July 1999:

I had started my career in a mechanical industry and my benefits apart from the salary included a drop and pick up bus for Re. 1/- and three time food (if you stay late) for Rs. 30/- per month. Then the salary was very clear , you could almost divide the annual income divide by 12 months and viola you know the money you take home every month. Those were the days the employers would not even mention the perks of the job, it was a given many a times.

Times have changed and we now have the CTC (cost to company), this being very tricky, you cannot look at this amount and compute what you are getting. So the value of something to you is decided by the company. Say for example, they may put cost to company for a facility for x amount , but you are not using facility, so the value is zero.

I had long lost the relationship between my CTC and my take home every month/quarter. Only in the later years of my career as i matured as a professional, i start understanding my package. As young professional we tend to go by the CTC and hope skip and jump companies. Take a breath and have a look, as to what you get, when you get.

I have started splitting or comparing a package first in terms of possible “Take Home” (it can be a range ,as we have something called a Variable Pay) and with added benefits separately, put a value to it and then compare offers.

Do that when you talk to Pratishthan Software Ventures too…you might be surprised, we are very straightforward.

This blog was first posted on LinkedIn by Pradosh Nair here.