The Covid Pandemic has created a big impact in all of our lives and is felt over by the people of all ages and the levels. For some it gave an opportunity to reinvent self and have a break from the routine grind. But, for many it brought a confused state of mind. But still all is not a loss as it helped some to quickly strategize, transition and move on to execute their strategy. A hard fact though also remains that a major chunk of the mankind will still be waiting along for the solution to come by.
This Pandemic has left over its impact over every group of the society, but I am interested to focus the impact of it on a specific group and that is the College students, who are in their final years of study and ready to start their career in the coming times. This group of people is of special interest to me since they will be seeing a different world order and the newer ways of doing the business once the normalcy returns. I am not going to go into details of how the business environment will change, but on the ways that the students should prepare themselves for the changing demands of the companies and their expectations from the freshers.
Analyzing the past times and the changed industry demands, I have tried to put down my personal views that are based on the interaction over the last one month with the corporate, Training fraternity and the students . The overall view of every fraternity is that students have to be very fast and smart in terms of analyzing and fit in the changed environment. For the better understanding of the upcoming changes and demands of the industry, I have put below the major attributes that the students need to look upon and develop:
1.Start up : At college level, many of the students are hesitant to start or speak up and wait for others to initiate. There is always a tendency to be behind someone or for someone to lead. But, in sometimes they will be required to have their own goals and be doing everything that shall highlight them, their skills and the talent. Students are expected to have a persona that will showcase them distinctively to the employers. Students have to put in the concentrated individual efforts in the career search and the opportunities. Please do remember that career search should not be done as group project or activity involving the classmates or friends.
2.Do not wait and start now : Postponing the career search activities till the college opening could cost the time. The companies are looking for hiring; training and picking up candidates fast in the changed scenario and if you are not involved and participating then, the fast and smart will grab the opportunity before you. Look for the opportunities now and today, be, it any form of the employment, internship, part time or full time, work from home etc. Every opportunity should be accepted with the positive attitude and the aptitude for learning the preliminary skills of employment.
3.Take interest in the digital learning and opportunities: The students though are digitally literate and are at ease in digital devices usage, but they do not use these skills appropriately, when it comes to learning and career planning. The interest level is not the same when it comes to exploring the employment prospects in relativity to their academics. Carrying a blank approach towards your career and personal development can be of great risk. Take out some time everyday to search for the Job opportunities, job descriptions, qualifications required and the probability factors of picking up a career opportunity. Evaluate the gaps and work on bridging them in this period.
4.Attend workshops, webinars and seminars: The times for the physical lectures, events and companies visiting the campuses will reduce in the coming times. For this, it is important for the students to engage and involve themselves in the activities and events that can provide them avenues of learning and employment. Please remember such events have great potentials and bring in plenty of employment opportunity. This lock-down period is the opportune time to learn and develop self through the above modes. The best part of it is that such modes of learning and opportunity is being provided free of cost during this lock-down.
5.Develop your communication skill – Having scored high marks alone will not help to establish students in their career. Organizations expect their employees to possess multiple skills to excel in all aspects of the business. You would be pushed to learn newer technology, skills in a short period. Companies like to see a multi skilled employee who can Write, read and present with confidence. In other words, they are looking for people who are ready to learn and could match up with the organization ever changing expectations.
Post the lock-down period, there will be flurry of changes and innovations that would require the people to manage and come out successfully through the challenges through their individual skills. The new world orders will throw up demands likes of delivering perfect communications, ability to interact in physical and more often in digital formats with the management, customer and others. The organizations are looking for only those who could add value to their business and help it to grow. The expectation from every individual has changed as well the training methods. Its now more of a self learning that is appreciated than to provide a full fledged training to the employees. Every company will be looking for cost and time cutting to overcome the loss due to Lock down and want only the SMART.
The students who are in their final years of the college has to be aware of the above mentioned expectations. These expectations are not to be looked upon as mere skills, but as a lifestyle that can be developed only through the regular practice and dedicated effort. The lock-down time is the right time for you to work on the above and develop yourself to be a strong individual.
Development of the personality and the skill is not at all difficult and can be achieved with the right mindset and approach. Please feel free to reach out to me for any support.
Author:
Prof. S. Chandra Shekhar
Training & Placement Preparedness
Crescent University, Chennai
