At just 26, Payal Sharma heads a team of recruitment executives and helps blue-chip banks and insurance majors find some of their best senior managers. Last year, she also bought her father a shop in a Himachal Pradesh town – fulfilling his long-cherished dream.

ONE RECENT evening, Payal Sharma, 26, played mother, ailing relative, travel agent and caterer all in a span of two hours.

It's not theatre that had her changing roles so rapidly. She changed her identity in the line of duty as a recruiter, who often has to adopt various guises in order to make contact with potential candidates working for her client firm's competitors. Such subterfuge is an accepted industry practice.

That morning, she had walked into her sixth-floor office in Andheri with a swashbuckling air of confidence, greeted her team, skimmed through the schedule of client appointments that hangs prominently on her bulletin board and run through the team's targets for the day.

As team leader at the HR company Ma Foi's banking section for Mumbai and Pune, Sharma supervises 12 people. She juggles this with scouring the job market to find matches for clients' specifications, tailing peripatetic head honchos and finally, procuring for banking firms some of their best top executives.

What makes Sharma's story special is her initiative to super-specialise, a concept that was then alien to her 1,600-member HR conglomerate. Within a year of joining the firm, she had the foresight to hone in on the booming banking sector, and doubled her twomember team's annual targets.

"A lot depends on your initiative. No one can explain an industrial term better than a domain expert. Call the head of a bank if you have to," she said, over a mid-morning cup of coffee in her purple-and-yellow cubicle, pulling out a little red diary from her top drawer. Its pages still crisp, it contained notes from hours of research, phone calls to financial company biggies, and excerpts from financial books.

To think she began as a bumbling graduate from the Indian Institute of Modern Management, Pune, entering the firm's banking, financial services and insurance domain in 2004 clueless about the sectors.

"I was surrounded by veterans and I didn't know the difference between retail and corporate banking," she said, laughing.

But she put her nose to the grindstone. Within three months, Sharma got insurance firm Tata AIG Life an assistant vice president of operations, which fetched Ma Foi Rs 1.5 lakh. "This was an achievement, considering most consultants start with mandates of Rs 16,000 and Rs 20,000," said Sharma.

Sharma then got cracking on her next big catch. This time, it wasn't going to be a single mandate (industry jargon for assignment); she had her sights set on the position of team leader. So, 18 months into the job, in 2006, Sharma approached her boss Sarita Mudaliar with the idea of starting a team that would focus entirely on hiring for the banking sector.

"Even though she was just one-and-a-half years into the company, she was capable of taking on responsibility, and showed a spark, which we decided to invest in," said Mudaliar, Ma Foi's business head of banking and financial services and insurance.

Within two years, Sharma's two-member team had increased to six. She put her winning formula down to teamwork and co-ordination. "You must know each member's strength so that you can assign responsibilities accordingly and keep them motivated," she said.

When team member Priyanka Naik was asked to procure a specialist based in London, she knew that Sharma was backing her all the way. The reassurance worked. Earlier this year, Naik bagged the ‘star of the month' award for making the highest commission in the 10-year history of the firm's Mumbai wing.

"I'm sure Payal must be facing flack from seniors when projects fall through at the last stage," said Naik. "But when she returns to the team, she's always composed and positive." Each time a project fails, Sharma sits with the team and brainstorms on a new winning formula, Naik said.

Dressed in a pinned-striped skirt and a beige blouse, and carrying a chic Marks & Spencer tote to complete the look, Sharma prepared to go for a meeting with a client. "I meet with CEOs and vice presidents who are looking to me to find the right person for top managerial positions."

Finding the perfect candidate gives her the ultimate high. To get there, she must study her client's competitors, make hundreds of phone calls, and doggedly pursue the candidate. "We are on pins and needles until the candidate turns up for work at the new firm," said Sharma, who has seen six-month searches go kaput.

Sharma leafed through a file with the team's monthly targets. ‘Rupee labour cost margin watchdog' – another hat she wears, which, simplified, means she must ensure each team member churns out revenue that is six times his or her annual salary.

At the end of the day, when she settles down to a large bowl of popcorn in her one-bedroom Andheri flat, she knows the day's grind has been worth it. Much of the satisfaction comes from the fact that she shares a portion of her success, her salary, with her parents in Himachal Pradesh.

In 2007, Sharma bought a shop in a local mall in Palampur for her father, fulfilling one of his longheld wishes. "He's always wanted to manage a property of his own," said Sharma. "It feels good to have been able to fulfill his dream at 25." She then lets us in on a secret: the huge rock on her finger was "something she indulged herself in" this year.

Quiz her about her future, and she is back in her swashbuckling mode. "I have now my sights set on heading the banking division at the all-India level," she said. Another year is all she's giving herself. "After all, I'm already managing operations in the financial hub. How difficult can all-India be?"

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Case Study

A day in her life

7:30 am: A steaming cup of coffee gets her out of bed. A quick look at her text messages, and she's ready to take the day head on.

9:30 am: She holds round-up with her team. She discusses assignments the team has managed to bag, new mandates (assignments) that have come in and strategies to tackle difficult mandates.

10:30 am: She goes through her list of client calls scheduled for the day and does research on the companies, their competitors and the mandates required. "The clients have so many questions about the industry, the people looking to move and the job profile. And you have to provide answers," she said.

1:00 pm: After lunch, she sets out to meet her banking clients, most of whom are based in south Mumbai, where many banks are headquartered. She believes the only way to get ahead in the business is to constantly get clients' feedback on how satisfied they are with your placements, and judge your success based on this.

4:00 pm: She grabs a quick cup of coffee, and co-ordinates with her team on the phone.

5:00 pm: Another round-up meeting with the team to gauge whether the day's targets (the number of assignments clinched) have been met, and new strategies that could be implemented for their next client meets.

7:30 pm: Once she gets home, Sharma puts all her office work behind her, and gets lost in a world of her own. It's the sim ple pleasure of eating a large bowl of popcorn, playing with her two fish Hush and Mush or just watching a movie that mat ter most to her. She watches everything from Bollywood kitch to Hollywood classics.

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Case Study

rapidfire

Sun sign: Aquarius

The most embar rassing thing you've done: I once called on a company board line to head hunt someone called Soumya. When the person at the other end asked who I was I said I was her relative. To which he replied, "You're her relative and you don't know that Soumya is a man." Oops! I didn't call back after that.

If you had 48 hours in a day: I would spend my evenings in Goa lounging around on the beach and tucking into Goan food, which happens to be my favourite.

Your perfect match: Well, I've found him, and we will be married on April 27. Of the many things we share in common is a belief in staying grounded despite our success. So there are days when we just sit at home and share some popcorn instead of going out partying.

Your idea of relaxation: I am a total movie buff. I think all the DVD libraries in the vicinity of my home know me. Last weekend, I watched the Godfather II, Heyy Babyy and Air Buddies back to back

The set of wheels you want to own: The BMW 7 series. And I'm going to get it soon. I can't wait till I'm 60!

The words on my tombstone: The best training and development coach in the head hunting field

Do you think you are sexy? I think it's a person's confidence that makes them sexy. This gets people attracted to you.

weekendfun Sharma looks forward to her weekends because it means waking up late to a heavy breakfast. She then spends her day reading, from magazines like Vogue to keep up with fashion trends to Agatha Christie's mystery novels, which she believes provide her with new insights into her job and life. She spends the evenings indulging herself with a shopping spree. "It works as a stress buster. It makes me want to work harder for myself and for the firm," she said.

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Case Study

CHATROOM: PAYAL SHARMA ON HER DAILY CHALLENGES

What's the biggest challenge in cracking a senior-level mandate?

When you're calling people at the senior vice-president and chairman levels, you have to hit a comfort level with them in the first few seconds of the conversation. In-depth knowledge of their field is one sure-shot way to win their confidence. I remember how I was once on a 24-hour deadline, and a senior person -- my mandate target - was too busy to talk. When I said that I was aware it was a bad day since the markets had crashed, the person immediately realised that I was not to be taken lightly. He gave me a time slot later in the day.

As team leader, how do you motivate your team to give of their best? In a profession like ours, it's easy for monotony to set in. You could be stuck churning out CVs day after day. When I realise that someone has been struggling on a mandate for too long, I encourage her or him to take on a new challenge. I also insist that each one of them goes out on client visits. Once a week, we have one team member making a presentation on a new area or on something they have learnt. This gives them an added confidence and a feeling of empowerment.

What is one prominent change you have seen in the profession over the past two years?

Candidates today are a lot more informed than before, so you can't afford to do any window-dressing.

Today, the client asks questions like, ‘What's the company's USP? Will I get a better profile? Will the job offer more stability? What are my prospects for growth?'

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Case Study

NET GAINS: RENNY GEORGE TALKS ABOUT A WHOLE NEW WAY OF RECRUITING EMPLOYEES

8:59 am: as the digits on the far right hand corner of Renny George's computer turn 9:00 am, the 24-year-old team leader runs through his to-do list for the day: front-office assistant, transaction specialist, data analyst – just a few of the 12 diverse job openings that he will have to fill by the day's end.

Just another day in the life of a headhunter, you say? Not exactly. Try finding a senior transaction specialist, a person responsible for designing, developing or implementing Internet transaction software, from a social networking profile which reads, "Enjoys making friends and going mountaineering." The young manager has neither a database to refer to nor the telephone numbers of potential candidates. In fact, all that George and his team have at their disposal to find the ideal job can didate are faceless profiles on social networking web sites, alumni forums and business networking portals.

"It takes days for us to come up with a match, and it might not even be close to the company's ideal candidate," said George. Sometimes, the only leads are a name and a work profile, but have no clues about where the person lives, his or her job history or references.

George was picked from the 70,000 member-strong staffing firm TeamLease's staff to head their newly formed social networking search team, a concept still raw to the Indian recruitment segment. "We picked Renny for the enthusiasm he showed in sourcing from the Internet," said Rajesh A R, vice president at TeamLease Services. "In fact, he was using social networking web sites to find candidates much before we thought up the concept."

Although all the team has are faceless names to begin with, their monthly targets are no different from the company's other search teams – their targets must amount to 15 per cent of the company's overall target.

But George is not going to let the stiff targets get him down. In fact, in the very first month, the team contributed to a third of the company's Internet-based monthly hires. So George's target for the next quarter now seems like chicken feed. But George is aiming higher - 25 per cent of the company's target.

It's been a 12-hour day of nail-biting deadlines. Relaxing in his cubicle at the company's Koramangala-based headquarters in Bangalore, he said he found it difficult to believe that he had stumbled upon a career in recruitment by chance. In 2006, after graduating in commerce from KJ Somaiya College in Mumbai, George applied to a city recruitment firm's job posting for the lack of an alternative. He got it.

Nine months into searching for data analysts and juggling disc jockey assignments by night, George packed his bags for an IT recruiting job at TeamLease's headquarters.

Today, the 5.5 footer is glad he's got a job he "thoroughly enjoys." An Internet enthusiast - he can spend 12 hours at the computer without moving an inch - George motivates his team to come up with new ideas to overcome the lack of guidelines for how to get the most out of searches of social networking sites.

Take the time they were asked to find a "beautiful can didate" for a front-end executive job. After brainstorming for a day and coming up with no search results, they hit upon a brainwave, matrimonial web sites. So they logged onto shaadi.com, and before long had a list of potential candidates with photographs, educational qualifications and work experience.

Still amused by the team's achievement, George insists that the foursome had crossed no ethical boundaries in achieving their target. "We informed every candidate that we had sourced their name off the site and that they could expect a call from the company," he said.

It's profiles like these that the team battles with daily. But when George finds his young team's spirit is drooping over a stubborn mandate, he throws up a challenge. "Let's see who can crack this mandate by the end of the day. And I'm in on the search too."

It's this encouragement that helped team member Raghav R find the right transition specialist candidate. He simply followed George's advice: look for bloggers on trade web sites on the basis of their posts. "Renny is always looking out for new networking sites that we can explore and encouraging us to look beyond the obvious," said Raghav.

But when George retreats to his one-room pad at the end of the day, he ensures that he carries no work with him. He unwinds over the trans beats of Paul Van Dyke, turned up loud, and a large bar of chocolate. After all, he has his future all planned out. "Within three years, I will head an all-India team of social network search professionals and take e-sourcing to a whole new level."

 

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SEARCH, which covers senior-level management. Here, a single mandate could take between three and six months. Fees are paid on a milestone basis and usually total 33 per cent of the candidate's salary.

 

SELECTION, is the search for middle-level managers, who are usually picked from company databases and job sites. Fees depend on the agreement with the client.

 

STAFFING, which is growing by 40 to 45 per cent a year, is placing contract staff. A staffing company gets employees on its payroll, and then hires them out to clients. The business process outsourcing, hospitality, retail, pharma and consumer goods industries hire a large number of such employees.

 

INCENTIVES Besides the monthly salary, which may be modest, employees also get incentives. There are different kind. One could be five to 10 per cent of the cost-to-company. If a person achieves a big target, usually of Rs 1,00,000 and above, he or she could get 10 per cent and more of that target. Some companies, just give one month's salary.