10 Years of NTPC

Today marks my 10 years in NTPC Ltd.

I joined NTPC on 26th September 2011 as an Executive Trainee. From there, over the last 10 years, I grew to be an Assistant Manager, Deputy Manager & Manager. What all happened over the last 10 years?

Salary

My first salary was 44K in October 2011. After 10 years it is about 175K before the government puts their hand into it. It grew 4 times over the last 10 years and I pay income tax of about 4 lakh per year. A lot of people - especially freshers - have asked me about NTPC’s pay. Let me put a little perspective into this.

in 2011, when I was starting the career, most PSUs (NTPC, ONGC, IOCL, BHEL, EIL, BPCL, HPCL etc) had similar pay structure. You would start at E1 grade with a basic salary of 20,900. Joining NTPC had an advantage there - You will be starting at E2 grade with a basic salary of 24,900. we were ahead of our friends who joined other PSUs by 1 grade and 1 pay scale. In 2017, when the pay revision (which happens once in 10 years) was implemented, certain PSUs could not afford to pay as much as others and hence the basic pay is no longer same across all. NTPC still remains as the highest payer along with others like ONGC & IOCL. You might already know that SBI pays more salary than other public sector Banks - It is something similar. Note:- Basic pay is the primary component of the salary. Your take home will be more. As I already wrote in the previous para, my first pay was around 40K (with basic on 25). The basic salary increases by 3% every year. The Dearness Allowance is revised quarterly based on consumer price index. DA usually goes up by 8 - 10 % per year.

Fast forward to 2011, anyone joining today will be joining at E1 level with a basic salary of 40K which roughly converts to gross salary of 70K. You can see the latest pay structure here. Fast forward another 5 years, you would have got 5 annual increments and your first promotion (which is financially equal to 1 increment). Some may start to feel that your friends in other organizations who were paid lesser than you at start the career have gone ahead of you. Its alright - a job is a very simple financial contract that either side should be able to pull out of, when they feel it’s not working out.

Subordinates

I managed subordinates for some time in my career. There is no one reporting to me as on today and looking at the way things proceed, I do not expect anyone as a junior for next 5 years at least.

20 years back, a department like Project(Mechanical) would have been headed by a Senior Manager. Head of the entire Project Group used to be a Deputy General Manager (DGM). Someone in a Senior Engineer grade (Deputy Manager now) might be leading a team of 8 - 10 people. These days, in project, a DGM would be heading a package with a team of 4 - 5 people which is something a Deputy Manager used to do earlier. It is very unlikely that you will be leading a team even if you are a Senior Manager. The situation is worse in corporate offices where you need to be an AGM at least to do what DGMs do at project sites.

Locations

My first location of posting in 2011 - for my initial training - was at Dadri in UP. Its about 40 KM from Noida. Back in those days, I felt I have reached some godforesaken place. Little did I know that it was one of the coveted locations in NTPC. Coincidentally, I visited the same place today for official work.

Next 8 years was at Kudgi in Bijapur District of North Karnataka. It was another remote corner of the world when I reached there. The first response when I landed there was “Bratislava !!” The town grew with us over the years.

I am currently at Noida for almost 2 years

Locations has been a difficult subject for NTPC. Nature of business is the primary reason. Power generation is most economical in pithead locations where coal is available. This saves fuel transportation cost, providing cheaper power to customers. Now with small airports coming up at new locations which were earlier not covered, situation is improving compared to what it was 10 - 15 years ago. Corporate offices / Regional headquarters / Commercial / Inspection offices are always preferred locations. The new HR policy of the company mandates a relocation every 5 years. While this would help you to move out of an not preferred location in 5 years, relocation your family (Think of working Spouse or school going children) every 5 years might be a struggle.

What I do

Kudgi days were construction days. We were building a power plant out of vacant land. Managing contractors would be the brief description of my job. I moved to a corporate role about 2 years back. The new department was called Project Planning & Monitoring which was renamed to Project Management this year. The job profile is more about meetings, discussions, convincing people, etc. I get involved in software development projects also, writing a bit of Python. This is more of personal preference than anything else.

Thanks

I should thank my friends who joined with me and are still in touch. They are one of the best parts of my career - Vinod, Joby, Vivek, Sattibabu .. And others who I met on the way - Vikram, .. I am thankful to the amazing bosses and mentors I had - MN Prasad, KS Rajeev, AK Manohar, K Chandrasekhar, Raveendran, Muthuraj, Bala, RM Maiya, KG Warrier, Anand Mishra, Nagesha.. And a lot of other people who helped me in my career - They are the reason for what I am today.