Post-pandemic Campus Placement Scenario: A Disruptive Innovation Of Self

Everyone was talking about industry 4.0 being the most unsettling era where digitization of almost every sector had to happen. Glancing back at the early industrial revolutions people have witnessed similar disruptions right from the advent of steam-powered engines to machines driven by electricity which had brought in a revolutionary change in the operational and business processes altogether or bringing in a re-think and revamp of the then existing business models. Later, the world transitioned to massive automation which succinctly can be captioned as industry 3.0. Now when it's the first quarter of 21st-century, people have let themselves be more machine-dependent surpassing the 'do-as-directed mode'  and according to more of control to the machines on the whole where largely the trend of Internet of Things (IoT), Machine learning and Deep learning has gradually surfaced over.

It would not be a bold statement to state this pandemic has fuelled the need for a more robust digital environment and online operations have skyrocketed through the digital infra for most of the industries. It has been witnessed how in a very short span of time every sector has resorted to the changing environment be it work from home, social distancing, increased virtual meetings, shared access on and off cloud and imparting services online. We have successfully shifted 40 per cent of our tasks online in this period!!

For people in the Education vertical, this scenario has ushered us to the online modes of learning and assessments with Universities contemplating a blended mode of teaching-learning for the majority of the courses henceforth. On one hand, while such transitions make learning more self-paced, accessible and available, yet whether learners can account for shouldering greater responsibility of improvised degree of personalization, absence of a competitive environment, less of peer pressure and collaborative learning environment is a topic which has to be revisited from time to time. But the post COVID scenario emphasizes the need that the world has to be social online, imbibe a different professional culture and gear up to embrace the new normal altogether. In case of education rendering employable or industry-ready resources the scenario at the corporate end with respect to hiring would result in e-hiring, online training, e-joining and on-boarding for many with major transformations in salary/wage structure, job role and responsibility. The job requirements and the HR perspective will be more focussed on cutting edge technologies and skillsets. The traditional approach of bench culture, train after hire will be replaced with industry-ready manpower – ready to deploy on the project from day 1.

For the batch of 2020, who have been placed through campus drives, the job offers would be honoured, though there can be delays in joining. As per recent interaction with most of the recruiters, the salary structure may be subjected to a massive revamp based on the capital deficit of that particular organization. By 2021, campus hiring will get back to its new normal with new patterns, job profiles and skills sets.

IT giants like HCL and Tech Mahindra has already announced that 50 per cent of its employees would be working from home for 12-18 months even after the lifting of lockdown. Here along with technical skills, students from upcoming batches are required to understand and practice online work ethics, while working from home how he/she should maintain the correspondence with the organisational hierarchies and clients and with their teams. However, a suitable and compatible IT infrastructure still needs to be developed, to execute the same seamlessly.

Post-COVID-19 the whole new world will be looking at young graduates with assertive anticipation for progressing and re-establishing the industry and thereby economy, with the dissolute, smart and reliable approach.

Finally, advice to students pursuing and willing to pursue a technical career, to learn how to learn new things at a proper pace and with precision.

Dr Chandrani Singh

Guest Author The author is Director, Sinhgad Institute of Management (SIOM-MCA)