Students should have a flexible mind and a very practical approach towards their professional life, writes Shounak Biswas
The pandemic has impacted business and young job-seekers significantly, especially those planning to start their professional career this year, with uncertainty in the environment playing havoc in the minds of the youth. Companies in the Engineering sector, usually known for their higher pay packages, have been hit extremely hard with the virus setting off inflationary trends across. This transformed situation would also play an important role in the choice of careers for Engineers and technocrats in the days to come. Therefore, considering the job scenario, it is essential for students to become future-ready by inculcating knowledge and skills in the latest
Rising technical role
The culture of work-from-home will remain, in a hybrid form. Consequently, technology-oriented job opportunities will continue to grow in sectors like ITES/BPO, E-Commerce, Edtech, FinTech, Healthcare Tech, HRTech among others. There will be more work opportunities in jobs involving AI, the Internet of Things (IoT), and Robotics. Analytics will be the need of the hour and future along with cutting-edge IT fields such as AI, Cloud Computing, IoT, Big Data, and Machine Learning(ML). BTech programs now mandatorily have AI, IoT, ML, and some other essential components of emerging technologies. However, constant changes in this dynamic field have made it mandatory for professionals to keep up-skilling to remain relevant and job-worthy.
Engineers in startups
There is a slew of startups coming up, which would hire Engineering candidates who are agile, can think out-of-the-box, work cross-functionally, and deal with ambiguity and disruption. Most of the Engineering colleges today have an incubation center, which helps in nurturing and developing entrepreneurship among students. Through incubators, these colleges also give requisite assistance to their students to set up a successful startup. The knowledge of entrepreneurship opens up many avenues for students.
Need for continuous upskilling
The experience of upskilling should be such that it involves learning how to think, act and thrive in a digital world that is sustainable over time. Colleges need to support and encourage a student-led approach to innovation because it is more effective to let them choose what they want to learn. They should encourage their students to use their newly acquired skills to improve their understanding and build confidence. It has been witnessed that those who were resilient towards the changes and became the first ones to learn the new technology-based innovations are the ones who were less affected by the economic slowdown.
Be resilient
In today's Gig-economy, students should be open to the idea of temporary, freelance, or contract-based jobs, so that they do not lose out on opportunities and experience if getting a permanent job takes longer. Short-term opportunities are here to stay. Students should therefore have a very flexible mind.
(The author is assistant director -Development, JK Lakshmipat University, Jaipur)
From - Times of India
Published on - 18 October 2021
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