The parallels between what works in one's career and in investing is interesting.
Disclaimer: These comments don't apply to outright smart folks who do well irrespective of background, education degress and industry.
For both careers and investing:
1. Rising tide lifts all boats:
-It great while the industry and company is growing.
-It's not great going when the converse is true.
2. Better brands generally leads to better results.
3. Rising tide lead growth is often confused with extra competence
4. Free cash flow and asset light industries generally provides the best salary/dividends/growth. Converse is also true.
etc etc.... you get the picture
From anecdotal evidence i see:
1. Finance guys grew the fastest between 2000-2008 but feel somewhat stagnated now. (Again, this does not apply to the smartest individuals or rainmakers who are sought after with high perks even when their company goes bankrupt)
2. Software guys grew at steady pace but not necessarily at breakneck pace like in late 90s.
- Again, folks working on fast growing subsegment like web software e.g. data center backbone, online CRM, social, search etc grew the fastest
3. The ones in consumption theme seems to have done very very well in the last few years as they turned around moribund businesses in their organization. (Was it the tide or their special skills?)
4. Highly paid individuals in startups making losses are yet again worried.
5. Visionaries or lucky dudes who joined construction/oil industry when they were not the flavor of the season have done very well over the last few years
I could go on and on...
Humble career advice for my own self and others who have read so far
- Do try to align yourself to take advantage of high free cash flow and more importantly growth opportunities
- Never participate in downward business cycles
- Recent passouts, please do your self a favor by trying to get a second degree from a prodigious brand.
- Recent passout : Do try to build some brand value in your CV atleast in the earlier part of your career rather than focusing on a few lakhs extra salary
Please do read my disclaimer above and excuse me for my know all post.
Edited by subu76 - 31/May/2012 at 9:01am
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People have paid dowries by selling Tata Steel stocks. I think if India grows at an average of 7% for the next 20 years we will be where China is today and most big companies which sort of make the country will do extraordinarily well though they will suffer in the next 2-3 years for sure. I see those old guys buying tata Steel and Tata motors again...so taking heart from that. Also LNM is talking about his interest in doing acquisitions in India. 
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