Companies Are Demanding Hard Skills Over Soft Skills

One of the biggest challenges engineering students face is finding a core engineering job. Campus placements are largely skewed towards IT services. Conversely, companies are struggling to recruit engineering talent. The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII)’s India Skills report 2014 identified a skill gap of 75-80% across Industry sectors. But, what is the SKILL they are talking about?

According to the study, HR managers are prioritizing hard skills. 75 percent of HR managers said they focus more on hard skills when hiring, versus only 25 percent who focus more on personality. 45 percent of the HR managers said they expect to become even more skills-focused in 10 years (versus only 11 percent who expect to become more personality-focused).

But, how do you as an engineering student know what HARD skills to gain?  Follow this quick exercise…

1. List down your favorite companies relevant to your specialization. If you are an electronics engineer, you may list Siemens, Samsung, INTEL and the likes…

2. Find out the profiles offered by these companies to fresh engineers. You can use a variety of resources ranging from company websites, Linked In, job portals or talk to employees of the company.

3. Make note of the skills required for different opportunities listed. Eg. Intel requires their embedded systems engineer to know python programming or Siemens requires their automation engineer to be an expert in control systems.

4. Learn the skills. Explore for avenues to learn. You may enroll for a free class online at Coursera.com or attend a workshop to learn the skill hands-on! Choose a class based on your learning preference. 

Do not idle around waiting for companies to come and pick you for mediocre profiles. Invest in yourself, pursue excellence, and bag your dream job!!

If you have any queries regarding skill development, comment on this blog post or write to us at aneesha@educationdebunked.com.