Since the past 5 years, we have been very actively involved in hiring freshers (recent graduates). The reason for that is not only a cost-benefit (which in all honestly works for bigger companies doing redundant, labour-intensive work, not for smaller shops working on 10 different products at 1 given time) but a chance to build someone’s career from scratch.
We have recruited primarily from the Delhi-NCR region, but have had students show up from states/cities 200 miles away, for interviews.
After having interacted with more than 5,000 students and having hired over 50, there are certain red flags which are common in the candidates we screen and as professionals, we have certain expectations from the new employees.
Here are 5 things that employers expect from a recent graduate who starts working with them.
- Move from college state of mind to a professional one
The biggest issue we face from freshers is their inability to change their state of mind from that of a college student to that of a working professional. We all know college is fun and it’s easy to get away with stuff, but that mentality needs to change when one starts working. Deadlines need to be adhered to and your time spent in the office needs to be most productive. The way you talk, dress up, the time you show up in the office, these are extremely important attributes of a professional. Hence, this is the first thing we communicate to the new employees – that the college hangover needs to be cured before you actually start to work on something important. The earlier you get out of it, the better it is for you.
- Be ready to grind.
There is a huge difference between writing code and thinking about writing code. I have had many applicants talk about Data Science and when asked about simple database related queries, they are completely blank. You cannot and shown not build castles in the sky based on half-baked information. Everything starts with Hello World, Technology is absolutely great and you can achieve great success in it, but you have to be ready for the grind that comes with it. A lot of young professionals want big paychecks without a grind.
- Stretch beyond your comfort zone
Getting a job – check, now excelling at it needs to be your next step. Unfortunately, many young professionals get stuck here in the rut. You need to find the best mentors in your company and ask for help in order for you to stretch to grow as an individual as well as a professional. Keep in mind, you can only be victorious if you defeat a big problem. Keep searching for big problems and go above and beyond in solving them
- Taking criticism in a positive way
Another flag, from working with the best company and the best leadership, all of a sudden, the leadership becomes weak and the company pathetic (in your perspective). The reason behind that is that you either were criticized for your work or were below the expectations. You need to pick yourself up and need to understand that it is nothing personal, but strictly professional. We have had employees do really dumb stuff like sending across resignation emails only to regret them and retract them later. You need to keep your personal emotions at bay at work.
- Keeping adding to your skillset
You will somehow be able to survive in this field even if you do not act on points 1 to 4, but this point will define if you are good at your field or just another average programmer. In this field, you need to be self-motivated, driven and capable of taking initiatives. Getting a job and spending your 9-5, and coming back and doing nothing is not going to take you anywhere. At least in the initial stages of your career, you need to hustle, pick up a new skill set to learn and implement that learning at your workplace. We usually underestimate something we do not understand, the more depth you have about your subject, the more you will love it and respect it. Along with that, you need to ensure that your current skill set is being sharpened all the time.
There are a few of the things we have observed in our short duration of running a successful business. If you are a business owner then feel free to get in touch and discuss what all issues you face at your workplace on contactus@dignitasdigital.com
If you are a student or young professional in the IT field, please do check out our microlearning application, myQs. myQs will help you speed up your learning of a new skill set and provide you feedback to ensure that you get a significant performance boost at your workplace.