the LinkedIn calling the seminar experience as mesmerizing.
Sathish Rajendren, Head Knight Frank India had some very kind words for the seminar. Please read his post expressing gratitude for the opportunity to speak.
Abhilasha Kataria Shankar from Deloitte also shared encomiums for the seminar.
Emoha Eldercare CEO Saumyajit Roy who was a partner in our seminar posted this .
Cdr Vineet Arora who won the fastest finger award for being the first to register for the seminar online won a Forces Network cap. He too shared that there are may ways to serve a community – read more.
Capt Manjula Katoch who did an excellent job as the seminar MC had this to say.
In addition there are many more buzzing posts on the seminar. Thanks to all those who posted.
Closing Notes
From the perspective of the seminar organizing team, we must admit that it was an exhaustive endeavour. We worked ceaselessly in addition to our day jobs planning, organizing and preparing for it. To be honest, we were so exhausted that we told ourselves that we will not do any more seminars after this. However, this huge outpouring of love and affection from the seminar participants, the kind appreciation from our esteemed speakers and the unending buzz on social media rekindles our energy and resolve. We promise to keep curating even better and higher quality events in the days to come – however we seek your support in terms of active participation in these events as attendees.
Finally we are grateful for the trust reposed in us by our community and we stay committed to serving to even better.
Three cheers for Forces Network – the Network that works!
Team Forces Network:
Lt Col Iqbal Singh, Capt Uday Shriwas, Capt Manjula Katoch, Mrs Ramanpreet Singh
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