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When Bangalore whizkid Sabeer Bhatia, who went on to become a Silicon Valley
posterboy, was asked about the most "valuable asset" that he got from
India, pat came the reply: Education!
The success of this young man, who played hardball with the world’s richest
man Bill Gates, clearly underscores the fact that Indian engineers can rival the
best in the world.
Education being primarily a state subject, has seen phenomenal growth in
Indian engineering colleges, and like in any other industrially advanced
country, India also has engineering institutions that can be calibrated in terms
of quality. Ask NR Narayan Murthy and you’ll hear him sing praises of IIT as
being not only the best in the world, but even "out of this world". He
still regrets that his son wasn’t able to make it through to at an IIT, though
he easily made the mark at Cornell. This image is strengthened by the
observation that a number of Indian computer scientists have made it big in the
US as entrepreneurs, by going up the corporate ladder or being successful in
academia.
 Here’s a look at a virtual who’s who—FC Kohli, S Ramodorai, Arjun
Malhotra, Vinod Khosla, Vinod Dham, Vijay Bhatkar, Arun Netravali, RS Pawar,
Kanwal Rekhi and many others populate that esteemed list, which can rightly be
called the Titans of Tech. And it is not a matter of coincidence that these
titans got their academic grounding at one or the other top tech school of the
country (See box: The Most Preferred Technology Schools).
The Educational and Training Enterprise in India which operates at all
conceivable levels from pre-school to post-doctoral is of a monumental size.
Key Recruitment Parameters
Dataquest set up a panel in late March to ascertain the parameters that the
industry placed importance on before picking up a student from a tech school.
The panel was put together to ensure that every segment—from hardware,
software, services and the SMEs of the IT industry—was represented. An
enriching discussion ensued and went way beyond the allocated time slot. Hard
parameters like technical skills of the students and content of the course
featured among the important variables.
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The
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"A look at the structure of the syllabus helps us determine the level of
technical thinking versus innovative thinking that the student is likely to
have," said HV Krishnamurthy, consultant and former head, (HR practice),
PwC India.
Another factor that most of the participants pointed out was the faculty’s
relationships with the industry. This is a good proxy for assessing person’s
awareness of the latest in technologies and trends and how he will impart those
skills to an incumbent technocrat. The other aspect of this relationship is to
see how many live projects that the faculty and students work on. Guest and
visiting faculty from the industry also made a good proxy for assessing the
industry orientation of the institute, opined the group.
Softer variables like the candidate’s communication and presentation skills
along with his sensitivity to cross-cultural issues, ability to be a team
player, to be a self starter, level of confidence and, in some cases, even the
availability of the placement brochure in electronic format also formed a part
of the hygiene factors that increased the comfort factor for the recruiter.
Among the other skills that recruiters feel are important for a candidate
include "aptitude and attitude" for the job. Says Vivek Punekar,
general manager, (HR), HCL Infosystems, "It is critical to ensure that a
candidate is fit for the job. For instance, the aptitude for a coding job is
strikingly different from that needed for a technical support function."
And therefore a number of organizations run the applicants through an
occupational personality test too.
The ability to think laterally is another valued skill. A large number of
technology companies that recruit from these schools take the applicants through
a two-tier testing process. While the first assesses their technical skills, the
second assesses their ability to think standing on their feet. "To know how
candidates get to a solution is often very insightful about their ability to
think analytically," says Jacqueline Lynam, director (people sourcing
strategy), Sapient. Graduates from schools that encourage out-of-the-box
thinking are thus in demand. Reasoning and analytical skills also come in handy
as the career of these young graduates progresses.
The Toppers
Once the responses from the HR managers were in, a list of the top tech
schools was compiled. Dataquest then initiated contact with the institutes to
assess their health on a number of parameters. These mainly included their
admission procedure, the number and academic prowess of faculty, placement
record, industry interface and physical infrastructure, including library and
hostels. The two other parameters that formed a part of the discussion with the
heads of the institutions were exchange programs and student activity like fests
and events.
As we progressed through our interface with these top ten institutions a
number of common threads emerged. One, computing at the campus was being made
seamless. Whether or not the student was a computer science student, the need to
have access to a computer everywhere was immediate and institutions recognize
this and are working towards the same. Another aspect was whether the
institution was government funded or otherwise. Faculty and students alike felt
the need for adding facilities to the infrastructure and the process of addition
is continuous, this at no level implied that the existing infrastructure was
inadequate.
Narrowing Focus?
Another common aspect was that more and more students are opting for
technology specific certifications or courses like Cisco, Microsoft and Oracle
certifications. And in a number of cases the institutes encourage the students
to take up the same. They either arrange for such classes in the evening on
campus or co-ordinate with external centers for the same. "These definitely
enhance the employability of the candidates," feels Prof. Sanjeev Gupta,
chairman, MCA program, IMT, Ghaziabad.
The one common consensus among the dons in the faculty is that these courses
prepare the candidates for jobs by imparting skills that are readily useable.
Smart skills, as some would call them. IMT Ghaziabad has taken this philosophy
to launch specializations for its MCA program too. A mainstay in business
programs till now, specializations are all set to make a mark in the technical
programs as well.
"It helps the smaller companies as they dramatically cut down costs that
need to be incurred immediately after an employee joins," added Gupta. Have
we missed something till now that the Greek poet Archilochus knew ages ago when
he said, "The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big
thing."
Mohit Chhabra in New Delhi with Rishi
Seth in New Delhi Rajneesh De in Mumbai and G Shrikanth in Chennai Next Page :
Methodology Page(s) 1 2 3
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