#TrueStories

Hiring recent graduates or freshers is a tempting idea. Turning carbon into diamonds under pressure is an alluring idea for sure. Recent graduates are can be cost-effective too. But not all cases are ideal and in all honestly, hiring these individuals is kind of like gambling. Because you do not know about the professional prowess of an individual and take an educated guess based on the individual’s educational background and the interviewing process.

In this blog, we talk about our experiences with some of the recent graduates that we hired, who ended up with some interesting scenarios.

#Story 1

Year: 2019

Day: Sunday

Time: 11:30 PM

Mode: Email

Dear Sir, 

I am writing to inform you that I will not be able to continue with your company. Over time I have realized that my capabilities are not in sync with the company expectations, therefore, I would like to take some time off and upskill myself.

Thank you, 

ABC

(Names not disclosed for obvious reasons)

Background: This email is from a trainee who was working with us for 4 months. Despite having a strong grasp over theoretical concepts, coding was actually a bit of a struggle for this individual. Multiple assignments were given having different difficulties – Creating an Alexa skill set, working on MEAN stack, working on WordPress, working on .NET. Keep in mind, none of the projects were testing ones, all of them were to be released. The trainee was asked repeatedly to spend time reading and writing code, and in all honesty,  he just needed to burn the midnight oil.

#Story 2

Year:2019

Day: Wednesday

Time: 1:30 PM (our usual lunchtime in office)

Mode: In-person

Trainee: May I come in 

Us: Sure, how is your release coming? It is an important feature being used by thousands of users. 

Trainee: I am not being able to figure it out, therefore I would like to not continue working here. 

Us: We do not understand, is there some other offer you have – at least be honest.

Trainee: No, I had a conversation with XYZ (the usual relative working in some IT company), and I would like to study for the GATE exam to get into IIT for M.Tech, therefore, I would not be able to continue.

Background – The trainee mentioned that he had an interest in Data Analysis and Data Science (just like everyone who has never worked on data), therefore a special structure was created where the trainee would be working on a report which would get sophisticated as time went by and we had more users and data to play with. A completely new and important feature was given to this trainee. After a couple of releases (which were merely basic dashboards), we are told that I would not like to work on the web and pulled the plug.

#Story 3

Year: 2018

Day: Thursday

Time: 10:00 AM

Mode: Email

Hi ABC, 

I hope all is well and you have recuperated from your illness. Would you be able to tell us when is the earliest you will be able to join the office? The release that you were working on since the past few weeks needs to move to production, do let us know so that we can time things accordingly.

Best,

Us

Their Response (sic – an actual email with real spellings!)–

Hi Sir,

Please accept this letter as formal resignation from the post of programmer analyst trainee effective from xxxxxxx. I found a good opportunity to work as an iOS developer moreover, I want to grow my career in iOS.

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to work with Dignitas Digital.

Background: The trainee came from an extremely humble background and was working hard and handling our iOS application. Owing to some shoddy work with the code, our private AWS information got leaked by the trainee. As a result, we were penalized $15,000 (which we fought and won), but we ensured that not a lot of the pressure of this stupidity got down to this trainee. At every step, encouragement was provided and he was all set to join our team as a full-time employee.

#Story 4

Year: 2017

Day: Friday

Time: 8:36 PM

Mode: Email

Hi Sir,

I am emailing you today (xxxxxxxx) to inform you of my intention to resign from my position as xxxxxxxx.

While I have enjoyed my time spent working for your organization, the time has come for me to pursue something different. I am moving to a role elsewhere and I feel that should I have learned some valuable skills from the company that will support me in my new position.

Thank you!

Background: Having done some Digital Marketing course and working are 2 very different things. Clearly there are huge gaps as far as these courses are concerned and it’s a shame that such institutes are in business. Nonetheless, the trainee made an excuse a couple of times regarding her mother’s health and the next thing we see is resignation and the tone of it can be clearly seen from the email.

There are dozens of such cases, but the question is why are we talking about these? We see that candidates complain about not getting a chance to work in the industry and use the usual paradigm that you want candidates that are experienced, but there is no one to provide that experience. The current education system has failed and there is a huge gap between what is learned in college and the real world.

In this blog, we will not give any conclusions but ask some questions. These are relevant for individuals who are starting off their careers –

• You are ready to pay thousands (in some cases lakhs) for online courses rather than pushing yourself at your job. Why?
• Will your attitude change after taking a new course or a degree?
• When a company asks interns/trainees to do odd jobs or not so important tasks then you complain that you are not learning or contributing, when a company involves you then you run away. Sound fair?
• Do you know that there are costs that a company bears to bring you onboard/train/ignore mistakes?
• Does making your parents sick to leave work early to reach your interview on time qualify as a smart move?
• Is this training period for you or the company?

These are some not-so-encouraging stories, but as a company, Dignitas Digital continues hiring fresher’s every year despite such occurrences because the successful occurrences outweigh the unsuccessful ones and we truly believe that the right individuals who prevail through the test of training periods can truly evolve into successful professionals.