Impact Of Covid-19 On Engineers: Skills To Build And Career Path To Follow

Narayan Mahadevan Jun 25, 2021

Millions of jobs have been lost across the world ever since the outbreak of the pandemic in 2020. Job markets have suffered a massive blow as businesses lost money due to the lockdowns imposed to contain the spread of coronavirus. Companies across the globe quickly shifted online with remote work becoming a new normal.

The lay-offs with lockdowns and remote working scenarios have brought about their own challenges. So the employees, especially engineers working from home had to ask themselves an important question — how to avoid job loss or minimize the risk of the same. Well, with work from home, it became vital for engineers to adjust to the new normal and deliver 100 per cent. Results mattered more than ever before!

Becoming Important in the Job Market

Furthermore, in case somebody has lost a job and has time on their hands before getting another job, it is important to keep learning new things to remain significant in the job market. Indulge in a new short course or start your own small project that is manageable with the given resources. It will help fill the gap between two jobs and reflect your determination before the employers and make you a relevant candidate.

Those who are still with the jobs should not let go of any opportunity to be hands-on, hence upskilling. Whether somebody is a fresher or with significant years of experience, one has to have an experiential mindset in their approach. It will not only help solve the problems within the task that you are assigned but would reflect the overall ability to understand and communicate with the team remotely.

Hirings with High Salaries

Another problem that has come to the fore with the pandemic is how many employees had to leave jobs voluntarily to look after their families while being primary caregivers or parents. Along with this, the health emergency has impacted the employees as well with some succumbing to the virus, especially in the second wave, while many are still recovering. These two scenarios have resulted in the companies bringing in people even at very high CTC, almost close to 70 per cent, without any improvement in skills.

This may seem like a blessing in disguise to many but one must remember that circumstances will not remain the same forever. Therefore, companies may hire today at higher salaries but they are going to demand the work the same way. Thus, it is vital that wherever you join, you must pick up quickly and start adding value to the company as per the expectations. While this will make companies trust that they are hiring the right people, it will also add to your own growth within the company and personally as well.

Keep Upskilling

Industry 4.0 has been a buzzword for a while now but it has been made possible with the blend of cyber-physical systems, the Internet of Things, and the Internet of Systems. With the new technology developing at this point, the individuals must be in sync with it. The IT Sector is the highest recruiter in spite of the havoc wreaked upon the job market by the pandemic.

However, the jobs in the sector will lower or would re-engineer to fit the changed set-up. For instance, automation will become a primary factor. In almost every sector in the coming time, automation concentrating on Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Data Sciences, and the Internet of Things (IoT) is going to be the chief ruler.

In the future post-Covid, the IT sector jobs that are going to be relevant are cybersecurity, risk analyst, IoT professionals, cloud security and AI specialist. Therefore, engineers need to upskill themselves to be prepared for the jobs of tomorrow and not take the prevailing circumstances for granted.

The most important lesson pandemic has taught is to be prepared for the uncertainty by remaining open to the ideas and adjusting to the new circumstances while making oneself relevant in spite of the conditions. Build the skills that are important for today and tomorrow and navigate the career path with utmost flexibility.