Ramblings, just like that

For many, life after school is a rat race. Or should I say, for my nephew's generation life itself will be a rat race.

There was a time, when I was in school, when life was so simple, so fulfilling, and less stressful. It was when my life was restricted within a 7-km radius, when a visit to the spencer plaza was an excursion, when eating pizza was a luxury, when mobile phone was the show-off gadget, when Internet was on a dial-up connection, and when I was ignorant of the world in all sense. 

Just five years later life seems to be so different. The more you know, the more you desire. The more you desire, the more you strain. The more you strain, less useful you become. 

Ignorance is truly bliss!

An Open Letter to India's employers

(In response to http://india.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/23/an-open-letter-to-indias-graduating-classes/?src=me&ref=world)

Dear Partner,

Kindly share this response with your entire fraternity.

If you feel that the current graduating class is spoiled by an illusion that the Indian education system is capable of producing the talent that the employers want, well, we aren't. We know for a fact that the education system is flawed and that the employers are are also not keen on matching roles with skills, at least at the under-graduation level. After all, what has a chemical engineer got to do in a firm that specializes in Java implementations.

While I agree to the fact that the English-speaking-writing skills of most of the graduates is below par, I strongly disagree to the fact raised about effectively communicating in business. This again takes me back to the previous point. The final word was always with you Mr. Employer. Language skills meant proficiency in C and C++ for most employers. And I always wanted to ask. What's it with the soft skills training during induction? Do you think it is something that can be taught and made to develop in 8 hours?

With regards to both these points, if your intention in doling out thousands of job offers, compromising on quality, was to provide employment then please don't complain. And please don't generalize.

Good at problem solving, thinking outside the box and seeking new ways of doing things are cliched expressions of employers. Please move on.

Most of the questions that the employees ask often invoke one of these replies.

"We are taking enough steps in this direction and will get back to you once things are sorted out." - Never sorted out.
"As you know, all our decisions are consensus driven. We have to discuss with the leadership." - Never discussed.

And yeah, by the time we know how we should shape our career, we are already exposed to the ground realities of the firm. Nobody quits. Everybody is made to quit. The youth is gradually moving towards an I-don't-care-about-money-I-wan't-a-life attitude.

And the last thing I want to tell you is this. Please don't expect us to ask questions about the impact of the recession on the Indian economy or about the growth strategy for the fiscal year or about how crude oil prices impact the economy. All we are interested in right after graduation is in the poor taste of food in the cafeteria and about poorly operated shuttle services. Sadly, we know the answer already.