Jet Airways employees at a protest in Mumbai. (AFP)

New Delhi, Oct. 15: Young professionals surfing the wave of economic growth should avoid switching jobs, yet stay prepared to slip into entirely new lines of work, career consultants and psychiatrists said amid fears of large-scale lay-offs.

Any plans for job shifts should be deferred until the global financial crisis subsides, but professionals in industries hit by losses must be ready to move across sectors, recruitment consultants warned.

A freeze on recruitment is already visible in the retail, hospitality and information technology sectors, besides aviation, they said, as the nation witnessed its biggest mass lay-off in the airline industry.

“Stay where you are. Don’t risk a change,” said Bhavika Sampat, a research associate at a leading recruitment agency that has offices in nine cities. In such times, companies generally follow the “last-in, first-out” principle when deciding who stays and who goes, Sampat said.

One psychiatrist said she was already receiving calls from jittery employees.

“I’ve seen young people in recent days with high anxiety levels, particularly those who’re not happy in their jobs, worried whether they’re going to face lay-offs,” said Anjali Chhabria, a consultant psychiatrist in Mumbai.

“I tell them to keep swimming, stay afloat, and don’t panic. And those who’re already out of jobs should prepare to move up or down, perhaps look at different sectors, and remember they’re not the only ones affected,” Chhabria said.

Psychiatrist Rajat Mitra said it was important for young people laid off to recognise that it was their jobs that had become redundant, and they were not being targeted personally.

“It is not you, but your position that is being laid off,” Mitra said. This, he said, helps maintain self-worth and reduces the sense of hurt.

But the current crisis should not influence students when choosing academic courses with specific careers in mind, a leading career counsellor said. “Lay-offs are a cyclic feature and can hit any sector,” said Pervin Malhotra, a Delhi-based consultant.

Only two years ago, the airline industry was recruiting heavily during its growth. Now, it appears overstaffed, she said.

“Students should not turn away from their pursuit of their dream jobs, because the slump may vanish by the time they’re ready to enter the job market,” Malhotra said.

In the late 1990s, during the Asian economic crisis, a number of graduates from the Indian Institutes of Management turned down finance jobs for marketing and other sectors, Malhotra said.

“But those who stuck it out in finance jobs during the difficult times were rewarded the most by the market when things became better.” The best students will continue to be picked even by crisis-ridden companies. “Companies still need to sell soap and people still need to eat,” she said.

Recruitment consultants believe professionals who have lost their jobs should consider switching to different, but related, sectors where vacancies may exist.

“In the past three years of boom, we’ve seen significant cross-sector movements,” said Subodh Khandelwal, a client manager with a leading recruitment firm. People moved from consumer goods to retail, from the finance sector to retail. Now, airline staff facing lay-offs could consider moving to hospitality, he said. “They shouldn’t hesitate to compromise a little bit.”