⚠️ W-I-P Memoir
I don’t remember anyone ever asking me “What do you want to be when you grow up?”
Everyone simply took it for granted that I’d follow my father’s profession. The ‘elders’ of the town called me “Doutor” even as a little boy.
Of course I can now answer that unasked question with certainty: Who the hell wants to grow up anyway?! Unless you want to be pigeonholed by profession or worse still, become Just Another Brick In The Wall of employment. 🧱
September is the dark horse of the Month family—dark, even when it’s not raining.
It's 8am, and poor me with the poor eyesight, having to do the day’s Copywork 365 with the lights off—so Noé doesn’t wake up and I can keep working—and the iPad’s decision to reduce its own brightness in dim surroundings.
And so, I keep writing through the darkness, just in case sparks ⚡️ fly off the tip of the nib 🖊 and I, at last, see The Light. 🤩
"I get tired of "under 40" lists. Show me someone who got their PhD at 60 after losing everything." —Doug Murano
As a retiree, from a 30-year career as "Head—HR & Corporate Communications" in India’s biggest steel pipe company in the infrastructure sector, it may seem that I am way past the final stage of my career.
But, as an HR veteran, if I’d have to pick just one valuable lesson I learned first-hand from the trenches, it’d be: There’s no end to self-development.
During my tenure in HR, I was sponsored to a number of online copywriting courses, as, besides heading HR, I also headed Corporate Communications and wrote copy for all the company's online and offline content.
Metamorphosing from an in-the-trenches HR practitioner to an HR & Corporate Communications content writer, and finally, to an HR book author was inevitable.
But I never forgot that promise I’d made to myself when I joined the workforce way back in 1984—that one day, I'd find the time and the means to do my PhD.
I'm here now—to fulfill that promise
The top three benefits of suffixing “PhD” to my name as a book author in the HR niche are:
• Boost credibility in the eyes of my readers: Though my target audience comprises new entrants to the profession, a PhD degree adds credibility if you're not an academic.
• Being perceived as an expert in my subject by clients: The ultimate stamp of expertise is a PhD degree, especially when you're writing on topics as those addressed in my HR Unplugged series of books.
• Get lucrative speaking engagements for my HR Unplugged! Keynote eXperience from industry and universities: A PhD degree opens bigger doors in the speaking circuit anywhere in the world.
I applied to EIU-Paris based on my contributions to the HR field, my publishing, and touching upon career highlights.
After conducting their own audit and due diligence, they accepted my application for PhD in HR.
Drawing on my extensive experience in HR and business writing, the first big project I undertook after retiring, was writing detailed outlines for a series of How-To HR books targeted at HR pros.
Side by side, I started this blog to showcase how HR practitioners can use Content Marketing techniques in writing HR content persuasively. For it is persuasive and engaging writing that makes policies and procedures effective.
I have one, all-embracing career objective for my new slash career as an HR book author:
Paying it forward
I intend to:
• Share the nuggets I found in the trenches, with newcomers to the HR profession—through my books, blogs and keynote concerts—so that they don't have to do the sifting.
• Provide valuable services to my clients in the HR niche in particular, and industry in general.
• Leave behind a legacy—there's nothing as enduring as books, not to mention blog content that will live on, on the Internet, at least till the next crop of HR professionals arrives.
As for me, I'd be making a grand turnaround from an HR renegade who journeyed Indiana Jones–style through the mercenary phase as a young man; then sobered up into an HR missionary mid-career; and finally, at the peak of my long and fulfilling career, took off on the wings of a homing pigeon, as an HR emissary.
Awaiting my turn in the wings—for a scholarship or corporate sponsorship…
So that I can return home with that much-coveted PhD degree in HR. 🕊️
Current Status of my applications to local companies
1. Maa Foundation (Vapi)
They were kind enough to acknowledge my application and very prompt in replying as well — unlike most companies in this part of the world:
2. United Phosphorus (Vapi)
My application folder was misplaced and after finally locating it, there was no response. 🦗
3. Eurocoustic Products (Daman)
Prompt, courteous, professional:
4. Polycab Wires (Daman)
No response. 🦗
That’s how I’d divided my attention as head of HR:
Blue collar workers came first—top priority;
Next, the support staff;
Last, the managers.
How did I do it? Simple—I just inverted the pyramidal organisation chart to make it look like India’s family planning symbol—it was that easy!
Repercussions? The usual motley crew of disgruntled mid-level oldies at HO, which I could count off on the knuckles of my left fist, and safely dismiss with just a chuckle.🤭
My secret: When it came to the welfare of blue collar workers, I had the support of my director—always! 👍
If you said, “Yes!” just because you’re fluent in HR jargon, then, you are not!
Jargon-infested HR lingo is nothing but creole—buzzwords borrowed from mainstream business language; buzzwords that have lost their fizz, like ‘empowering’…
As HR head of an organization with around 90% of the workforce drawn entirely from the Hindi-speaking states of India, I should have been an ineffective communicator, given that my native language is Portuguese and my first language English—and with the disgraceful record of having scored 3 out of 100 in Hindi at the SSC exam. Not surprisingly, the workers referred to me as “Angrej”😂
But here’s the thing: despite quitting my job 10 years ago, I’m still remembered and missed.
Because I’ve always been a native speaker of HR—plain HR-speak without the BS.
My most cherished memory of those 30 years is that day when our special needs gardener came straight to my desk with a problem and my team mate politely asked him to explain it to him so he’d convey it to me.
His reply, in classic Bollywood-style Hindi (which I understand), was: “If there’s anyone in this company who understands Radhey, it’s Gama sab.” ❤️