indian graduates skills
Career

New Graduates from India Lack These 5 Must Have Skills

Core message of the article is that New Graduates from India lack the following skills

  1. Lack of written and oral communication skills
  2. Lack of problem-solving and creativity
  3. New grads are passive and order takers and hesitant to ask questions.
  4. Lack of desire to learn new skills
  5. Lacking professional expertise and care only about money.

At end of the article, author gives what should new grads do

My message is a call to action: Be aware of these five attributes, don’t expect the gravy train to run forever, and don’t assume your education will take care of you. Rather, invest in yourself – in language skills, in thirst for knowledge, in true professionalism and, finally, in thinking creatively and non-hierarchically. This will hold you in good stead in our knowledge economy and help lay a strong foundation for the next productive generation that follows you.

After reading the article, I thought I have to weigh in on the topic.

First, where do I stand with my view? Do I agree or disagree to 5 points listed above about New Grads from India?

Let me give my views based on my observation after interacting with several students, emails, phone calls and chat with HSB readers.

I have seen students who lack all the above skills.

I have seen folks who have excellent communication skills but don’t have the ability to think beyond what they are told to do.

My Thoughts

Do you know what it takes to run the Happy Schools? You read the new articles, consume the contents and then and then move on.

Only when you start a blog, you would truly understand what it takes to produce contents daily. It takes commitment, dedication and passion.

Even if you lack all the five skills, if you have passion, hard work and willing to commit, you can acquire and develop all the five skills in no time. I had zero blogging skills, but with hard work and commitment, I was able to learn so many new skills.

It takes time and effort to master new skills and habits. Buts, its possible to develop the skills.

The author says you lack this, this and that.  Such companies can learn a good lesson by following some good examples from companies like Zappos and Google on how to treat the new hires. For instance in Zappos, new hire have one-month orientation. After the orientation, they are given $4000 to quit the job. Yes, a company offers them $4000 to quit the job.

During orientation, they are taught about the work culture and what’s expected of them. If workers don’t like to work after learning about the company, they are allowed to take $4000 to quit the job. Because Zappos wants employees, who fit in their work culture.  There is things or 2 the author can learn from Zappos approach.

Here is a way to reinvent yourself – If You’re an Average Person Doing Average Work, You will be Fired

Learning skills is easy as it sounds, but if you focus your energy actually to learn news skills for making a difference in yourself, you can learn new skills pretty fast.

I’m talking about any new skills like Ping Pong, New Language, Dance lessons, Fishing, ice skating, rock climbing, etc.

Over to You

What do you think?

How would you rate yourself with respect to the five skills

  1. Communication
  2. Problem Solving
  3. Order Taker
  4. Lack of desire
  5. Unprofessional

Would you be able to reinvent if you lack any of the above skills?

Next – Indian Culture is preventing Innovation. Do you Agree?

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26 Comments

  1. Hello HSB.!!
    I’ve been viewing ur posts thorughly n a big fan of u.. Am a B.tech grad with 65%. n got a toefl score of 6.5. I received offr frm University of Greenwich, London into MBA in IB. I hear many cotroversies on the settlement n placements in london in these days. Can u pls guide me.. n clear my doubts. Pls…

  2. with time,maturity and desire to do new things every thing comes.if u want it badly than no one can stop u from achieving ur goals.if u want to achieve something new then u have to go there where u have never gone before.

  3. I strongly believe that if you have these skills . You will surely get the success on the door knock . In spite of these qualities you must have penchant to learn new things whenever you get chance.
    Always look forward to see and learn the new things whenever you meet with someone or try to grasp the best attributes from him.

  4. Weakness in oral and written English communication skills is par for the course when one is impelled to interface with a very large proportion of immigrants. Unfortunately, historical imperialism exacerbates the accentuated primary purpose for acquiring residence in the United States. Immigrants from all over the world are taught about the plight of the Native American.

    The methods used by immigrants from England, France, Spain, and Holland during the early years of this county’s development, just to name a few, created the foundation for the manifestation of free enterprise aberrance here. Additionally, imperialists all over the world used ethnocentrisms to broaden kingdoms. Suffice it to say that within the archaic feudal system, serfs mirrored the jettisoned aristocracy’s behavior upon new territories’ indigenous populations during settlement campaigns.

    Needless to say, lacking communication skills that are characteristic of indigenous populations can only be circumvented by the desire to venture deeper into unfamiliar cognitive territory which threatens the generational longevity of ethnic tradition and lore. Conjunctively, long-term survival of each immigrant culture, in exchange for Americanization, includes proficiency in English with its parallel traditions and lore.

    Finally, learning and sharing are the keys to transmitting obvious advantages of attitudinal transformation in re lifelong learning; prior to transition from one nation to another. Remediation techniques and curricula need to be made available and immigrants must become proficient before allowance of working residency and/or allocation of social service benefits.

  5. I’m not from India nor do I work with students from India but I found this very interesting. I see the same five points but being applied to “under-prepared and over-coddled” graduates of American high schools.

    1. Communication-students think text messaging spelling and grammar is acceptable OMG! Besides, they always have their parents communicating for them.

    2. Problem Solving-not likely from the generation raised getting trophies for just showing up to the soccer games.

    3. Order Taker-too many students don’t evolve from the teenage stage of following the minimum letter of the order and don’t bother to think about it what is actually desired.

    4. Lack of desire-see number 2.

    5. Unprofessional-too much emphasis on self-expression rather than content and results leads to kids showing up to work dress and act unprofessionally. Reality tv is their model.

    Anyway, sorry for the long post but reading this it just struck me that this isn’t just an “Indian” thing. I wonder how many people could actually learn to speak a foreign language, move to another country, and complete a degree, even if it is just to make money. After all, that’s the American dream, right?

    1. i am an exception then. i am learning german and planning to move there. hahaa! just fooling around. But one thing! We have always heard that schooling in US is great. We have heard that there kids dont have to complete huge syllabuses,and mostly they do home works which focus on the practical aspect of what they learn! Isnt it so?
      I mean I dont know. If thats true then arent they thinking independently ? or atleast building up a base to do so in future? dont know,just asking

      1. @DEV: Es stimmt! The education system overseas encourages you right from childhood to think independently. I have studied once in the UK. So, I know this is true. For instance, they educate you early on in most of the things that matter while studying at universities. The Indian education system, on the other hand, does equip us for survival almost anywhere in the world, except in situations where the education system demands answering open book questions and also where thinking out of the box is required at work. However, you can’t blame the Indian education system, because every education system has its own flaws and demerits.

  6. First thing I want to say don’t blame Indian education system, if you want to do things you can do that there are lots of recourses around. I am not saying that there are not issue with Indian education system but we can’t change it so change yourself that is better at least we will get some output.

    “MNC’s employees are the best when it comes to communication, problem solving skills and professionalism. Only after joining one did I realize that I was wrong”
    I was also thinking the same ,then after joining first thought come to my mind is that if they are surviving why not me? Here I went wrong. In the starting phase of my career I lost my passion and enthusiasm.

    So now I decided to take some time off my life , work on technical things , do lots of hard work I will get what I want.
    1 year to go…

  7. I always hesitate to ask questions in a mass and i know i am lagging behind.I am good in writing skills but i am a poor fellow in oral communication.i am trying to improve on this.is there any way out?

    1. listen ,whenever you are hesitant of speaking remember its because you are doing a very stupid mistake,”YOU ARE MAKING YOURSELF REALIZE THAT – HEY YOU ARE SPEAKING IN ENGLISH AND THAT TOO IN FRONT OF SO MANY PEOPLE.And as soon as you do that you choke. (Here I assumed that you hesitate to speak in english).

      Now the solution, DELIBERATELY PUT YOURSELF IN SITUATIONS WHERE YOU HAVE TO SPEAK IN GROUP. Before that do one thing. To boost your confidence CALL CUSTOMER CARE EXECUTIVES OF YOUR CELL PHONE CONNECTION PROVIDER AND TALK TO HIM OR HER IN ENGLISH. BRING UP ANY TOPIC LIKE ANY NEW PLANS,ETC. Do this for some time and then carry on this and push yourself into group talks,GDs maybe,join institutes where they train you for placements bcoz they do a lot of mock GDs and those will help u!

      BUT REMEMBER DONT MAKE URSELF REALIZE THAT U R SPEAKING IN A GROUP AND TRY NOT TO CHOKE!

      GOOD LUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!

  8. The way a Graduate in India is groomed is not actually accepted elsewhere. Whether it is in social or professional life. People don’t realize this and for some its all a matter of time and leisure.
    The important aspect being that the leisure and professionalism are on two sides of the wall. You either choose one and progress ahead else forget the other and move on with an average life here on.

    These ratings you speak of here
    Communication
    Problem Solving
    Order Taker
    Lack of desire
    Unprofessional

    These are very unrealistic to understand . I don’t think 90% of graduates can even rank themselves on this scale. They don’t know where each one of them stands. Its the x yz who does it for them. People who can scale it are the ones who have moved on. Its not about mnc’s and all those x yz startups, Its about how you take care and handle your life. Its about how you manage each moment with the zeal that you owe something back. There are many situations to discuss. I can write on and on on this. Actually realizations are missing in peoples day to day life hence problems which leads to all these commotions.

  9. Not really.

    I am upgrading my skills by taking classes. In fact, I am a double post-graduate. Recently, when I asked my job interviewers whether I can have flexible work timings to enable me to upgrade my job skills by completing my course that I am at the last lap of (2 months), they all denied me the respective jobs. It’s also the attitude of employers that matter – not just of employees. So, don’t blame us, if we don’t know much, because we barely get the time to upgrade our skills. Furthermore, another instance of a huge blunder on a prospective employer’s part was the way he framed questions for my screening test. I am a content writer and have been successfully writing content, but I do agree that I just take the simple briefing given by my bosses and translate it into whatever they want, but the question he had framed was really awkward, in that I was to write a DIY article, but for an upscale brand. How can I advertize an upscale brand while writing a Do-It-Yourself article? I am used to just writing DIY articles without bringing up brand names anywhere, which becomes indirect advertizing. This brief was so confusing, I ended up writing an ad for an “upscale brand” and did not include the DIY part for the article. That’s also partly the employer’s fault. He provided a sample, but it barely contained any brand name. It is therefore absolutely ridiculous to blame the employees so fast.

  10. Awesome post HSB.

    “Even if you lack all the 5 skills, if you have passion, hard work and willing to commit, you can acquire and develop all the 5 skills in no time.” Great thought.

  11. Perfect post.
    I always thought that top MNC’s employees are the best when it comes to communication , problem solving skills and professionalism. Only after joining one did I realize that I was wrong.
    I have seen several top level managers who cannot construct a proper sentence in English ( I am not degrading anyone here , i feel its a basic need specially while communicating with the clients) .

    I would say , I need to improve on my problem solving skills , need to be proactive and improve on mail communications.

  12. I believe all these negative traits are inculcated into the minds of students from India right from their elementary education where they are forced to gobble up whatever their teacher feeds them. They are castigated the moment they ask questions in class (as asking questions is preserved for private tuition classes after school). The thing in India is that the lesser the teachers knows the more strict he/she will be in class because he/she is scared of students asking questions.

    1. What questions teachers can answer if they are loaded by much teaching workload. To compare, in indian schools you have about 10 hours of math per week but in russia there are about 5 hours of math per week. Russian teachers’s workload is about 30hours per week…

  13. I personally think that it is very important for a person to realize his goals. I have many friends who dont have specific plan of action, and I too realized what I want in life some time ago. If one knows his ultimate goal then he becomes open to learn the skills required for achieving that goal.

    Now your question:
    1) communication=2
    2) problem solving=4
    3) order taker=0
    4)lack of desire=1
    5)unprofessional=2

    The problem with me is that I am lazy, but I definitely am sure that I will be able to reinvent the skills in which I am lacking and I am already working on it.

  14. Hi HSB! I think, I am lacking in my oral skill.

    I want to say something about professional skill. Here in Indian environment, you will be able to expand your network only when you have some kind of personal skills/relationship. Just because of professional skill/good relationship. you will no longer exist in your career race. I can say such things because i have suffered a lot due to lack of personal relationship despite of good professional relations and good productivity .

    1. Nidhi – There are so many ways a student can improve and expand the professional skills while in college. After observing what happens in USA, same things can happen in India. thats one of the goal of HSB, is to educate and promote network building. I plan to launch such a course pretty soon.

    2. Nidhi,

      I totally agree with you. With 5 in all the above said points if you are Zero in Personal relationships your career is Zeroed by the company/industry and you have to start affresh. Then I do agree that less commitment/hardwork / Passionate of the the new grads and thinking of money is a Tit for Tat against companies, who uses people for their advantage and favours personal relationships.

      HSB it will be a very good point to include “How to manage personal relationships inside the company” as a point for the new grads. I have seen many people fail when it comes to this point.

      Regards,
      Priya.

      1. Hi Priya,

        You stated, “First thing I want to say don’t blame Indian education system, if you want to do things you can do that there are lots of recourses around. I am not saying that there are not issue with Indian education system but we can’t change it so change yourself that is better at least we will get some output.”

        I agree that the Indian educational system is not to blame and that self-help is a panacea. Notwithstanding, the ipsi facto source of a deficiency must be identified and transformed before improvement can be realized. Thus, learners who display like deficiencies must be properly redirected through subsequent oversight and professional development. As a result, mention of the Indian educational system is unrequited since attitudinal inadequacies toward utilitarian benefit start before public and/or private schools are a factor; albeit the product is cognitively molded by instructional strategies, curriculum, and extra-curricular activities. Needless to say all learners are inherited “as is”, along with mutually exclusive dysfunctions, by educational systems and employers. Even if Indian academe was the culprit which harbors deliberate intent to clog American didactic advancement of learners that immigrate; manifestation of the issue is an American concern within its immigration, employment, and supplemental pedagogic requisites.

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