2. How to be Job ready?
In my opinion, becoming “job ready” is a complex process. It requires a significant amount of preparation
and most importantly it applies for every job that you apply for. Job readiness is the biggest factor that
determines career success. Most students, who graduate, fail to prepare themselves for their first job and,
in doing so, are getting ready to fail. This is because lack of job preparation leads to impromptu decisions
and failure in every step from aptitude tests to interviews.
While opportunities will emerge, the question is whether Indian IT professionals and students have the
requisite skills to deliver on the opportunities. Constant upskilling and reskilling is important in order to
stay current. As a result, most professionals find that real learning only happens on the job. This creates
huge challenges for both the employers as well as the employees. Job Readiness has a different definition
for each job. Generally, Job Readiness is based on what employers are looking for – are you ready for the
kind of job you are looking for, and would an employer agree with this decision? The workplace of today is
vastly different from the workplace your parents entered. The workplace of yesterday was hierarchical and
formal. Today’s workplace has gone from physical walls to a virtual environment — from cubicles to
collaborative spaces.
To be successful in today’s workplace, employees need to work well on a team, have good communication
skills, be digitally competent, and be critical thinkers. In today’s business environment, the fact that you
are a college graduate is not enough to land a job. With only a certificate in hand, you will find it difficult
to open doors in the job market.
3. Why job-readiness matters?
The workplace of today is vastly different from the workplace your parents entered. The workplace of
yesterday was hierarchical and formal. Today’s workplace has gone from physical walls to a virtual
environment — from cubicles to collaborative spaces. To be successful in today’s workplace, employees
need to work well on a team, have good communication skills, be digitally competent, and be critical
thinkers. In today’s business environment, the fact that you are a college graduate is not enough to land a
job. With only a certificate in hand, you will find it difficult to open doors in the job market. Employers
want to be assured that you can successfully transition from student to professional.
Employers look for job candidates who can be team players, because they know they will be getting an
employee who will be able to collaborate, communicate, be productive and work to achieve the company’s
overall goals. Showcasing your oral and written communication skills begins with your résumé, cover letter
and interview. Show employers that you are a creative problem-solver, able to handle situations that do not
have a fixed solution. To gain some skills in this area, take some classes that involve hands-on learning or
experiential learning. Being digitally competent means through the use of technology, you are able to solve
problems, communicate, collaborate and manage information required to be successful. In most jobs
today, regardless of the industry, employees need to be competent with Microsoft Office — Outlook, Word,
Excel, PowerPoint, Teams, Yammer or other similar software.
Professionalism is demonstrated by being someone who people want to work with by arriving at work on
time, displaying a good attitude, and taking advice and direction well. As a professional, you are able to
effectively manage your time, meet deadlines, and be accountable for your actions.
4. 5 Ways To Become Job Ready
Stay updated with your industry- Perhaps the most important aspect of being work-ready is to
stay updated with your preferred industry. With the advent of technology, rapid changes are
occurring in almost every industry.
Focus on developing your soft skills- One of the most sought after skills for any position
regardless of the industry or job role is soft skills like communication, leadership, problem-solving,
interpersonal skills, etc. Recruiters actively look for employees who fit into the general
environment of the company and can work well with different personalities on a team.
Expand your work experience through internships- Work experience goes a long way to show a
potential recruiter of both your technical and practical capabilities on paper. Certain skills can only
be acquired on-the-job and not through formal education. Therefore, it is a great idea to work as
an intern before entering any industry. For students, internships are a way to explore new
industries and identify what their job preferences are.
Expand your skillset through part-time courses- With the constant changes that keep arising in
every industry, they are new skills that the organizations demand. It is important to keep learning
and updating your skill sets with new courses relevant to your industry to stand out from the
crowd.
Network your way to your ideal job- Lastly, the best way to be job-ready is by polishing your
networking skills. Networking can help a student gather insights about their preferred industry and
job roles, thereby allowing them to make more informed decisions about where to apply.
5. How To Be Job-ready In A Post COVID World
The pandemic brought great uncertainty with lockdowns impacting businesses and the economy, which led
to job cuts and hiring freezes. Things have been on the mend with hiring resuming. Naukri.com’s JobSpeak
Index showed a 5% month on month spike in July 2020. While opportunities will emerge, the question is
whether Indian IT professionals and students have the requisite skills to deliver on the opportunities.
Constant upskilling and reskilling is important in order to stay current.
While we see growing adoption of training options such as online courses and certification exams, they
have limited effectiveness when it comes to imparting the skills required to deliver on the
ground. Professionals need opportunities to learn through situations that mimic real-world work
environments and allow them to solve real-world problems as faced in the industry. This creates huge
challenges for both the employers as well as the employees. Employers need to defer their growth
aspirations without the ready availability of required skills. Not to mention the additional investment of
time and resources to train new hires.
The time has come for the tech world to think about providing opportunities for developers to learn
contextually using real-world problems optimized for learning. Developers need the opportunity to learn
skills practically so that they can come up with an end to end solutions for real-world situations.
A preferred and effective way would be through learning programs that follow project-based learning
pedagogy. In project-based learning, developers get to experience work-like scenarios and learn with a
sense of purpose, autonomy, and context. We can expect a world of opportunities to open up in the next
few months. Setting a good foundation of the right competencies is essential for a developer to leverage
those opportunities. With the right skills, only the sky's the limit!
6. What are the benefits of career readiness?
Identifies the caliber: Students at a young age are often not aware of their true potential. Career readiness
programs create opportunities that help them to analyze the current scenario of the job market.
Builds Capacity: Emerged in a theoretic world of bookish knowledge, students never get a glimpse of the real world
waiting outside for them. With thorough practice and determination, the students can polish their skills and advance
towards the future with more confidence.
An Investment for Future: Career readiness programs were quite unheard of until recent days. Critically analyzing
the current market scope and skills possessed by the young graduates, these programs are now given the utmost
priorities in every education sector.
Critical Thinking capacity: Analyzing and interpreting the complexity of a situation to bring out the best is not
something that can be easily learned acquired. An important aspect of life in every situation, this trait shapes and
molds a student into a professional by enhancing their thinking and problem-solving capacity.
Enhance Communication: We are all aware of the fact that with just above-average communication skills we cannot
succeed in the interviews. During interviews and sustaining in the job, communication skills are far more than just a
medium of transmission of thoughts and expressions. Coming from different regional backgrounds, students often
lack proper communication skills which deprive them of their dream job even after the plethora of skills possess by
them.
