Lateral recruitment for Joint Secretary position. Do you fit in?

Have you applied for the Joint Secretary position with Government of India ?

Last month Indian Government, in a first, allowed candidates from private sector to apply for select Joint Secretary  position with its ministries and departments. This has been viewed as a positive move by most, and with suspicion by another set of people. I won’t try to get into the merits and demerits of the same. I have a feeling that there may be more to it than meets the eye. But then that’s a story for some other day.

I interpret the government’s action as a welcome change. Looking at the pluses, it allows people with subject matter expertise and industrial experience to participate in and support the initiatives of the government and work for the people.

Will someone with corporate experience fit in?

Working in the government has its share of challenges. For someone who gets in after a 15-year corporate experience, it is a different world.  There will be moments of feeling awesome, and then a stretch of time when you feel frustrated, disappointed. It happens in almost all change scenarios but working in the government for those who have worked in process driven environment can be tough. There are extremes here – too structured and tied down in legacy processes and rules, or too unstructured – every other day. It can be confusing. It can be stressful. The concept of work culture, team work, cohesiveness etc., may not apply. Your direct report (unless he is on contract) can choose to ignore you and ignore work and you can’t do much.

Role of a Joint Secretary:

Joint secretary position is the head of the wing under the charge of Secretary of the concerned ministry or department. They report to the Secretary or Additional secretary as the case may be. A Joint secretary is responsible for policy making, as well as implementation of various schemes and programs of the concerned ministry or department.

Policy making:

For the lateral entry guys, policy making is still a good bet, and I feel most of the new lateral guys should ideally be leveraged for policy making and related advisory work, considering their supposed subject matter expertise in their field of work. On the face of it, policy making is fairly simple. It’s a loop of – Review past. Research present. Think future. Discuss & document. Meetings – meetings – meetings and more meetings. So, that’s good work. Not much pain.

Implementation of various schemes and programs:

It looks good on paper. If lateral entry guys are given charge of some scheme or project implementation, it can be painful for the concerned.

People at junior level and middle level in our bureaucratic set up can really be a pain. They are usually great at presenting roadblocks, full stop, comma, backspace in everything that comes up. They have a good grasp on how to use past precedents and rule book to slow progress and are capable of frustrating anyone who is accustomed to a fast track delivery focused work life.  And, almost all the sarkari schemes, project plans, have adequate loop holes that can be used to slow progress.  Decision making will always be an issue. If you are ambitious about serving the people by being in the government, your aspirations may be hit.

Who all should try for this opportunity?

  1. People with patience. Lots of patience. If you practice meditation and mindfulness, that would be great.
  2. People with indifference. If you can sleep through Avengers – Infinity War, you are good.
  3. Those with amazing documentation ability – typing, editing etc. Of course, you may have help from team below. But if you need a document made and want to speed up, either you do it yourself or wait for 5 days.
  4. People with a good reading speed. The volume of text in form of approval note sheets, project plans, reports, policy recommendations, etc. will be more than you would have seen in your corporate career.
  5. People who love to use pen and paper. Yup they have brought in computers, and online platforms but paper still rules.
  6. People who are brave. 

What if you get an offer for the Joint Secretary position and decide to join?

  1. Don’t trust people and situations. They may not be what they appear or are made to appear.
  2. Before you sign or approve, explore all dimensions. Avoid giving a benefit of doubt to any writing thats not clear, ambiguous and can have multiple meanings. Seek clarity, get counter opinions if something is ambiguous. Get everything documented. You never know that a paper you sign, becomes the starting point of a leakage and fraud and haunts you for ever.
  3. Keep abreast on service and conduct rules, and all notification that may matter to your work.
  4. Read the General Financial Rules (GFR). Almost every thing boils down to GFR. And a good number of roadblocks and pending actions are because of self serving and situational interpretations of GFR.
  5. Keep your aspirations in check and all will be fine.
Disclaimer: Images in this post are a screen grab from DoPT (Govt of India) web site. They are presented in this post only for illustration. It may not be interpreted in any other manner.
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Praveen is the Founder & Principal Consultant of KHEdge, a boutique HR & Business Process Advisory firm. Over last 15 years he has advised & worked with promoters, founders, business leaders, HR leaders in areas of - Business Strategy, HR Strategy, Organisation Design etc.

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