New Delhi: While India Inc may harp about the fact that the job market is booming and it is an employees market dominated by the youth, when it actually comes to down to it, India Inc still prefers experience and a little bit of spunk on the side (if possible) over anything else.
A report on the employment and unemployment trends in India during 2004-2005 indicates that the unemployment rates among the educated (secondary and above) in both the rural and urban areas, was higher than those whose education level was lower than secondary.
Sr VP- Sales at Naukri.com a leading job portal, Suresh V says, “Well the unemployable factor may be higher among the urban youth since their basic skills are absent. We see too many colleges mushrooming and the curriculum standard falling. Earlier there used to be a certain entry criteria to get into colleges, but now with so many colleges the entry criteria is not stringent enough. There is a demand-supply gap today, of atleast 50-60% and many pass-outs don’t get jobs.”
Surprisingly, the study indicates that the unemployment rate is much higher among the youth (15-29 years) as compared to that in the overall population. “If there is unemployment among the educated it would only because the person hasn’t identified his skills or those skills don’t suit the need of the industry.
Largely most companies are understaffed, and there is a huge amount of talent crunch,” suggests Michael Bala, Business Head at ClickJobs.com (a job portal).
Is experience still valid in an employees market dominated by the youth?
CEO at O&M, Pratap Bose, certainly thinks so and believes that in an industry like the media and entertainment, experience counts far more than mere qualifications.
“What I would look for in a candidates would be a good pedigree, good family background and the person should have other interests apart from work. We look for the hatke or spunk factor. Experience is very important today, if you have 5 years of relevant work experience, you are hot in the market, after which qualifications are not the focal point,” says Bose.
With India’s economy booming, industry watchers feel that this is providing myriad options for people in offbeat industries such as sectors like entertainment, music, radio, retail and digital media.
“We see the retail boom in India and therefore a person from an FMCG industry can easily shift to retail. Other sectors like insurance also need trained manpower, so a person who has these skills is always in demand. Except for specialized industries like shipping, marine and engineering, other sectors are not very particular. If the person has core competency and managerial skills they can be trained,” adds Suresh V.
Even erstwhile sectors like banking which had become staid have now have opened up and embracing marketing and advertising professionals. It’s where there are more opportunities and more money too,” says Bose.
The other major shift, feel experts, is that corporates are now taking their jobs directly to potential employees instead of waiting for them to approach them. “The bigger firms today have specified projects and believe in investing in human capital and training. They feel that by training a person for 6 months, they would be able to retain the employee for 2-3 years.
Companies like Infosys and Accenture, are now going to college in the interior of India to hire smart skilled employees,” concludes Bala.
By-Sakshi Sharma
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