Almost all of us in the industry have hired talent at some stage in our careers. The issues such as talent scarcity hunt for talent, war for talent etc. have been beaten to death for many years.
For many of us who started our careers prior to the dotcom boom & bubble, jobs were a huge scarcity. Gaining employment was hard as there weren’t enough jobs both on-campus or off-campus. To get a job, it was imperative that we had to do well in our bachelors or masters degree, to be in the Top 10% to be picked by a company visiting campus. Thereafter, many of us may have stuck to jobs just to keep our home fires burning. Job satisfaction etc. was never a conversation in the first place.
There has been a massive shift in the last 15 years. Degrees have lost all meaning, as even the so-called Tier 1 and Tier 2 colleges do not produce enough Engineers or MBAs, who know much about their subject. There isn’t anything to say about the Tier 3 & below. Education in India has always been patchy, so I am not sure if that would be easy to solve.
There is however one huge change I have noticed in the young talent coming out of any Tier of colleges — a deep-rooted “entitlement mindset”. It almost appears that
· It is their birth right to a well paying job (because they paid to earn a degree),
· An expectation that it is the employers duty to train & skill them (while they can afford to be lax on their learning goals) and
· Their unhindered access to social media gives them the power to judge, praise or condemn anyone who does not satisfy their wants (with no accountability whatsoever).
While the demographic dividend is a lot spoken about, the biggest challenge confronting the future of our country & the industry is “this new found attitude”.
At a time when the criticality of possessing core operational skills have far out valued pedigrees, the biggest learning enigma facing the country is shifting this self-defeating attitude amongst a large part of the young population.
I am curious to hear what has been your experience and what are your thoughts on this subject.
Regards
