Madan Padaki CEO MeritTrac, a skill-assessment company

If the recession is bothering you, then here's a way out. Change yourself with the changing philosophy of hiring. That's the advise HR heads have for young professionals.

"Equip before the gun is pointed at your head," says Madan Padaki, CEO, MeritTrac, the largest and leading Skill Assessment Company based in Bangalore.

The need to upskill in a slow economy applies to people in two categories young professionals aspiring to make it into the corporate world and professionals already in the corporate world.

To young professionals aspiring to make into corporate world, Padukki advises, "This is the right time for young professionals to upskill themselves, as the competition has increased with drastic fall in job opportunities.

Though new opportunities are being created, the competition is immense. It has gone up by two times."

Young professionals have to understand this, he emphasises. "Earlier, candidates were trained if they were not skilled. But that has now changed. They have to be fully equipped," he adds.

With the corporate world hunting for quality in candidates, expectations are high, which can be answered only with trained skill. If not trained, they have to acquire the right additional skills. They have to gauge this themselves, find the area where they fall behind and bridge the gap. This can be done through certification,
adds Padaki.

And certificates acknowledging these skills are important. "It should not be a certificate for certification's sake. Instead it must be a certificate for upskilling themselves and for telling the corporate world of their upskills," he explains.

But the demands are different in case of working professionals. "The corporates are looking for productivity and efficiency of employees. They are checking what value an employee adds to the company. This makes individual performance gauging important, which wasn't the same. Existing young professionals have never seen recession, so they are left floundering if the company assesses their performance in a manner that wasn't in practice last year. As expectations have increased, emphasis on productivity and efficiency has increased too.

Hence, young professionals have to understand the demands of the market, expectations of the company, skills required to answer them and the means to acquire them. Companies that earlier trained employees are now shifting the onus on the employees. This change in the philosophy of hiring means it's better to acquire skills in time instead of waiting for the company to put a gun to your head," he says.

Top 5 tips
1. Have an understanding of the skill set the market requires
2. Find where you stand
3. Bridge gap by learning to fulfill new requirements
4. Constantly measure your progress against learning
5. Certify yourself with courses

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