Be the Change! Opportunities Don't Happen, You Create Them Date:   Monday , February 27, 2017 A Management professional with over 20 years of experience in the Indian Financial Services industry. Prior to TalentSprint, he held leadership positions in corporates like KARVY Group and KM Matrimony. �Opportunities don�t happen, you create them�- Chris Grosser. The world is your oyster and you have the freedom and the ability to do anything or go anywhere. The course you take for your life will define you and make or break your future. And it�s appealing to follow the crowd when we have just begun to join the race. Young and vulnerable minds constantly look out for the much-needed guidance, direction and acceptance, which is extremely easy to obtain while following the crowd. As it is said, the loudest voice is the roar of the crowd. By aping their success stories, the debutantes often believe that success will be theirs in no time. After all, majority wins! But that�s just the appetizer for the journey. What follows is an eclectic mix in the main course that totally differs from one individual to another, turning into an acquired taste. Enter the harsh world of competition and the picture gets clearer. Being a part of the rat race doesn�t function well in the big bad world of competition, in higher studies or while looking for the maiden job, where every individual is competing for the same position. And, with sectors like Information Technology (IT), where change is the only constant when it comes to skill sets, an unclear mind without a clear understanding of the goals can cause chaos. The results can often be disastrous as a majority ends up being at the losing end while seeking their first job as the numbers tells us how: 90 percent of the graduates are not found to be employable due to lack of technical and soft skills Every company selects 1-5 people out of every 100 who apply there Banks and other competitive exams has the ratio of 200 applicants for each job There will be a billion plus jobseekers to compete with by 2050 The ever-widening gap between the demand and the supply of skilled workforce is getting worse and needs action on war footing. The country would need 700 million skilled workers by 2022 to meet the demands of a growing economy, according to the India Skills Report. This growing and glaring imbalance points towards the urgent and growing need to make young citizens ready for the job market with a special focus on the graduates, supplementing their employability. With 62 percent of our population in the age group that forms the working capital and more than 54 percent of the entire population below 25 years of age, drastic amends need to be made to solve the great Indian talent conundrum and to make the most of this demographic dividend that we as a country possess. While following others and trying to do what others do will make one part of majority. However, what follows in the professional world is rejection in the job front as the majority of the �followers� do not find acceptance and get rejected owing to lack of professional and specific skills. With new age skills of the upcoming segments consisting of cloud computing, extensive and growing use of social media, artificial intelligence among others becoming the need of the hour, special emphasis needs to be put to cater to the related knowledge and skills. On the contrary, not much attention is being paid by our education system to these upcoming domains making only 10 percent of the current youth deemed to fit in the fully employable category. The demographic dividend if not given the treatment of skills may simply turn into a demographic disaster. The impending scenario is clearly staring at us with the growing imbalance between the very few skilled workers and even lesser jobs for the medium and low-skilled workforce. Is there a way out? It�s a challenge to stand tall and face the storm alone. But here lies the true strength of an individual. Taking out time for yourself to give your future and career path a deep thought will be a wise choice. And as it is often said and believed, take the help of mentors who have been there and gathered the much-coveted experience in time. Industry statistics reveal how only 20-25 percent of the youngsters seek professional help and most of them realize the need far too late for any real valuable support. One needs to do things differently from others to be successful and stop following the crowd. And, no better way to learn than to do things yourself, acquiring the much-needed hands on experience. While the choices may be a plenty in front of you, having a clear objective before commencing on the career path makes it easier to climb up the success ladder. This is something that most people are unclear with when they begin. And, steering your way ahead, it also helps to stick to the basics that help you to embark on any new skill set journey with ease. The fast-shifting industry requires candidates that are willing to work hard and adapt themselves quickly to the changing technological paradigms and stay ahead of the competition. With growing demand of the IT segment, considering the integral face it has acquired in the changing global dynamics and the path of growth taken by the country, the opportunities are endless for someone who is willing to work hard and smart. And what better way than to arm you with the strategies and cutting edge knowledge shared by the TalentSprint mentors that enable students stay a step ahead of the curve. It is this learning the new way that helps the students enjoys a higher rate of success as compared to others. So, don�t be afraid of the changeover. But be the biggest change, even if it means going alone and not follow the herd.