ARE YOU 2+, YOU ARE THE MOST WANTED

Dear Friends,

Greetings to you!!!

Having been working closely with the Industry and the Academia has been a great opportunity. In my current profile, my interactions with the industry has increased manifold and I would like to bring out a clear picture for the fresh graduates who are aspiring for a great Career. I have always been insisting on this point for many years and today I see myself in much stronger position to emphasize more on this point.

There is a inadvertent pressure on the fresh passing out graduates to be placed in the campus interview to show to the world that they are one of the best, which really is not true at all. The fresher has pressure from the Parents or family members to be placed in a good company. They are under pressure from the society and also have that intention because of two reasons: First one is the most important, which is they want to see their Children settle down in a good position and the second reason for many is also a pressure to reap the benefits after having invested on the kid for close to 20+ years. Particularly in the Engineering graduates case, most of them would have taken loans or pledged jewels or borrowed money from known contacts to fund for the studies, which today is commonly prevalent. This is one of the major pressure from the parents upon their Children. Parents, whose children are in the final year have a pressure attending social gathering where all the relatives and friends tend to enquire or more curious to know about the placement status of their child than enquiring even about the health or about an elderly at home. The scene is even worse when parents whose Son or daughter has already got placed. They are proud Parents and there is a sarcastic look at the peer whose child is not placed yet.

After all this drama, you have not been placed in the campus and you are out in the open market to build your Career. That's when these freshers have to be very clear about what they want to achieve and be confident that they can achieve.

I have seen many of them chasing behind big names during that time they tend to throw away offers from small companies or startups or low paid jobs. They do not respect the offer from the above companies.

Important Attitude. Fresh Graduates who are not placed in campus, should take it as an opportunity to explore wider possibilities and also to choose a career of their choice than the one that was forced upon them. I have seen many final year students who take a career which is not of their choice but continue to go and work there.

Fresh graduates should have two things in mind for the first two years of their career: 1. Increase their technical knowledge and 2. Personal and Individual Development. With this in mind they should be ready to work for small organisations at less salary where there is an opportunity to acquire the above two skills. For example an electronics Engineering graduate gets an opportunity to learn circuit design, PCB design, micro-controller programming, PCB Manufacturing, component assembling, testing, redesign etc., The skills that one can acquire absolutely depends on his eagerness to learn. For sure, he will be mentored by the company owner / proprietor who has the attitude to guide youngsters, even though he know that this the candidate will leave him in an year or two. Such opportunity to acquire wide knowledge would never be an opportunity if he joins a larger organisation through placement.

Let's take for example an accounts graduate: An accounts graduate who joins a small company has an opportunity to learn end to end accounting. Starting from AR, AP, GL, Inventory, Payroll, Trial Balance, ST, GST, ED etc., He becomes a thorough accounts guy. If the same person joins a large organisation, he would directly be doing only one activity may be AR or AP or ST etc.,

After acquiring the basic fundamental knowledge, it is time to look at a big career growth opportunity. The candidate is in demand by big corporate. These candidates who take this route have always been best performers in any large organisation and they are also the people who grow up in the ladder fast. This is also the time to keep a track on the financial growth.

This foundation experience can extend from 2-5 years. The candidate to continue in the same organisation depending on the growth of the organisation and there is a well defined road map for both knowledge and financial stability in the same organisation. I have seen many engineers in various organisations in Coimbatore who have joined as apprentice and have grown to the position of Director or Vice President in the same organisation over a span of 15-20 years. They have also been a part of the organisation growth from < than 100 people company to 2000+ people company.

When should an employee look for a change in the 2-15 years of his career: When the company does not have a clear road map or when there is no opportunity to acquire knowledge and there is no scaling up on the financial benefits one can look at switching over.

I have seen many candidates who also have the attitude to keep switching between jobs very frequently for small benefits. One of the major reasons for that is their insecurity or incapability to scale up in the career ladder in the same organisation.

To conclude, I would like to reiterate on two points.

1. A fresher should be willing to build a strong foundation for two - three years where the focus should be to build technical and personal skills
2. If you are a good candidate with 2-7 years of experience with latest tool knowledge, you are the most needed person in the market be it in any field.

Note: Particularly in the IT development field, the candidate should update regularly with the latest tools in the market. The value is for the tool knowledge that is mostly looked upon in the market at that point of time.

I wish that the freshers would focus on building a strong foundation and build a career that stands tall. BEST WISHES!!!

BE THE REASON FOR CHANGE!!!

A K Mohammed Azad / 99 44 9 333 05 / [email protected]