With an aim of providing a rich interface between the opportunity providers (employers) and the career gurus (training and placement officers) across India, Aspiring Minds hosted its first National Employability Conclave in Pune and Hyderabad. The event which was presented by Dun & Bradstreet, witnessed eminent speakers endorsing initiation of employability assessment and basic skills training right from the first semester to ensure greater employability among students. They also emphasised on the importance of possessing fundamental skills which students generally lack.

The conclave was followed by the Career Guru Awards - to recognize the outstanding effort and constant contribution of Career Gurus towards fulfilling the placement aspirations of the students. Mr. Naveen K, Mindtree Limited, Mr. Niranjan Subramanya Sarja from HCL Technologies, Mr. Puneet Pandey, HCL Technologies - ISD; Mr. Prasanna Arunachalan, Accenture Services; Ms. Savita Subramanian Venugopal, Cognizant Technology Solutions; Mr. S. Govindkrishna, Tally Solutions Pvt. Ltd.; Mr. Tarun Nallu, Deloitte and Mr. Vaibhav Dalal, Wipro Technologies graced the judges panel.

The awards were presented to the outstanding Training and Placement Officers including Vijaya Mair, CVR College of Engineering, Hyderabad, N.L.N. Reddy, Chaitanya Bharathi Institute of Technology, Hyderabad and Atul Kirdant, Sri Vishnu Educational Society, Hyderabad for  the Hyderabad event. Sandeep Meshram of College of Engineering, Pune, Shitalkumar Rawandale of Pimpri Chinchwad Education Trusts College, Pune and J. N. Pitambare of Singhad College of Engineering, Pune were awarded the coveted Career Guru Awards in the Pune event.

The event winners, in this article, share their thoughts on how students can build up their skills to prove their mettle in this highly competitive job market.

Prof. Shitalkumar Rawandale, Dean, Industry Institute Interaction, Pimpri Chinchwad College of Engineering (PCCOE), awarded the best career guru in the category ‘Visionary Minds’.

“Budding engineers should plan their career in the second or third year of engineering which they generally do in the final year or sometimes even after graduation. Students should do the project work very seriously and they should try to come up with a commercial business plan related to their project work after studying the feasibility. Some of the projects are exceptionally good and students, with the help of the faculty, should try to explore the possibility of getting patents in such cases.

Indian engineering students should also think about ‘Technical Entrepreneurship’ as a career option, in which technical products are developed and sold. This is the latest trend in top ranked universities across the globe.  To start such industries, engineering students should work in small scale industries during their vacations of second/third year and should get the knowledge about latest technologies along with managerial aspects like Finance, Marketing etc. The students who want to choose entrepreneurship as a career can opt for small/medium scale industries during their campus recruitment instead of going for highly paid jobs in large scale organizations.”

Prof. N.L.N Reddy, Training and Placement Officer, Chaitanya Bharathi Institute of Technology, awarded the best career guru under the category ‘Performing Minds’.

Companies consider a lot of factors during the campus hiring, be it consistency in academics (companies usually set up a criteria of 60% throughout the academics), no backlogs or aptitude and soft skills. Students should therefore work upon these factors to be able to get a job in the industry.

They must equip themselves with the following soft skill traits: verbal and non-verbal communication, team work, discussion and presentation skills, and adaptability to cross-cultural environments. Besides these, they must also develop their core technical competencies – strengthen concepts based on basics of programming languages as these are invariably required for almost every I.T company. Apart from this, sound knowledge of concepts of their respective branches (I.T/non-I.T)  is also required.

Students must keep themselves abreast with the latest technological trends - companies often prefer candidates with good market knowledge.

Prof. Sandeep Meshram, Training and Placement Officer, College of Engineering, Pune, awarded the best career guru under the category ‘Performing Minds’

Besides the core technical competencies, I think communication skills are equally important for sustenance in the present day job market. Heading the training and placement department of our campus, I’ve seen the brightest of minds struggle with communication skills. This often acts as a barrier between the recruiter and the potential candidate.

I feel that most of the engineering colleges in our country focus merely on imparting technical knowledge; they must also focus on the behavioural aspects – attitude matters more than the aptitude. A college name does matter for bringing the companies to the campus. But beyond that, students should equip themselves for the companies they wish to get selected in - be it a software firm, core electronics/electrical company or others.

I would like to end it on a note that the students must have a positive approach throughout their job hunting experience. Each candidate ultimately gets a job based on his/her technical competencies and soft skills. Hence, they must focus on getting a strong hold over the basic skills. A laid back attitude would not help!