Rejigging career plans in a changing job market
ABDUL LATHEEF NAHA
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The downturn and its impact on the job scene have left students uncertain. A cross-section of students from the South speak out what is weighing on their minds.
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Wait for better times: While some students worry about bleak job prospects, there is a view that the downturn will give more time to choose a career.
The recession in many developed economies has its repercussions on our campuses. Students now dream less of landing attractive jobs in multinational companies coming to campuses in search of them. The scene is beset by confusion and uncertainty as they keenly watch the global economic scene.
The Hindu-EducationPlus spoke to a cross-section of students and faculty in South India and found them harbouring concerns of various degrees about career prospects. Some admitted being shattered and confused, while others tried to console themselves saying it was too early to affect them.
Seriously worried are the final year students, particularly of engineering and management institutes, who may not find a prospective job market when they pass out.
“We can’t predict anything. Let us see what is happening. We will have a better picture when the current final year batch leaves the campuses in 2009,” said M.P. Induchoodan, Head of the information technology faculty at M.E.S. College of Engineering.
A general belief is that the recession will lead to stagnation in the job market, causing more worries to the students.
With more and more companies turning to people with multi-tasking capabilities, engineering students preferring specialisation are driven to disillusionment.
“We are indeed waiting for the market to improve. But what is more disturbing now is the ‘upper cut-off’ insisted by certain companies, saying that those who score 80 per cent and above marks need not apply,” said Aman Jain, a student of B.Tech. electronics and communications at Sri Bhagwan Mahaveer Jain College of Engineering, Bangalore.
That means, the companies have started rejecting the cream of students who excel in studies, on the ground that they will not suit a multi-tasking milieu.
“This is a strange and highly disturbing phenomenon, a direct fallout of global recession,” Aman said.
“Companies do not want people to do more than what is needed. ‘You just do what we say,’ is the current mantra by certain companies.”
Aman’s disillusionment is shared by engineering students across campuses. Campus recruitments have fallen sharply. A campus that got 30-odd placements last year is set to get two or three now. The situation is likely to worsen after May, when students pass out.
The recession has crashed the career planning of many a student, admits Prashant Suregaonkar, final year B.Tech. civil engineering student of M.S. Ramaiah Institute of Technology, Bangalore. He says most students begin planning their career by the fifth or sixth semester. “Seeing the companies chucking out people is terrifying. The career plans of students, particularly those in the final year, have all crashed,” he said.
The recession builds up a lot of pressure on the final year students. With the junior students looking up to them and questioning their choices, the seniors are almost driven against the wall.
“Now what? That is the most excruciating question we face today. We have no answer to our juniors. We have no answer to ourselves,” Prashant said.
The real test of Kerala’s engineering graduates is yet to come, with several self-financing colleges still to send out their first batches. The coming year will be a testing time, says C.L. Joshy, biotechnology teacher at St. Thomas College, Thrissur, and Syndicate member of the University of Calicut.
“There will be a drastic fall in the companies coming to campuses, and there will be drastic fall in the salaries offered as well,” he said.
The arts and sciences colleges are also not insulated. Many conventional campuses had witnessed mass recruitments in the past few years, sending out signals to BA, B.Sc. and B.Com. students of a solid employment market. “But things are going to change now with companies having stopped recruitment,” Dr. Joshy said.
Loan dilemma
With education becoming expensive, most students today join courses after reading the market. “The recession is certainly going to affect their plans and choices of courses,” he said.
But he fears a dangerous fallout of recession on ordinary people who have taken huge bank loans for the studies of their children. “The bleak prospect of the job market has begun to fill the minds of such parents with fears. Many have taken loans with the hope of landing lucrative jobs soon after their course. If the situation does not improve, I am afraid another Wayanad will be repeated,” said Dr. Joshy, referring to the suicide of Wayanad farmers on being unable to repay their farm loans in a depressed market for produce.
P. Manoj, final year student of a Master’s course in industrial business at Madras University, is a victim of recession. A global shipping giant recruited him a few months ago, but has now asked him not to join.
“We are in for such a shock. Everyone is worried, particularly those in the IT industry. The risk of being sent away any time looms large in many industries, including shipping, banking, aviation, insurance and so on,” Manoj said.
The slowdown in India has begun to hit the campuses in several other ways. Apart from the jolt and fear retrenchments give to academics, the course modules are being pared down. V.S. Anil Kumar, Dean of Students Welfare, Kannur University, drives home the point citing the example of the National Service Scheme (NSS), the biggest youth organisation in the country.
The Union Ministry of Human Resource Development has shot down a proposal to increase the funds for its 10-day annual camps. Instead, the number of camping days was slashed to seven days, diluting the very purpose of personality development through community service.
The slowdown has been cited as a reason.
More time to choose
Dr. Anil Kumar says the recession has begun to affect all sectors, including the media. But his counterpart from Madras University, N. Raja Hussain, sounds confident. He says students in colleges need not worry as they will have more time to choose a career. He admits that 2009 will be a real test. “Let us see how admissions take place next year,” he said.
Dr. Hussain says the 9/11 attack had triggered the same kind of fear in IT sector with B.Tech., BE and M.Sc. computer science and MCA seats going begging. “But the situation changed in a matter of a year or two,” he said, adding that recession or not, there would be lots of jobs in India.
Medical and arts and science students do not worry much. “Although it is bad for India, a student of medical or paramedical course need not be worried. He will continue to be still in demand,” said Sounak Kumar Mitra, BPT (Bachelor of Physiotherapy) student of Manipal University, Udupi.
Sruthi Ajayan, BA English Literature student of Mar Ivanios College, Thiruvananthapuram, agrees. She says a professional such as a doctor cannot be sent away. “Unlike other professions, he will be sorely needed.”
She is joined by Hena Titus, B.Sc. mathematics student of the college. They say they were rather unconcerned about the job prospects. But Hena and Sruthi agree that the recession is set to worsen unemployment in the country.
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