After a recent round of interviews/talks with the young and enthusiastic IT professionals, I was tempted to ask them, “Where are you headed in life”?

‘Penny Wise Pound Foolish’ is all I can say about these youngsters who fail to visualize the big picture in life. In an effort to realize their dreams too soon, too fast they seem to miss the more important and finer aspects in their career!

As time goes, technology advances, and different skills gain importance in the job market. One such important skill is the language/communication skill. In an effort to improve their technical abilities and make quick big bucks, they hop from one job to the next; they do not seem to be keen on improving either their language or communication skills. How often do these youngsters with at least five years’ experience in the IT industry get to interact with a client? How often are they given an opportunity within an organization to do a presentation, run a team meeting, or be present in a customer meeting?

During an interview I would expect the candidate to ask questions such as those mentioned above in order to improve their overall personality and gain better prospects in the job market. Instead I have been asked questions such as, “How much can I save per month?”, “I would like to save at least $2000/month (being employed in India with 3-4 years experience!)”, “My friend in the U.S. gets an increment every 6 months and I would like to get the same benefits” and so on. On such occasion, I’ve been reminded of a saying, ‘Hire people more for their judgment than for their talents’ and had to reject such overly ambitious people who are driven to the point of being greedy! I can’t help but sympathize with such a tunneled vision in their career!

I must give credit to their technical abilities though. It is because of these huge number of IT professionals that India is gaining recognition worldwide. Their contribution is significant to the Indian economy. But the individuals as well organizations will realize over time that technical expertise is not the sole contributing factor; ‘communication’ too is equally significant.