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| Source: Time Magazine (time.com) |
In this article, I would like to discuss a
subject often overlooked when reflecting upon matters affecting today’s modern-day
workplace worldwide.
It is a subject that affects all of us, especially those of
us looking for jobs after having completed our higher studies at reputed educational
institutions.
We do not realize it until we have immersed our feet into the
corporate world – a world with its unique set of challenges and adversities we
need to entrust upon ourselves as we make haste with the realities of our
current generation and era. There is no other better word to refer to this term
we would have commonly heard about while at university or college in our
localities –
the so-called ‘Internships’ or ‘Apprenticeships’ as it is often
referred to in the workplaces of our age.
Internships or Apprenticeships are
short-term work contracts that provide students or fresh graduates with the
opportunity to immerse themselves in real-life practical work experience in their
desired fields or area of career interests before they decide to look out for a
full-time job. They come out in a variety of formats - some of them structured
to give the individual an experience in all aspects of the role, while some of
them are not structured in which case the individual must demonstrate
initiative in moving around and learning all aspects of the job during the
contract period. Most of these short-term contracts vary between 3 months to a
maximum length of 6 months, with a few of them extending to a period of 3
months after which the contract is terminated. In most cases, opportunities for
Internships arise during the summer break in most parts of the world, or the
gap between two semesters of the first or second year in a majority of business
undergraduate and postgraduate programs.
While it is fair to say, that the experience
and more so, the valuable skillsets gained through practical on-the-job pieces
of training are extremely helpful when looking out for a new job on a full-time
basis, the alarming question arises when employers use this as an ‘excuse’ to further
complicate the application process for entry-level or associate positions in
recent years. Today, a lot of new entry-level or associate openings advertised
on prominent job boards and sites – be it LinkedIn, Indeed.com, or Naukri.com demand
that candidates compulsorily possess at least 2-3 years of experience in the
field, irrespective of whether he or she has completed a bachelor's or a
master's degree. Some have even extended that to 5-6 years, which is quite
shocking. Those of us who have been in the job market for a long time would
acknowledge that this is a complete ‘exploitation’ of talent. In layman’s
terms, this means that the candidate needs to become a manager in the field way
before his or her age and be able to take on the role as a completely
independent unit while at the same work collaboratively in a team.
If we look
at this more broadly, there is a lot of inherent discrimination in the system –
a type of discrimination that deems you unfit for the market, a type of discrimination
that demands you to take on Intern roles and work long hours on the same level
as that of a full-time worker to get that valuable ‘experience’ demanded by the
market and finally a type of discrimination that pays you ‘very less’ than what
is legally approved as a starting salary by the government and various
well-renowned industry bodies.
As freshers, we are looking to gain experience
and more importantly learn and grow in a supportive and positive environment
that is conducive to our overall career development and growth. For that to
happen, we need a workplace that treats us and pays us equally so that we can also
bring immense value to the organization and its long-term goals. Just like our
predecessors or the previous generations, we also seek a workplace where we
have seniors to be our mentors in the early stages of our careers. We are not
the ‘know it all’ generation that many seem to think, given that we have all
the latest technology and online resources at our disposal. We were born in the
age when the internet just like books for the previous generations became an
important resource and galvanizes our very existence with the prevalence of smartphones
and smart devices shaping the way we communicate and move about in society.
Therefore, the challenges that we face as a generation are a lot different and
more complex when compared to the previous generations and it is this area of
technological advancement that sets us apart from other generations.
Unfortunately, the preceding generations
occupying middle-level and C-suite positions in today’s workforce do not get this
point as they are still more focused on short-term gains, how they can produce
more with the existing resources, and more importantly, how they can minimize as
much as possible. We have seen that a lot today with instances of job cuts,
salary cuts, terminations, and fears of recession dominating the headlines in
the last couple of months. The point here is not to pinpoint the outliers or
exacerbate a chicken-and-egg situation in our current job market. On the
contrary, it is to merely state that today’s management across boards and
operational teams needs to be empathetic and understand the struggles and
realities characterizing our generation. Granted that the previous generations
have had to rough it out to make it further in life, we can in no way bring on
the same expectations and realities to our generation given that we are now
competing with technology and AI, once again reiterating the differences in our
challenges and circumstances. To sum up, a lot must be done to instill a common
sense of humanity and bind our generations together, trespassing all the differences
in both mindsets and experiences. Empathy and humanness are the need of the
hour in helping bridge that gap in understanding across today’s
multi-generational workforce and the way forward for a more better and
promising reality!
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