A Measure Of Suitability

Freshers must have the right technical and soft skills to get placements in a tough market

- Lola Nayar

THE quality of mercy is not strained. But can it be measured? Psychometric tests—including tests for empathy—are among the assessment methods now popular among campus recruiters. Trends in campus recruitment have changed considerably over the past two years, say placement experts, and all the more so due to the evolution of the mode of assessment. Today, alongside technical skills, considerable weight is given to soft skills. Even for entry level jobs, there are many measures on which a candidate is tested before being offered employment. And, for those who get an offer, there’s no guarantee it’ll be their dream job.

Every year, 16 lakh students enrol in engineer­ ing courses, hoping to secure good jobs. The com­ mon belief that an engineering degree or an MBBS is a guarantee of gainful employment is yet to lose currency. Engineering aside, around 14 to 15 lakh students annually enrol in mathe­matics or physics courses, and graduates of such programmes must be considered competitors to engineering graduates. So, every year, almost 25 lakh students compete for around 1.5 lakh jobs.

A NASSCOM report says that in 2017–18, there were only 1.65 lakh entry­level jobs—hardly one for every 20 students. And most opportunities that do exist are still concentrated in the IT sec­ tor. In other domains like mechanical engineer­ ing, biotechnology and automobile engineering, the need for freshers is quite low in comparison. Things are beginning to change, but the problem remains that whatever your domain knowledge, in the IT sector, you’ll have to show additional skills like coding or programming to get a job.