In the last couple of years, there is a lot of talk about lack of employability of Indian engineers.  The issue came to limelight when some reports and statements in media went on to suggest that employability of engineers is in single percentage points. 

On the positive side, these created sensational headlines and got people talking about the issue. On the flip side, it made many people question the veracity of the claimed numbers as they didn’t meet the eye.   Based on my interaction with students and observing different student discussion forums, i found that students reacted to it in different ways – mainly fear, disdain, and confusion.

(a) Some got fearful for their future and started to have very low expectations of their post engineering career.  In the tough economic climate we are in, where lack of employment is already a problem – this lack of employability talk added to their woes.

(b) Some looked around and felt that problem is not as bad as it is made out to be, so they rejected the findings and started to question motives behind these claims.  They not only rejected the study, the rejected the problem altogether.

 (c) A small section started to look for opportunities to improve their employability skills but they have limited information on how to.  They confused it with knowledge of latest technologies or a lecture on communication skills.

The truth lies in between all these positions and it is important that engineering students understand the issue in little more detail.

Before we delve more into the issue, let’s get some basic questions out of the way.

• Is employability a problem – Yes, it is.
• Is it that bad (<10%) – No. It is not. Based on different studies carried by groups with no perceivable conflict of interest (e.g. world bank, world economic forum, MHRD, large employers, research papers by veteran college professors) and our practical experience (me and my friends included) of recruiting and leading thousands of engineering freshers, it is certainly not that bad.  
• So how bad is it & what can we do? – This requires more elaboration. We will discuss this in just in a while. 
• Is the problem only with Indian engineers?  – No. The problem is universal. Its severity and attributes vary from country to country.  All over the world, employers have more expectations from the education system than it is meeting.  A relevant Google search will easily help you find concerns on the same topic even in US, Europe and many other countries. 
• Who is to be blamed for this mess? – No one in particular. Employability Lesson #1 – In your career, you shouldn’t approach any problem to find someone to be blamed.  Look for contributing and root cause of the problem and ways to improve it.   

There are various reasons behind lack of employability – e.g. education curriculum not able to keep pace with industry, lack of industry-academia interaction, easy availability of seats in engineering colleges, lack of awareness among students, reluctance by industry to invest in ‘prospective’ employees during their study years, miniscule number of faculty with professional industry experience to name a few.

 I would also encourage you to review my article on employment vs employability to appreciate the differences between the two and have more clarity on the topic.

 Coming back to our unanswered question, how bad is the situation and what can we do?

 For this answer, we need to break employability enigma into 2 parts

 (a) Ability to secure a job –   This is most simplistic understanding of employability and this is not where the major problem lies.  For this part, employers focus on technical aspects and basic visible personality traits which help them understand if candidate is fit for their organization.  If these attributes are not strong then candidate's ability to secure job are severely diminished. 

Technical and cultural requirements depend on industry and employer e.g. same engineer will be viewed differently by a company working on a molecule development Vs a paint company. Similarly in IT industry, services companies technical requirements might be different from a product based company Vs an internet company.  Within the same industry and same vertical, employers have different requirement and selection criteria. 

Candidate getting a job depends as much on candidate’s ability as on the economic climate and availability of jobs e.g. if I have a mandate to select 5 people only and I get 60 good profiles, I will select best 5 (doesn’t mean other 55 are not employable). On the other hand, if I had to select as many as I like, I might be able to select 20 or 18 from the list (or may be 5 only).  So, absolute employment numbers are not a good indication of employability. 

It is also a function of company’s ability to go to right talent pool and willingness to pay right.  If my company is working on defining new standard for mobile communication which is 1000x faster than 5G then I have to select the right college or location where curriculum and  student interests are aligned with it and should be willing to pay right salary to get such candidates. If I compromise on these factors in my search, I am bound to face difficulties in getting right candidates.  This should not be confused with lack of employability. 

Nevertheless, there are gaps in this area which needs to be improved e.g. You as a student can improve on technical skills by focusing more on fundamental and practical aspects (rather than choosing common projects which does not challenge you), can learn to make good CVs (most CVs currently have no unique identity and fail to showcase your value proposition) and improve on interview skills.  You should also focus on building your professional networks beyond your educational institutes. 

Technical skills are extremely important for this part.  For any good company, they are not absolute metrics – they serve as an indicator that you are serious about the subject and willing to work hard to acquire competence.  Good companies do not hire for technical skills alone (may be fly by night operators do – or start-ups playing funding games do). 

Let's take a situation - You are really competent in a technical area today and in 5 years time,  a new technology becomes rage in the industry – if the company is hiring you for your technical skills only – what will they do with you then? 

On the fellowtechies platform, you can read views from many industry veterans on what do they look for while hiring candidates.  You also have an opportunity to build your network with fellow engineers across institutes. 

(b) Ability to successfully do the assigned work – which in turn also means, ability to remain meaningfully employed.   This requires you to have a set of traits which are essential to carry out your job function efficiently and this is where we have a problem. 

Not that big a problem that it is a pain in the neck, but like constant niggles which keep you uncomfortable and restrict to operate at full capacity. 

Lack of employability at this stage hurts the candidate much more than ability to secure a job. An engineer who has secured a job at start of his career can suddenly find himself out of job (and unemployable) after few years. The learning curve at that stage requires more effort and is painful at times. 

Around 20% engineers have decent skills and a similar number possess basic level skills, which needs to be sharpened. Rest are significantly lacking in these traits.  

We are not only talking about basic communication skills or ability to communicate in english, we are talking about multitude of other factors e.g. emotional intelligence, how to deal with work you don’t like, managing relationship, assertiveness, dealing with multi-cultural teams, business communication, art of conversations, asking questions, perseverance, integrity, customer engagement, team work, self motivation, disagreeing with powerful people, developing your career, ways to gain more responsibilities and many more. 

When not aware of these skills, many candidates struggle in professional world. They hit their glass ceiling and often wonder “I was a good student or I was technically good, how did I become obsolete or reach this situation”.  Please note that in times of aggressive growth, these situations arise later than normal and in times of muted growth or industry contraction, these situations arise earlier than normal. 

Companies all over the world yearn to get employees who have more developed understanding of these behavior patterns, which will not only save then millions of dollars in productivity and training but also improve their customer and culture satisfaction parameters. 

As a student, you should gain insights into these skills and start developing them from early stage.   Irrespective of technology, these skills are required in every business and will never go out of demand.  

Your employability quotient is better if you are moderately skilled technically but has excellent employability skills Vs you are a highly competent technical professional with low employability skills. 

At fellowtechies, it is our endeavor to equip you with the tools which can help you in not only gain employment but also help in improving employability, build network with fellow professionals and learn from experience of industry veterans. 

Any skill development takes time and more so the skills related to behaviour, thinking and attitude.  So start as early as possible.

Have a good career.