JT24 | Pallav Patni on Making a Career as a Specialist

If you work for a few years in the corporate world, you might have realised that the working world is divided into two kinds of people, generalists and specialists. And while it might seem that being a generalist gives you maximum flexibility, and maybe even the chance of getting to the top as CEO, the reality is that companies don't really run and cannot actually run without the help of a strong cast of specialists, HR people, lawyers, finance people, facilities, and maybe to an extent, even sales. And as such, specialist careers could well be a lower risk way of building a career, since these skills kind of always remain in demand in one way or the other. But on the other hand, it might seem very daunting to build a career like this, how does one stick to one thing for 20, 30, maybe even 40 years? What could possibly keep one motivated to stay in the same function for long enough to be valued and indispensable to the corporate world? 

Well, today we are speaking with Pallav Patni, who has spent his entire 20-year career so far in finance, and in fact, focused on the consumer goods industry. So we are going to ask him, what keeps him motivated and challenged and what are the lessons he would like to share from all of those years, building a career in a specialised function.

Show Notes available here.