Last updated on October 23rd, 2024 at 04:40 pm
Demystifying the top 5 Higest Paid Careers and Jobs in India but we go further in understandaing how you can nail them.
Everyone wants their salary take aways to be in 5 figures, to say the least and may be even 6 or 7.If you question is “Which jobs has the highest salary in India?”, then we may have some good news for you.
The corporate world has evolved over the years from your parents obsessing on “Goverment Jobs” to may be the plain vanilla ” Enginner, Doctor, Pilot” . Why? Because the world has created more problems over the years from the usual making the bridge, giving medicine and transporting people. Hence the job market in India has gone through some serious changes.
Now I am not saying that money is the only aspect you should look at while deciding your careers but its still good to know for starters!
Now lets look at the top 5 Highest paid careers but with a twist, we also categorise them according to the field and expereince.
Business & Management
Now for all those of you who think that commerce and business is your field of interest in terms of the domain
| Role | 0-1 Year | 4-8 Years | 8-12 Years | 12-16 Years |
| Product Manager | 9.1 Lacs | 22 Lacs | 33 Lacs | 35 Lacs |
| Brand Manager | 12 Lacs | 22 Lacs | 30 Lacs | 42 Lacs |
| Operations Manager | 8 Lacs | 12 Lacs | 20 Lacs | 35 Lacs |
| Project Manager | 6 Lacs | 15 Lacs | 18 Lacs | 28 Lacs |
Product & Brand Managers
Product managers and Brand Managers are very similar roles but differ in terms of the industry. You would find brand managers mostly in FMCG comapanies like HUL,or P&G. However the role and the final objective is the same. Typical KRA’s of these role include
- New Product strategy
- Delivery and distrbution strategy
- Marketing Ideas and implementation
- Conducting Market research
- Acting as a liason between technical and business people
- Ensuring product profitability
In a nutshell you could safely call these managers as “Mini CEO’s of their respective brands and products.
Educational Qualification:
A degree in business like MBA can be very usefull but its advisable to do it from a premium MBA colleges. However you can becomea product manager also without a master degree, if you have gained expereinced over the years from sales to products.
Operations Manager
Operations manager are the one’s who keep the process going, they are responsible to make sure that whatever the strategy, policies , plans are created actually happen. Hence at the senior levels in a business you have COO (Chief Operations Officer). Typical KRA’s include
- Production planning and control
- Budgeting
- Ensuring quality
- Client interaction
You could all them the mother of the business, operations manager are very critical to the success of the products itself.
Education Qualitication:
This depends on the field but generally MBA in operations from premium college or Bachelors degree from premium collges in enginnering can be very helpfull.
Project Manager
Project manager is more common in IT Business, and they perform a similar role like a operations manager but since IT business is about delvering projects to clients, a project manager is the key person who ensure that all the moving parts in an IT project come together to make sure everything happens on time. Key areas of responsibilities include:
- Setting project goals
- Scheduling
- Hiring and resource management
- Project performance appraisal
- Dealing with clients
Education Qualification
A simple engineering in IT is enough but you need to learn project management skills like Agile, PMP, Change management and also have hands on coding expereince.
Information Technlogy
Technology has been and will always be a field that gnerates the highest salaries, because of the highest changes. We have found the following 4 jobs in IT which have the highest average salary in any category of expereince
| Role | 0-1 Year | 4-8 Years | 8-12 Years | 12-16 Years |
| Games Developer | 4 Lacs | 15 Lacs | 26 Lacs | 40 Lacs |
| Project Manager | 6 Lacs | 15 Lacs | 18 Lacs | 28 Lacs |
| Lead Developer | 9 Lacs | 13 Lacs | 20 Lacs | 34 Lacs |
| Data Warehouse Enginer | 5 Lacs | 10 Lacs | 33 Lacs | 40 LACS |
Games Developer
Game developers or publishers is a very lucaration and rewarding career for those who have the passion and expertise for it. Games developers can range from very large game development team to small one man team. A game developer may specalise in certain consoles like nintendo, xbox, PS etc. Also the role of the developer may include
- Programming: C & C++
- Design
- Testing
- Art
Education Qualifications
Although there are a lot of developers without a formal degree, you need graduate degree in computer science and lots of internships under your belt
Lead Developer
This can be a very important position in the IT team, you are the go to person for the technical aspect of any project. You know hands on coding and also know your team very well. Your key areas of work would be:
- Coding based on the language and project
- Team management
Education Qualifications
Education qualifications in this too would be computer sciecne but you need more lanaguage expertise in programming to be successfull. Like JAVA, python,C++ and lots of expereince with diffeernt lanaguages too
Data Warehouse Enginer
This role has become more and more important with the influx and importance of data in business’s. A data warehouse manager is the one responsible for design,moedling and delivery of data in the entire eco system. Key areas of work include
- Data analysis and storage
- Creating data base architecture
- Oversee data design
- Maintenace ands ecurity
Education Qualifications
Bachelors in computer science with lots of skills like data mart, SQL,Cubes, ETL and general coding
Finance & Banking
Finance industry is also one the ever green fields with rewarding careers, mainly due to the nature of work and importance of their roles in creating returns or avoiding losses.
| Role | 0-1 Year | 4-8 Years | 8-12 Years | 12-16 Years |
| Hedge Fund Manager | 6 Lacs | 17 Lacs | 26 Lacs | 40 Lacs |
| Risk Manager | 13 Lacs | 21 Lacs | 24 Lacs | 46 Lacs |
| Economist | 5 Lacs | 15 Lacs | 20 Lacs | 68 Lacs |
| Investment Manager | 16 Lacs | 18 Lacs | 28 Lacs | 57 Lacs |
Hedge Fund Manager
A hedge fund manager is a fund manager in the hedge fund industry, which is different from the usual fund management industry. Hedge fund manager himself might be one of the investors in the LLP, and the reason for high salaries is because of the team of hedge fund being small and the relative salary being very small.
Education Qualification:
A Hedge fund manager can be a person without a real degree in finance too but generally they have a finance gradudate and masters degree in finance or economics with some specalised qualification like CFA.
Important Skills for a hedge fund manager include : Programming, Financial Modeling, SQL etc
Risk Manager
A risk manager is a very important position in banks and investment management companies, they are responsible for monitoring the risk policies of the companies, reporting risk data to management and even designing and testing risk models. You can read in detail about risk management careers here: Risk Mangement careers how to crack in 5 easy steps.
Education Qualifications:
A risk manager for credit risk roles need a masters degree in finance with specalised qualification like FRM.Also skills like financial modeling can help.
Economist
An economist is the lead person who guides the investment decision making process with economic suggestions and outlook. An economist can be a part of a bank, fund or broking firm also. He is responsible for:
- Analsying economic data
- Find opportunieis in sector
- Validate decisions
- Make suggestions to management
Education Qualification
A Bachelors and masters degree in economics from reputed colleges is a must with expereicne and itnersnships.Also now a days its recommended for aspiring economists to also learn data science.
Investment Manager
An investment manager is an advisor to clients surplus capital, he can be a part of banks or wealth management firms.An investment manager is responsoble for:
- Porfolio policy
- Disclosure
- Client servicing
- Generating busines
Educational Qualifications
Any business qualfiications but supported with qualifications like CFP & CFA is recommended and you should learn financial modeling at any cost.
Accounting
In the entire eco system of business activities, accounting acts as a liason between giverment tax and regulatory rules and its implementation by people and businesses.
| Role | 0-1 Year | 4-8 Years | 8-12 Years | 12-16 Years |
| Audit Manager | 6 Lacs | 17 Lacs | 18 Lacs | 44 Lacs |
| Management Accountant | 7 Lacs | 10 Lacs | 16 Lacs | 31 Lacs |
| Tax Accountant | 4.5 Lacs | 16 Lacs | 22 Lacs | 30 Lacs |
Audit Manager
An audit manager is responsible for all kinds of checks and balances of a companys internal controls like information security audit,cyber security audits,financial audits, risk assessment and audit planning
Education Qualification
There are no two ways here, you need to either be a Chartered accountant Or a CPA
Management Accountant
A management accountant is responsible for budgeting, forecasting, financial planning for a business, these roles are niche and need highly spreclised expereinced and qualifications like ICWAI AND CIMA with skills in financial modeling
Educational Qualification:
CIMA or ICWAI
Tax Accountant
These are specialised accountants in large companies handling taxation of the company, they can also handle taxation for corporate clients like payroll tax, direct tax, indirect tax, pension or fatca
Education Qualification
CA or CPA, thats the brutal truth
In Conclusion
The above discussion are just some highlights that we researched but these are the the only ones that pay well. Infact a lot of fields can pay but you need to passionate about hte field and work throught the years of expereince requried
