3 Ways To Rescue Our Engineers From The Coming Digital Strike

Story 1 : Thousands of engineering colleges. Lakhs of Graduates coming out every year. 80% goes unemployed. 20% enter into Corporate jobs, PSUs, Teaching & Other fields. Out of 20% only 15% survive in long term. 5% leave for being unable to cope up with the work load & office environment.

Story 2 : Artificial Intelligence is on a roll these days. Job sector is using technology in leaps & bounds, providing  automated solutions to its complex socioeconomic problems. Unsurprisingly, employees who are less compatible with technology are more likely to get evicted in coming years.

What basically these 2 stories suggest ? On one side we have piles & piles of unemployed engineers ; on the other side we have an emergency that is gradually threatening the position of engineers who are already employed. Seems like a bad sign for our engineers. Isn't it ? But wait....Is there any opportunity under these grim circumstances that we are overlooking ? I would say "Yes".

With the invasion of Artificial Intelligence into job sector, few jobs will become completely obsolete but some new & advance level jobs will emerge. For example, there will be need for highly skilled professionals to manage & coordinate the training of complex artificial intelligence systems. There will be a tremendous need for people who are enthusiastic to start there own business through digital entrepreneurship using their own automatic systems. There will be a surge in demand for freelancers both in technical & nontechnical field who are eager to work via a premium based business model. And as this explosion of Artificial Intelligence picks up pace, much more high tech jobs will eventually appear alongside which is not going to take more than 10 to 15 years from now to become a reality of Indian job society.

                        (Pic Courtesy - Google)

Now the future is transparent. Like it or not, we are participating this race of  technology. So the question is how exactly do we approach this advanced stage of lifestyle ? Is there something we can do NOW that will make our run smooth in the FUTURE race ? "A Skill Based Lifestyle" would be a promising answer.

But "A Skill Based Lifestyle" will have its  own demands from our engineers. Coming back to our engineers in Story-1, their preparation for this race starts not after graduation but right after they join their college for graduation in the very first year itself. They can do following 3 things to stabilize their position in the new economy of technology.

1) Developing Interdisciplinary Skills : Of course, the very first thing to master would be your professional skills. For that matter you can't afford missing internships at reputed companies to hone your practical skills. Additionally, you must open yourself towards engineering projects & the challenges they poses on you. That's the necessary but not the sufficient condition to offer you stability ahead. You have to indulge yourself in some interdisciplinary areas of engineering also because the problems you are going to face as an engineer would be multi dimensional that not only checks your subject expertise but your creative approach towards reaching the solution by amalgamating other field knowledge with yours. For example : the demand for programmers, software developers & robotic engineers would be sky high. For that purpose you can't miss advanced programming languages (ex- Python, Java & C++) & coding including your professional subjects.

2) Mastering Soft Skills :

Charles K. Alexandra said "Your success as an engineer will be directly proportional to your ability to communicate effectively". We are not researchers, we are engineers & engineers work in teams. So having a great idea is not important unless it is properly communicated to your fellow teammates. As traditional jobs is sure to shrink in future, so your inefficiency to communicate properly or master other soft skills (like leadership, adaptability, written communication & creativity) would mean one thing : that you will be respectfully urged to leave the company.

3) Constant Learning Throughout Life :

This transition into this new age of Technology not only brings diversity into business but also brings fragility. As there will be a surge in the number of business options, companies with high skilled workforce would benefit tremendously but those with mediocre or slightly better grasp over technology are always at risk. In that case if you are part of any company that suffers any crisis, then you will be out from your job. So your eccentric attitude towards your own job would mean that your game is over. But on the bright side, if you are constantly updating & educating yourself about every day job market, it's  ever changing structure & it's demands, then irrespective of any crisis you will be at a much better position. 

(A Controlled Diagram Of Above Explanation)

Now all you need to do NOW is to keep that image of future in mind & prepare yourself for this dynamic future, so that when it strikes back at you, you can say "Come On My Boy...Let's Have a Showdown😎😎".