Friday, September 15, 2006

Software job market: Would it have influence on the computer curriculum in education institutions and schools?

First time when i thought about this i felt it would not influence much because i have leart my ABC of computer only during graduation and never knew even to use a mouse before that:D
And when i was ready for a job as a freshers (7 yrs back), the questions that was asked to me was more on my attitude, general S/W enginnering pricipals etc, and nothing was asked specific to any platform. Because i was trained by my company after being hired on the platform required. But things are changing now...The below is my observation on Interview and corporate behaviour in these years and how they can influence educational insitutions as well.

Fresher experience in Interviews 10 yrs back:
The questions asked were on Software engineering general pricipals, team spirit, energy levels etc.
There was nothing asked on any specific platform
And freshers were selected more based on their merit/marks in college and not on their specific technology skills.The reason for this was that the corporates usually used to hire them and then train them in the technology desired.

Experienced Professionals experience 10 yrs back:
But as experienced the only question asked was "Do you have work experience in technology 'XYZ'"
Deeper concepts in a specific platform was asked. No general questions asked.

That was a time when software market was good with excellent and growing talent in the market. Companies could easily get software professionals and hence only thing they expected from them was good experience and knowledge. Ten years back they rarely asked questions like 'what technologies were u taught in school, in college ' etc.

But now things have changed with time.
I am a part of the Interview team for my company for the past 2 yrs and i know how the companies are struggling to get the best fit for their requirements. If they look for experienced, then either the competencies do not match or the employee does not give the gaurantee of staying with the company with long(high attrition).
And if they go for feshers, then the cost spent in training becomes high as they have good attitude and energy but lack the specific skills required.


So now the companies are changing their strategy.They are now not looking for really experienced candidates but are trying to sync with educational institutions like NIIT, and colleges to change their curriculam in such a way that the freshers themselves can be the best fit for them.This would reduce the corporates training costs as well.There are already many colleges that have changed their curriculam based on the corporate requirements and supply resources to the corpoartes.

So while the interview for experienced resources remains more or less the same as before now.
Interview experience for freshers has changed a lot :

Freshers Interview experience now and going forward

1. They are asked "Have u learnt XYZ technology/platform in ur college"
And the answer needs to be 'Yes' if u want to get a job.
They are expected to join the company with a good knowledge for their specific requirement.

Seeing this trend, i feel few years later, the corporate penetration would go to school level as well. Schools might also need to change their curriculam based on the market needs rather than any other reason like price of the software, govt policies etc.

So it's more a pull from the market, and not a push from the educational institutions

So probably Govt should get ready for this kind of trend and plan for the future accordingly.

I think the Kerela Govt has missed these facts when taking a decision on migrating schools to use free softwares alone.

Now i am not trying to say what platforms should be taught in school , but i think the decision cannot be based just on th cost factor. The interest of the students, and the market demand forecasts should also be considered.
I think the Kerala Govt. should re-analyse things and then take a decision by considering all the environmental factors (whatever be the decision).

Free Softwares from MS for developers
I try not blog anything on technology here and try to restrict it to my tech blog only...but could not stop myself this time as this talks of free software. Microsoft comes with a series of free Express edition softwares that are absolutely free to download. Try this out if ur a developer

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Just one correction

Yes Express Editions are free but not OS on which they run. They still have expensis for OS + Office and others.

- JIGNESH

Anjana Ramamoorthy said...

Yes Jignesh, that's why i have mentioned free software for DEVELOPERS:).
And that was just on a side note and information about some of the free softwares that MS gives.I do not mean to recommend them for anything & everything.

Vadivel said...

Nice post Anjana.

http://vadivel.blogspot.com/2006/08/kerala-logs-microsoft-out.html --- this is where I blogged abt it last month :)

Anonymous said...

hello anjana garu.
can u plese clarify,
are u also supporting that the kerala govt should not have made free software mandatory in government offices, other than educational??

Anjana Ramamoorthy said...

@pranith:
I am not trying to support or oppose the usage of free/open source software.
What i am saying is that the basis on which the Govt has decided this is not clear nor concrete.
In this world of IT, Govt must not take any decision just based on the cost factor.
I have only commented on the Govt approach towards taking this decision , but not on the decision itself. And i think the Govt, approach is not convincing.