Where are the jobs in 2014? Big data, mobile apps, social networks

A new category of jobs will be created in 2014 due to the whole social networking blast, say experts.

• IT companies who are into consulting will see lots of jobs being created in mobile space due to the explosive growth in mobile apps ecosystem
• Big data will be in huge demand. While the absolute number of jobs will be in thousands, big data professional will be in great demand
• Retail, FMCG consumer and hospitality sector will see a marked pick up in hiring mostly in the senior to mid-level category
• Hiring was not hampered but was more focussed in 2013. BFSI skills will be more in demand in 2014
• There will be lot of demand for project heads and project managers across the hierarchy in these two sectors. Infrastructure and power are going to be hot sectors

A strong message for freshers

• Employers are not patient enough these days; they won’t prefer to keep their new hires on the bench for 6 to 9 months
• Employers will be looking out for people with hands on experience; raw freshers will face difficulty in finding jobs in the IT sector
• For freshers one can see jobs in the IT and ITeS sector. The other domain where freshers can find most jobs will be in the sales and marketing domain. Otherwise companies are a bit wary about hiring freshers

This is the big job story of 2014.

While conventional jobs in manufacturing, banking, financial, services, insurance, hospitality and retail sectors will see flat to moderate uptick, the new trend that is likely to create a flutter this year will be the social networks and mobile apps space.

In fact, the year began with a bang for Little Eye Labs, a little-known (only till January 8) Bangalore-based 18-month old start-up operating in the mobile app space, when it was taken over by Facebook for Rs 90 crore and offered its 7 founders an opportunity to work with the social networking giant at their Menlo Park headquarters in California.

“Companies will want to capitalise on this explosive growth in social networking. This could be to do with marketing and sales jobs where people never realised how they could use these networks for maximising revenues,” says Joseph Devasia, Managing Partner, Antal International Network, a global executive recruiting agency.

Devasia firmly believes that the sector is headed for an explosive growth as the year wears on.

“Social networks will be huge job creators,” says Devasia.

Head of Purple Leap, an organisation that makes students employment ready, Amit Bansal, also sees a big opportunity in big data, a term that has become fashionable since mid-2013. “Big data will be in huge demand,” he says. The number of jobs that will be created in this space, he cautions, may not be as big in volume terms, as jobs that one sees in the IT and ITeS sectors.

“On the IT side android developers who have experience in UX (user experience) rather than UI (user interface) will be in great demand,” he observes.

Android smartphones made by Samsung, LG, Sony, Micromax and a large number of China-backed manufacturers have been the mainstay of the exponential growth in smartphones sold in India in 2013.

However, Bansal cautions that, it will not be a one-size-fits-all kind of job generation in 2014.

“Qualified people who know their jobs well will be much sought after,” he warns compared to raw freshers.

Sangeeta Lala, co-founder and vice president of staffing company TeamLease, concurs. Commenting on the factors that can discourage companies from hiring as many people as they want, Lala says that while companies may want to expand they are unable to find the right talent.

“That is the chief concern,” says Lala. “What I want versus what I get.”

Having said that Lala believes that retail, FMCG consumer and hospitality sector will see a marked pick up in hiring, mostly in the senior to mid-level category.

A Ramachandran, client partner at EMA Partners, one of the largest executive search firms in the world, is gung-ho about infrastructure and power sector as far as mid to senior level job creation is concerned. As environmental clearances get under way a lot of projects in the infrastructure and powers sector will look forward to hire managers, he says.

Ramachandran is also positive on the pharmaceutical sector as one of the engines of job creation. As large Indian pharma companies spruce up their operations to launch medicines that are coming off patent this year.

“There will be a good demand for sales and marketing professionals in this field. But then pharma is an evergreen field,” says Ramachandran.

Sudhanshu Arora, Country manager, India, Careesma, a company that manages and owns job board websites, believes the job scene in 2014 will be much brighter than 2013.

“The Indian economy is shaping up nicely and 2013 was not as bad (for job seekers) as it was made out to be,” he says about the hue and cry created over paucity of jobs last year. However, he thinks that instability after the Lok Sabha elections this year may play a spoilsport.

“Keeping this constraint in mind I still think this year would be better (for job seekers),” he adds.

While jobs may come thick and fast in 2014, as many experts believe, are you ready to rise up to the challenges? Do you have the skill sets that employers will demand? Do you know the qualities that will catch the eyes of your future employers?

Please click NEXT to find out the answers as listed by six experts with rich and varied experience in the field of recruitment.

Sectors in demand

Services sector will pick up again. Financial services sector is not yet looking very bright. It will be better than 2013 but not like the previous years when the sector saw large scale hiring.

For freshers one can see jobs in the IT and ITeS sector. The other domain where freshers can find most jobs will be in the sales and marketing domain. Otherwise companies are a bit wary about hiring freshers.

Factors that affect job creation

• Investment for expansions either into new cities and offices will be a concern. One has to watch out if companies will start new businesses or expand an existing business to a new location.
• A stable government (will boost job creation) because it gives confidence to corporate India in terms of where we are heading
• Labour regulations, implementation of better labour law practices but that is a long-term argument that could work in favour of job creation
• The movement of the Indian rupee in respect to the US dollar (A weak Indian rupee makes Indian exports cheaper and hence boosts revenues of IT companies with huge export earnings and vice versa).
• Global economic environment because most Indian IT companies have a huge chunk of revenues coming from Western economies, specially Germany, UK and US and how labour laws in these countries allow free movement of labour. These laws affect the kind of investments Indian IT companies make to create more jobs

Skills that will be in demand

Technical and functional skills are important but in sales and marketing jobs employers also look for soft skills which include not just communication but attitude, flexibility, openness to relocate. These are very important for freshers.

For mid and senior level it would be team management, leadership skills, besides functional and technical skills which are always top priority for any employer.

What’s on your CV?

• The last educational or most relevant educational detail
• Depending on what job one is applying for, applicants must customise their CV based on the experience built
• Flexibility to relocate; it is important to be mobile these days

Sangeeta Lala, co-founder and vice president, TeamLease

Sectors in demand

• A whole new category of jobs will be created in 2014 due to the whole social networking blast. Companies will want to capitalise on this explosive growth in social networking. This could be to do with marketing and sales jobs where people never realised how they could use these networks to maximise revenues
• The e-commerce sector will also see lot of jobs created this year
• In the conventional industry, we will see lot of research and development jobs being created in the pharma sector. Lot of R&D is moving to India
• Again new jobs are being created in the mobile application space
• A lot of jobs will be created in IT, e-commerce, mobile apps, cloud computing and big data
• Within manufacturing I don’t think there will be new jobs but there will be conventional jobs coming about due to new investments. These will be in production, maintenance and engineering

Skills in demand

• Our clients do ask us for candidates, at least for marketing and sales, who can reach out to consumers who can spend more money using social networks
• Will that be new skills or, upgradation of skills of the existing employees, have to be looked at
• Employers will demand a lot more productive, initiative-taking and efficient people at work
• On the HR side there will be lot of demand for people with skills to handle employee retention

What’s on your CV?

• A clear indication of what their personal passions are and how employees could use them for the benefit of the organisation. I think if job applicants can articulate this well on their resume they will catch the eye of the employer
• Educational background and previous experience is generally common

Joseph Devasia, Managing Partner, Antal International Network

Sectors in demand

In the engineering space employers will look out for people with expertise. In the freshers-space, the bulk of recruitment cycle will be little subdued.

It will be lesser than what we saw in 2013. 15-20 per cent lower in absolute numbers because in the IT services segment there is no huge off take from top 10 IT companies including Infosys, Accenture, Wipro, TCS and HP, which hire about half the fresh talent.

While the IT space is likely to create 2 lakh jobs in 2014, manufacturing, automobile, civil, infrastructure and power sector will see steady hiring. Unlike IT sector where 10 per cent increase in revenue results in 10 per cent increase in hiring, in the other sectors mentioned above, 10 per cent increase doesn’t lead to a 10 increase in jobs because many of the processes are automated.

On the whole the job growth in core engineering sector will be flat.

Trends to watch out for

• Employers will be looking for candidates with hands on experience. Raw freshers will face difficulty in finding jobs in these domains
• If you have done projects development on a particular development system, language then you can get the eye of an employer. Employers today are not very patient; they don’t prefer to keep new hires on the bench for long. Mid-sized companies will be aggressively looking to move away from hiring people who require 6 to 9 month training before they become billable
• A new trend could be that mid sized companies hire people from small outfits with hands on experience. People who earn between Rs 8,000 to Rs 10,000 in a small outfit could earn a Rs 20,000-package that could go up to Rs 30,000 depending on expertise and domain knowledge

Advice for freshers

• Opt possibly to join a small company, gain hands on experience and then build your career
• Work on live projects or intern while in college with companies that give you this experience
• Engineering graduates, who cannot bring any value on the table, will have to earn hard skills before top employers will entertain them
• Do it yourself will be the mantra for freshers; have confidence and demonstrate that you can add value

Amit Bansal, founder PurpleLeap, an organisation that makes students employment ready

Socio-economic conditions in India have improved since past few years, and the European and US economy which was struggling for the past one year, has also improved considerably.

Sectors in demand

• Banking, finance, services and insurance will be major job creators followed by IT. ITeS will see a steady growth

Hiring trend in 2013 and 2014

• In 2013 everybody raised a hue and cry about hiring freeze and that India’s economy is not growing. That is not the case. In spite of whatever we have gone through I still maintain that 2013 was a good year for India compared to what we saw globally
• To give you an example, say there were X number of pass outs from a certain college. 80 to 90 per cent of these freshers were getting jobs in 2012
• Now, what happened in 2013 was out of these X, the good part of X, which was say 60 or 70 per cent, was getting placed in 2013. Only the last 10 per cent of the pyramid who were not capable enough, were not getting placed because they lacked in certain skills that were in demand from employers
• Hiring was not hampered but was more focussed in 2013. BFSI skills will be more in demand in 2014

Skill sets in demand

• Good analytical skills, like if you speak of banking and insurance sector, employers will be looking out for somebody who will be from the banking customer segment who will have good theoretical knowledge of products and services
• Even for freshers, it was observed that candidates who had a sound theoretical knowledge of the banking and services sector found better placements compared to those who did not possess that knowledge

What’s on your CV?

The basic fact is when a fresher comes for an interview, an employer does not look for executable skills. Having said that, your self-confidence and your academic record have to be correct. If you have sound grounding in theories that you have learned while studying then it becomes easy for employers to convert those into executable skills.

Just have the best skills and present them in the most comprehensive fashion to your would-be employer.

Sudhanshu Arora, Country manager, India, Careesma, a company that manages and owns job board websites

Skill sets project managers must have to find employment in the infrastructure and power sector

When it comes to projects the skill sets are very different for running a proper operation. There is too much focus on time and money. Ability to make right decisions and the ability to move fast are the skills one needs to demonstrate.

When you are getting hired for big projects in these sectors your past track record at executing projects will also be looked at by the employer. Like delivering projects on time.

Another area that will definitely be in demand is CSR (corporate social responsibility), especially with the new bill getting passed. Organisations will look at hiring the right professionals across the hierarchy.

What’s on your CV?

There is no cut and write formula to get a job in these two sectors.

More than what is in the CV what counts more is how a candidate comes across in the personal interview. What is written on your CV at best will get you a meeting. Writing CVs have gone through various evolution cycles.

For niche functions though candidates should be quantitative in their writing.

For example, if I were a business head I would write what was the revenue when I joined the company and how the revenue jumped under my leadership. ‘Increased the revenue by 50 per cent in the last financial year’.

Put hard numbers on your resume rather than writing big stories.

A Ramachandran, Client Partner, EMA Partners, one of the largest executive search firms in the world

Skills that employers will demand

• HR and accounting skills will top the job creation list and will be in demand. So will be people with recruitment and talent acquisition skills
• Chartered accountants and company secretaries following ethical accounting practises will be in demand

Sectors in demand

• BPO and IT sector will look out for people with great communication skills
• ITeS is not likely to see much job creation in 2014. IT, however, will see new job creation this year
• IT, BFSI, retail, hospitality will lead job creation in 2014

Rajesh Kumar, founder, MyHiringClub.com, a recruitment company whose survey stated that 8.5 lakh jobs across FMCG, retail, healthcare, IT etc., will be up for grabs in 2014