Coding competitions furnish a strategic learning platform to IT students and professionals can go a long way in future proofing tech careers, believes Ramathreya Krishnamurthi, Business Head, Times Jobs and TechGig

What are the chances of landing a job in the IT sector for candidates?

The IT sector is one of the biggest contributors to India’s GDP and employs a significant fraction of India’s population. With a new push to digitisation efforts like Digital India and Smart Cities, the sector is only poised to rise ahead.

With an encouraging adoption of new technologies including Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain, Data Science by a host of industry verticals, budding IT professionals and students can expect a lucrative career in the segment.

TimesJobs RecruiteX noted an overall growth of 4 percent in the talent demand in the IT sector from Jan-Jun 2018. In this time frame, most hirings have happened in IT/Telecom, Sales/Business Development and HR centric roles.

What skills can help get a job in the IT sector?

Analytical skill is emerging as one of the most sought-after skill in the IT industry. This, followed by cognitive and sound technical skills are being sought after for most IT profiles. Gone are the days where employees were syphoned into one role for the entire career. The industry needs dynamic adaptable candidates ready to function across challenging roles.

What is the skill gap situation in the job market? What percentage of coders are masters of their skill?

Skill gap - particularly when it comes to emerging technologies - continues to remain a major challenge in the IT job market. A collaborative effort between educational institutions, government as well as the industry can be a gradual solution in this regard to strengthening India’s IT footprint across the globe.

What is lacking in the market, is it the number of jobs or the skills in employees?

Both. Jobs are available in all sectors – in varying proportion, at different management levels - but owing to automation and digitisation, most of the requirement is for niche or specialised skills. Some people may comprehend it like not enough jobs are being generated or enough skilled people are not available, but underlying facts is that jobs are available but for a handful of specialists only.

A recent NASSCOM report stated that about 1.4 lakh jobs remain vacant in the Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Big Data Analytics domain across numerous sectors in India. This gives a clear indication of the lack of relevant skills in the segment.

How to create graduates fit for hiring? What is the single most important thing to boost the employability of IT graduates?

I believe a hands-on industry experience is the need of the hour for IT graduates as the sector witnesses a new phase of disruption. Coding competitions which furnish a strategic learning platform to IT students and coding professionals can go a long way in future proofing tech careers. Strengthening collaboration between educational institutions and veteran industry players will also surge the absorption rate of graduates in the industry.

What is better for employers: to train the existing employees or to find an already upskilled workforce?

While there can’t be a definitive approach for every organisation, re-skilling and training an existing employee comes as a more time-efficient measure. A well trained in-house professional can be easily deployed in other processes as compared to a new hire. This also creates a motivational environment among the existing workforce, encouraging them to take up more responsibilities. Inducting a new resource, on the other hand, can bring in new skills and fresh thought processes to an organisation.



