Education kills by degrees

Written on November 17, 2008 by Imran Mirza

As the head of a content writing company, I come across many young graduates looking for jobs in Mumbai. In this so called age of “BPO” and “call centre jobs”, it is difficult to find candidates who are looking for a career. I don’t know if it’s the same in smaller cities and towns, but it is the ground reality in metros.

Before the boom (or rather the invasion) of outsourcing, getting a job was every graduate or for that matter, even undergraduate or uneducated person’s dream. Cut to today and you’ll find yourself getting countless calls from “recruitment agencies” asking you if you were “looking for a change” and assuring you a “20% higher salary than whatever you are getting right now.” Now, who wouldn’t get tempted? Go through the resume of any 20-30 year old and you’ll find a long list of previous employers.

HR managers spend sleepless nights thinking of ways to counter attrition and retain “talent”. Hardest hit are the entrepreneurs who have brilliant ideas and business models, everything except people who think alike.

The irony is, India as a country is fighting unemployment and illiteracy, while the corporate world is facing a hard time trying to find employable candidates from a sea of mass produced graduates and even post graduates.

Even as India has earned itself the dubious distinction of being the second largest English speaking country, the number of employable people remains dismally low.

While interviewing candidates for my content writing company, I come across candidates who can impress anyone with their degrees. Ask them to write a few lines and you’ll be surprised that many cannot differentiate between “then” and “than” or “piece of mind” and “peace of mind”. I have seen BMM and BMS students who could barely write a few lines in English without any grammar or spelling mistakes and expect to be employed at Lintas (now Lowe Lintas) with a double digit pay.

What can one possibly expect from a generation that learns grammar from Hollywood flicks and communication in call centre inductions?

It is strange to see skilled, talented and experienced people struggle with their meagre salaries and the generation “call centre” with its parroting skills starting off with higher pays.

Where are we headed?

Posted in The Common Man, The Entrepreneur