This is a good question. I have personally done this. So, please let me highlight my view on this here. Perhaps it will help some aspirants in a similar dilemma and also provide an understanding of what the civil services (my experience in the IAS) is all about.

At the end of the day, this question is about personal preference:

Whether you want to be rich with money or rich with varied life experiences. What do you value more, a huge bank balance or a huge trail of diverse challenges and life-changing opportunities.

That is what IAS is all about, a medley of rich life experiences, not the money. These experiences will start in training with village visits, heated class discussions, life changing experiences in treks, the incredible Bharat Darshan and continue there after in the career where you will see many ups and downs, fight battles against vested interests, coordinate and work with some of the best minds in the world including our political leadership which has many good people, working for the people towards a vision of our country, deliver justice, create programs and implement them that penetrate every aspect of life in our country.

You will wear many hats, that of an executive magistrate, CEO of smart cities, CEO of District Development Councils, and leadership position pretty much everywhere in the public sector and some in the private sector too, where it really matters. In a nutshell, you will do EVERYTHING my friend.

Training and People in the Civil Services. Many of the best minds continue to join the IAS and that too with amazing backgrounds. It is a diverse batch of some of the smartest people I have worked with (and yes, I have worked with some really smart people). They are doctors, engineers, ex-military personnel, individuals with foreign degrees and work experiences, scientists, and so on.

The training of the IAS at LBSNAA is world class. Specialists in education, health, social sector, infrastructure development and law (from universities like Harvard, Wharton etc.) teach us. The modules are a combination of both theoretical and practical experiences in the field. I believe no private sector company in the world today can match the kind of intensive training IAS get.

Salaries: You will start with about Rs. 6–7 lakh per annum and the apex salary today is around 28–32 lakh per annum. It increases gradually over the career, however it cannot match the salaries offered by most private companies at the middle-higher end of the spectrum.

For the same reason you will mostly end up retiring considerably richer in the private sector.

As I explained earlier, the debate is Salaries vs. Intangibles. You decide. You want a lot of money, please do not join the civil services.

Political Interference and Quality of Political Leaders: Yes it is there. Vested interests are present everywhere, and more so in civil services. However, let’s not paint the picture with one colour. A large number of political leaders in our country are working with good intentions, and working very hard for the people. It is a mix bag, just like in everything there is.

Even in the private sector a ton of corruption exists. It is very easy to get disillusioned with such instances. After all, we are humans! We fight, quarrel and commit mistakes. Let us be more open minded about nature of these things.

Service of the nation: Everyone of us is serving the nation in one way or the other. We are all contributing in bits and pieces.

The political leadership and civil servants have a more direct responsibility to do so, since it is their duty (just like another citizen) but more importantly it is also their job. Therefore, I proudly say that I have joined the IAS because I want to serve my nation. It is one of the most important reasons to be in the service. To be able to remember Gandhiji’s talisman and work for the people.

The supreme leaders in our democracy are not politicians. It is the people. They are the ones we are all accountable to. Regardless of what come maybe, civil servants work tirelessly for the people. Like all of us, some burn out, some have other events in their lives that cause their attention to be diverted, but the larger goal is something we all are working hard towards, all the citizens I mean.

And therefore I say, civil Services has been and remains as one of the BEST way to serve our nation. Over the past few months, I traveled across India and saw the amazing work being done by so many SDMs, CEOs of ZPs, and DMs in their respective districts. I had a chance to live with the Armed Forces and they are doing equally amazing work too. I met farmers, nurses, doctors, NGO workers and many other people who are transforming their villages and cities working side by side with the civil servants. And so are other institutions. Both in rural areas and in cities, a new approach to administration and public service delivery has emerged and people and civil society have become an important part of it.

IAS is not just a DM. As an IAS, the idea is not to just limit our ability at the post of DM and we do not. DM is just one of the many exciting positions. The SDM and CEO Zila Parishad, which you are for first 6–7 years are cutting edge leadership positions that no other job in the world offers at such a young age. Would you be sitting at a laptop for 15 hours a day for that 50 lacs or hustling and bustling across and working with 100s of people to improve the lives of lakhs in your sub-division, alas only with 50k a month? The choice is yours 🙂

After the role of a DM, which in many cases lasts for as much as 4–6 years, you will be posted at higher Commissioner positions and then later policy making and implementation levels in the most important institutions of our country.

IAS has the most unique job content in the world. As an IAS, you will work with the people, governance councils, political leadership, media, NGOs and handle a variety of portfolios. You will a high amount of discretion and independence to truly change lives of a large number of people (as much as 5 lac – 2 million in a district, which is more than populations of many countries).

I have said enough 🙂

The world cannot be seen in black and white. And more than that, it cannot be seen only with the colour green, that is money. It is a complicated world out there and even more complicated are the choices that we have to make in our careers.

My only advice is, don’t make your choice on the basis of only money. If that’s what you want go for it, join Microsoft and become the next Nadella …oh wait, his dad was an IAS, so I guess this IAS did something right 🙂 Make the best of whatever you have and make yourself, your family and your country proud. And be happy!