10th June 2019, Kathmandu
Before I put forward my thoughts on this matter, I would like to make it very clear that this is just a personal opinion of what I have felt and I am purely speaking based on my experiences and some few other references from my peers.
After completing my undergraduate degree in Computer Engineering, like every other student, I was full of enthusiasm to dive into the professional environment. I was confident that I would get into some software company and build my resume and industry knowledge just like that. At least we were all hopeful of getting to work as an intern/trainee at some company. At least from what I have felt, at this phase money is of least priority. The utmost importance here is our growth and only that. And then one day we dive into the competitive world. We forwarded our CV/Resume to various companies.
Then we realized how tough it actually was. It was not at all what we had thought of. Let alone being a professional, being an intern there was a real struggle. There were so many problems visible from our end.
Problems:
First of all, your CV is not even considered. And if they were kind enough to call you for an interview, they would expect you to know almost as much as an intermediate developer. Of course, everyone wants the best of the lot. But for the position of an intern, was that elaborate interview even necessary? Also, they were not interested much in paying us for the amount of knowledge they expected. From what I had heard, Apart from some basic knowledge, mostly your hunger for learning and sincerity is all it took to impress the interviewer. That doesn’t apply in most scenarios here.
Another problem is if you do not know much people in the field or if you do not want to ask for a favor from anyone out there, this will be a problem for you. From what I have seen, again you need to know people. I don’t know if I can call this a problem but still, you need to be a networking pro. And being an introvert, which most of us in this faculty is, is a huge problem when it comes to diving into this field. Bottom line, NETWORKING IS KEY.
Another problem here is, apart from a few good tech companies, the job description/requirements are so vague. They post a vacancy for a data administrator and want you to know every possible programming language. Not literally, but you should know what I mean. To be honest, they want a full stack developer. Same applies for an internship, they post one thing and ask you to do almost any possible ‘techie’ thing.
The most important problem, the hiring companies here want cheap labor. They want people/interns to spend their precious hours working for them as a full-timer with little to no remuneration. That’s completely wrong. This mentality needs to change. People need to respect the hard-earned degree and knowledge and discuss the monetary aspect of it clearly. To be clear on what you have to offer. The freshers do not expect tons of money, but the pay you offer should at least respect them and their hard work. If not the monetary aspect of it, you should at least provide them work satisfaction i.e. provide them with better exposure and opportunities to grow.
Possible Causes:
The tech industry here in Nepal is completely random and bizarre. There should be a structure to it that needs to be guided by some umbrella organization or something like that. Maybe this is because every second person here is starting a company here (no offense!) without any training or knowledge in the field. That should be addressed by the related organizations.
Solution:
The solution here is simple. People need to understand the real meaning of ‘Fresher’ and should set a limit to their expectations from a fresher. You cannot expect an expert just out of the college with zero industry knowledge. You can’t expect us all to be geniuses. Also, there should be proper screening to who is eligible to start a tech company on their own. People not at all related to the tech field can sometimes get it all wrong. A proper structure of how these companies should function should be set by some organization for the benefit of this industry. That’s all I can think of now.
Final Words:
I am sure there are many experienced people out there who know better and have enough experience to talk on this subject matter. But this is an article from someone who has been there and experienced little something in this field. This is completely my opinion and me do believe that I have so much more to dive into and learn in the future. I leave this piece to be analyzed by the wiser readers out there.
Author: Sonu Adhikari
