Indian IT industry is credited with bringing thousands of jobs in India from west. But things are changing fast. An IT professional who was till now competing with westerners will soon have to compete with Indians or may be Vietnamese for his job, where he will lose the cost advantage. Higher one’s salary more competition one will face. In such a situation, will Indian IT industry be able to keep their current workforce employed?
Experts say that to keep on recording same growth, IT industry should move from labor intensive jobs to research and knowledge intensive functions. But in my opinion a huge chunk of Indian IT professionals are unfit for research intensive jobs. This is not because of lack of talent but because of the way Indian IT industry has molded them. The IT industry’s processes are forcing them to become champions of fields which may not be required at all in future. A recession in IT industry may make these people obsolete and unemployed. Following are the few functions of IT industry which I trust are turning intelligent kids into unemployable adults.
Overseas job assignment (onsite)
The biggest perk given by IT industry to its employees is a chance to work at client locations in foreign countries where one can make quick money. It forces professionals to compromise on nature of work, growth opportunities and learning prospects to get that chance. A huge pool of talent is wasting time at client locations while waiting for a problem, which they can fix, to occur.
People management at an earlier stage in career
An efficient engineer who is still not expert in his/ her domain and has less experience is pulled into people management to meet the shortage of managers. In case of recession, when jobs will move out of India to low labor cost locations and Indian companies will try to move to high end technical work to improve profit margins what will such chaps do? Architects/ designers and not managers will be required.
Supporting obsolete technologies
Companies are training people to work on obsolete technologies which are currently installed at client locations. A person working on an obsolete technology will be a fresher once that technology goes out of the market.
Better hikes to pull people
Using attractive salaries, IT industry lure people to jump jobs frequently without thinking about people’s long term career. In a recessionary phase, what kind of job a person with total 5 years of experience with 14 months in each of BFSI, BI, storage, and telecom domain will get?
On-Bench
IT companies keep a large number of employees workless in anticipation of getting a new contract. I know few experienced people who are on bench from last 8 to 9 months. This is as good as a paid career gap.
We need companies to take the responsibility of educating ingenuous workforce about their sustainability in the industry. Some companies do have career development programs but the goal of these programs is not to develop careers but to retain “crucial” employees. I seriously doubt that companies will close their eyes to self interests (low attrition) and educate employees about careers which will keep them employable forever.
Dear IT professionals, wake up! You have to take care of yourself.
Experts say that to keep on recording same growth, IT industry should move from labor intensive jobs to research and knowledge intensive functions. But in my opinion a huge chunk of Indian IT professionals are unfit for research intensive jobs. This is not because of lack of talent but because of the way Indian IT industry has molded them. The IT industry’s processes are forcing them to become champions of fields which may not be required at all in future. A recession in IT industry may make these people obsolete and unemployed. Following are the few functions of IT industry which I trust are turning intelligent kids into unemployable adults.
Overseas job assignment (onsite)
The biggest perk given by IT industry to its employees is a chance to work at client locations in foreign countries where one can make quick money. It forces professionals to compromise on nature of work, growth opportunities and learning prospects to get that chance. A huge pool of talent is wasting time at client locations while waiting for a problem, which they can fix, to occur.
People management at an earlier stage in career
An efficient engineer who is still not expert in his/ her domain and has less experience is pulled into people management to meet the shortage of managers. In case of recession, when jobs will move out of India to low labor cost locations and Indian companies will try to move to high end technical work to improve profit margins what will such chaps do? Architects/ designers and not managers will be required.
Supporting obsolete technologies
Companies are training people to work on obsolete technologies which are currently installed at client locations. A person working on an obsolete technology will be a fresher once that technology goes out of the market.
Better hikes to pull people
Using attractive salaries, IT industry lure people to jump jobs frequently without thinking about people’s long term career. In a recessionary phase, what kind of job a person with total 5 years of experience with 14 months in each of BFSI, BI, storage, and telecom domain will get?
On-Bench
IT companies keep a large number of employees workless in anticipation of getting a new contract. I know few experienced people who are on bench from last 8 to 9 months. This is as good as a paid career gap.
We need companies to take the responsibility of educating ingenuous workforce about their sustainability in the industry. Some companies do have career development programs but the goal of these programs is not to develop careers but to retain “crucial” employees. I seriously doubt that companies will close their eyes to self interests (low attrition) and educate employees about careers which will keep them employable forever.
Dear IT professionals, wake up! You have to take care of yourself.
1 comment:
Well said.
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