When I was in Hyderabad, there used to be road junction, very close to my house. In that road junction, every morning, people use to assemble in lots mostly laborers of both genders.
A truck will come with a supervisor, stops at the junction, starts shouting that he needs 20 laborers, who has mason skills. He will choose 20 laborers, from the aspirants and will disappear along with the 20 of his team
Similarly, next truck will come, asking for people with certain skills. This routine will happen till 12:00 pm in the afternoon.
Slowly, but surely most of the crowd will get their trucks/jobs, while the rest of the crowd will disperse, blaming their inability to get the right match for their skills.
This is analogy of typical IT company jobs/ resources.
Everyone is treated as a resource and their ability to move up in the organization will depend upon the skill match against the requirements
Whereas, in core manufacturing companies, companies, pick up ‘horses for the courses’. Their employability will depend upon the existence of that particular job, irrespective of his expertise or willingness to pick up new skills.
Let us compare other aspects of working in these companies
Job satisfaction/Responsibility
Sense of achievement, handling a specific function or a process on your own, leads to high morale and job satisfaction
In typical manufacturing, you need to make innumerable decisions at every hour of your job and you will be held responsible for the decisions you take. They make break you careers, if your decisions fail and not big credibility you gain, if it succeeds.
Also, you will contribute by what you learnt in your engineering discipline like manufacturing, production, planning etc.
Whereas in IT companies, there is a considerable bench (ideal) period, besides varying roles and responsibilities, will leave a big vacuum. Also, there is considerable uncertainty about the future roles, growth, salaries (due to variable nature)
In IT companies, most of the processes are well defined and mature and little you can do to change the processes and hardly, you will be asked to decide or make major decisions
Also, your education will not contribute in the role, you play in IT companies. Mostly, it depends upon your logical, analytical abilities and programming skills.
Money
Obviously IT companies score high on this aspect, as that has been the sole reason, why young geeks get into IT companies
Money comes not only from the domestic salary; they get additional money through international assignments, either long term or short term
Job enhancement/change
That’s again IT companies, where you can jump one role from another in no time, when you pick up an additional skill.
As IT cuts across multiple industries, you will gain experience across multiple domains, right from investment banking to telecom to automotive. One day you will be asked to define processes for a Utility company of UK client and in 3 months time, you might be asked to learn and share best practices of supply chain for a telecom major
Whereas, in typical manufacturing companies, you are hired for the role and you continue to do the job, till they get the replacement or till they decide to promote you or you decide to leave that company
Also, most of the manufacturing jobs are monotonous, routine with fixed responsibilities
Managing teams
Both industries provide the opportunity to manage teams at the young age, though the intensity of the quality of the team varies. In IT companies, you might manage young engineers, MBAs, whereas in manufacturing companies, you might manage technicians, diploma holders, contractors, suppliers and their teams
Learning
IT companies will provide ample opportunities to learn both from the customers and the IT companies, internet, analysts and media
There are world of technology to learn and ability to move up in the organization will purely depend upon your ability to constantly update your knowledge, know latest trends, and pick up new technical skills
Also, you will master soft skills, like writing, presentation skills, interacting with diverse cultural teams, besides negotiation and inter-personal skills
In manufacturing companies, most of the learning opportunities comes from the on the job learning and learning from colleagues, cross functional teams and suppliers
Health
Manufacturing companies focus more on employee’s safety, health and environment. Also, as you are always on the move from one shop floor to another, the chances of staying healthy are higher. But there are health hazards due to toxic/non-toxic environment, excessive sound and/or excessive lighting/heat
In IT companies, most of your time, you spend sitting in front of the computer for hours together, leading to health problems due to negligible physical activity, eye strain etc.,
Ideal way is to constantly rotate your career from IT and non-IT companies to enjoy and benefit from both the worlds, at a constant frequency
