Graduates should develop skills in emerging areas

“Purpose is that sense that we are part of something bigger than ourselves, that we are needed, that we have something better ahead to work for. Purpose is what creates true happiness.” Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg who recalled this story, said in his Graduation Day address recently at Harvard. 

Zuckerberg’s quote rings very relevant today in campuses, where a sense of dejection is brewing over, because of the likelihood of a bad campus placements season this year. 

Jobs are drying up, service industry is threatened by a new normal. Giants like Google and Amazon are creating a whole new ecocystem that combines hardware, software, platforms, commoditised products and applications all in one large suite. So Indian players who were offering system integration, application development and maintenance, value added services using high quality, inexpensive people model, all these years are unable to cope. They are in turn reducing cost and trying to shore up revenue – bad news for students and job seekers. Automation is becoming a good alibi for this job reduction. 

Many large IT service providers based out of India — who were bulk recruiters from campuses to man the software platforms — may reduce their intake of fresh graduates from campuses in an attempt to cut costs and manage profitability. So what do students do in this situation? The other day, Infosys former Director Mohandas Pai provided a good insight. “It is not enough to be a graduate. Specialise. Acquire new high level skills like coding.” 

In other words, today’s graduates require a structural re-think of how their career has to start. Along with their engineering or applied sciences degrees, the students will have to acquire extraordinary proficiency in the emerging areas like coding, algorithm design, and product and solutions design, Big Data, Analytics, Internet of Things, Network and Security. They also have to nurture a keen sense for how technology combines with business; and higher order thinking skills. To think like a customer, empathize with a customer’s problem; identify the pain points and then offer solutions. This critical thinking capability  is certainly a major skill advantage that recruiters look for. The best way to acquire these skills is to go beyond textbooks and curriculum. Look for courses online; look for mentors from industry; or an internship in a service provider; volunteer for an NGO; do some freelance work.. 

These provide many valuable lessons on people, communication, empathy, problem identification, and problem solving skills. Most importantly, how people think in different situations and how do they act! May be this can offer a clue to the crucial skills that are needed at work in an increasingly complex world?