I will concentrate on the most important aspect of my young friends, which is undoubtedly, the employment. When we were young, we aspired to be employed by any of the many Public undertakings like, BEL, ECIL, BHEL or many others. Respect used to be a lot, money was decent, and the main thing is, the prospective in-laws were eager to get married their daughters to us. Came 1990s, and we all were up for a cultural shock. Things like Wipro and Infosys happened, and some new phenomena like the Campus interviews started happening regularly. The children started coming home in the 3rd year only with appointment letter with salaries more than what the father aspired to take home around retirement time from Good companies.
The world started looking towards India, especially Bangalore for opening anything in India. Citybank opened 75 ATMs in one go in Bangalore as Bangalore had the maximum middleclass population in the world. Then the rest of them stood on Queue like, KFC, Pizza Hut, and what have you. India and India youth saw a new India and a bright future. Engineering colleges and MBA colleges became a cottage industry, with one being opened in every Kilo meter or so, both In Bangalore and Hyderabad and surroundings. Millions of students were lured and are being lured to these places, and the graduates are being manufactured.
This brings us to the current topic of mine. Can all these be employed? In a recent national Student symposium, it was declared that it is not that there is unemployment problem for these students. But, it was said that these students have an EMPLOYABILITY problem. The industry finds them unemployable, and through the scores of articles, panel discussions round the nation, it has been brought to light that these students or majority of them are far from being touched by the industry with barged pole, leave alone being employed. I have been in the Industry for around 4 decades, being Computer Society Chairman of both Bangalore and Hyderabad Chapters, and also being Treasurer of NHRD. I find lot of truth in this. That is why, I am crusading now with going round to colleges charging up the youth, and giving them lot of ideas to counter the employability problem.
One of my popular lectures is the Ten Commandment, I have chartered, which I tell them, thou shalt. Here are these gems.
1. Be good In Communicating Skills – Oral & Written. Majority of the youth fail in this department, when this is the most important skills they should posses. When the job market is not that hot, and there is hectic competition for the placements, the students almost become like commodities for the placement people with shopping list to pick from the shelf. Those who impress the selectors get the job. How do you impress people if you cannot communicate well?
2. LISTEN: One of the greatest enemies of human being is his impatience to ‘listen’. Very few of us are good listeners. The student has many disturbances in life, which will make him fail in interview, lose valuable tips given by the teachers and elders.
3. Be Project Experienced: Most of the students take short cuts when it comes to project. Yes, it is very difficult to get project work with so many students. Normally, colleges do not take the responsibility to talk to corporate and get the students projects. This makes the students go to Ameerpet, where they get the CD and the write up for the picking. This will kill you in the interview, as you do not have any work experience and the interviewer will try to grill you in your project.
4. Be a TEAM Person: Gone are the days of Solos. Today, corporate want a TEAM man. Show that you belong to a team.
5. Be able to think & talk in English: Most of us think in our mother tongue and translate it into English. This makes it sometimes Tenglish instead of English. This is a paradigm shift, and will take a lot of effort from the students. One of the remedies for this is to stop conversing in your mother tongue at least in the colleges, and start talking to everybody in English. If you are looking for a global employability, then English and English alone can help you.
6. Be taking part in Extra Curricular Activities: College gives you enough opportunity to participate in extracurricular activities like sports, seminars, student chapters of Technical Societies to name a few. This will give the student an edge in interviews when they will be picked for showing ability to take up more responsibility.
7. Do well in Exams: This is a must, but as far as employability is concerned, this becomes a necessary condition and not a sufficient condition and hence the lower ranking. Many reputed organizations have drawn a limit to be shortlisted for Campus, and that way, getting good marks become essential. One problem student face is the paradigm shift when they get into the corporate. There is no pass mark of 40 % or a A grade of 70%. They have no other choice other than 100%.
8.Work for more hours a day: Productivity is the buzz word in the corporate. Though they talk about smart work, they expect you to work those extra hours. So, practice now only.
9. Learn foreign Languages: Every organization worth the name has branches in more one country. So, they appreciate it if you already have taken proactive steps to learn any of the foreign languages on your own.
10. Be Smart, smartly dressed & Keep SMILING…… They say, if you keep smiling, the other guy will not know what you are up to!!!!
These 10 commandments will definitely help you, as they say that the soft skills are the one which has advantage over the technical skills. So, my dear young friends, study well, be active, enjoy your life, and be the BEST and be successful.
Somebody was telling me the other day that the Gen(Y) people need patience and they sent a SMS to God, which read, ‘’ God give me patience, and please hurry it up’’.
I wish you and the magazine all the very best, and need any counseling any time,
I am available in Face Book, or contact me in amar.rao.06@gmail.com.
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Amarnath Rao
CHIEF KNOWLEDGE CATALYST,
MIND MATTERS,
CONVENOR- SIG - SOFT SKILLS(CSI)
Mobile:+919440651855:
+918885443916:
I had no shoes and complained till I saw a man without leg
This certainly has helped me a lot and keeps me on track even now.
ReplyDeleteThanks a lot.