New Generation Blues!!

IT (Information Technology) is the hottest field in India. Everyone want to be part of the IT success and join the bandwagon of already saturated yet exciting industry. Almost every other graduate, no matter comes from which backgroud wants to get injected in it.

For new entrant the industry shows lot of dreams. And as India has lot of big IT giants with their success stories (Not only companies but their managers and founders), its quite obvious that young generation is attracted to this industry. There are many more reasons other than the one mentioned above. IT has no specific requirements, if you are good computer operator along with an engineering or a science graduate degree you are the one ready for it. After working in it for almost 3 years I seldom wonder that why they require so many engineers. For me even a 12th graduate with a proper knowledge of english and computers can work easily on the most basic job provided by the so called IT giants.

Many of us come from a simple middle class families where getting a job is almost paramount in shaping your future. And in many cases it becomes compulary rather than a choice. And IT is the ideal field for the lazy indian generation who spend most of the time growing with either social networking sites or playing PC games or for that matter their XBOXs n Playstations. And it is supposed to be more respected than slavery job in call centres. We celebrate our freedom on 15th August but do we really enjoy it? Almost half of our young generation does this slavery job for western world spending their time working in call centres. We are really proud of our education and how good we speak english but what is the use? Do you learn english to practise it in the call centre and telling people that you either want to borrow their product or service ?

When IT and call centres were launched in India. It was welcomed by everyone with big hands. Everyone was astonished by the money involved in the business. Call centres have now spoilt our social and intellecutal health as a nation. When young boys and girls studying in college see the amount of money they are getting by working in Call Centres, why would they want to study then? Sometimes due to financial problem they start working in call centres. But I still doubt that once getting money in the kitty how many people would actually leave the job. The rest of the demons that comes with call centre culture are very known and I don't want to generalize any of them. So half of the generation is just ruined by working in so called call centres. Where after 35 or 40 as per the policies you are not allowed to entry level work. And obviously its not big enough to absorb all the ageing resources. But government also never had any say on this angle of the business, called "Middle age Unemployment scenario"

On the other hand call centres' big brother called IT is supposed to be lot stable and prestigious business. Almost all the cream of good Indian universities gets sucked in as soon as they graduate or sometimes even before they graduate through campus recruitments. A student always has a dream of getting a job in a reputed big firm with good salary. And IT giants have that glamour and glitter associated with them. When they come to campus you can feel the buzz with their audiovisual preplacement talks and fascinating stories about the industry and the variety of opportunities they have for students...

Everything goes well till the student actually steps in as a trainee. Its totally different world. You are forcefully allocated to a place irrespective of your choice and the reason given is the global logistics arrangements. They dont even consider your preference of technology. As for your boss and managers you are just another fresher, who they want to shape in a so called "Usefull and Productive Resource" for their project. Till this point of time I never understood the policy of allocating people to different places like a lottery system. (oh and its done only to freshers and not to senior resources who join from other firms). The reason the companier give is an utter rubbish and just cant be explained. So after you are done with this high suspense drama. You are allocated to a project, where only if you are lucky you will get a good mentor. I have personally seen some people having no sense and calibre working in. There are only 2 types of people who survive in this. Those who are really great and those who are really dumb. The middle ones either switch due to frustration or just leave the job. The great ones learn good things and achieve success in the firm and they are always appriciated. The dumb ones, as they are dumb n shameless they dont get affected till the time they receive their monthly dog food. The middle ones either get frustrated with themselves and keep in search of good options. But on an average almost 90% people end up with lose-lose situation. As they work for about 8-10 years in IT that makes them ineligible to switch the industry and the work becomes stagnant.

I feel because of the IT and Call Centre wave, the amount of people choosing core science fields are negligible. India is losing its brain power. And due to the quota system and dirty politics the brain drain is even more. People go outside india because there are no premier research institutes available. And those which are there are so premier that hardly 5% of students can get into it that too after studying for tough entrace exams which already reduces their enthusiasm before entering the schools. Promoting IT and Call Centre can be ok for a short term rise in economy but in long term its like a cancer, which has already spoilt one generation.