No, it’s not me, three of the world’s leading IT companies, Google, IBM and Apple, have announced ‘It’s All About Skills Now – Google, IBM, Apple No Longer Require College Degree’, college degrees are no longer required, now everything is skills-based. In the Western world, ‘college’ refers to a four-year post-intermediate honors degree from a college or university.
They wrote in their report that many people think that students who pass with low marks or skip hard subjects are less smart, and many believe that those difficult subjects help them get good jobs – this has been proven wrong. Because people misidentified those ‘less smart’ people and didn’t realize that every person is smarter than others in their field! Today, those who are leading in various fields as famous in the world, but they are some of those ‘left out’ of college/university! But they didn’t succeed on the strength of their degrees, they succeeded by mastering the subjects they were interested in or knew a little about. There are many more such things written in the report, but I will not go into them, those who are interested can read them.
Naturally, the “skills” mentioned by the above three world-renowned IT companies are any IT or computer related skills. Indeed, now all over the world everyone is looking for skilled people. What if someone with a college or university degree or even a doctorate can’t work on a small computer like Word, Excel, PowerPoint?
In earlier days people were hired for odd jobs like ‘stenographer’, ‘shorthand writer’, ‘typist’ and their job was to do that job. That is, the above official may have said orally, the PA who knows stenographer or his shorthand (abbreviated using a special symbol/character) wrote it down and gave it to the typist, the typist typed it and gave it to the official. Then correction, type again, correction again type… and so on. Is it conceivable nowadays? Yes, shorthand writing is still practiced, but it is used for specific purposes. But nowadays any official at any level in any office finalizes his writing by typing and editing himself, even making presentations through PowerPoint and briefing others. Basically, education is not necessary for any post now, they must know these basic things of computer. It is considered a ‘need’ and not a skill.
A few days ago I wrote in an article titled ‘No Time, No Time’ (in Nahli, January 2020 issue and on Facebook) on time management ‘…Also try to master any subject as you enjoy your holidays. These days “I passed first class in Masters in such and such a subject” doesn’t matter anymore, when you don’t know a little MS Word and Excel!…’ Impressed every youth to excel in any subject along with their studies.
I am sixty years old, but for my own sake I still learn something almost every day. For example, to upload videos of Nahli’s creative writing course online classes to YouTube recently, knowing video editing was essential, although I had no knowledge of it. After one of my students told me the name of a software, I downloaded it from the internet and learned how to edit it in three days from YouTube tutorials. Earlier I learned Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator and In-Design from the same place in a few weeks to create book cover designs, brochures, leaflets, visiting cards, Facebook ads etc. for my various businesses. As a context for these learnings, I posted an article on Facebook a couple of years ago entitled ‘Outsourcing, Commitment and…’ (this fountain of light is also in the book), where I talked about how much abuse is caused by the carelessness and negligence of some so-called ‘experts’ in keeping their commitments. Then I was forced to learn to do my own work.
I learned that I needed to survive, but you (I am talking about young people especially) will learn to establish yourself, to be self-reliant. You have to understand how unreasonable it is to ask your father for daily allowance like car rental and hand expenses while studying in college or university and how much pressure it puts on a middle class father. There is even a word called self-respect. Think for yourself, could you not have earned the money you asked for from your father with a little effort (and trouble!)? It doesn’t matter if you have acquired any skills, at least two tuitions! And nowadays ‘freelancing’ has opened the doors of unlimited possibilities for the youth! This same advice applies not only to middle-class or lower-class family members, but also to upper-class youth, because you should have the same amount of self-respect!
When I tell these things to young people when I come to Nahli, many of them say, “Sir, I don’t have time, when will I do these things?” My advice to them – then learn time management first. Proper management or use of time is the root of everything. This is possible by identifying and eliminating (or reducing) what is unnecessary and creating a plan that emphasizes what is essential. Again, many people ask, how or what subject will I gain expertise?
Every human being has been given knowledge or skill by the Creator in some (or only) subject, which the concerned person may not have any idea about, because he has never practiced it. You must have some hidden talent inside you, which you have to find out. You will do what makes you happy.
Nowadays, it is very easy to acquire skills in any technical subject like computer or IT related subject in the country and around the world and its demand is also increasing at a mathematical rate. Especially with the influence of outsourcing and freelancing, nowadays people of any age can start something by acquiring some skills at home. Google, IBM and Apple have also undoubtedly hinted at some such capability.
Initially I would recommend learning graphic design related programs like Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, In-Design etc. Or if you want to go a little further or if you already know these, you can learn various programming languages, web design, logo design and auto-cad software. For those who find it difficult, but there are so many simple things in freelancing, like your familiar word excel, powerpoint or digital marketing, content writing, virtual assistant, etc. it doesn’t even take a week to learn.
Many may think, ‘How can I learn such a difficult thing?’If an old man like me can learn Photoshop, Illustrator, In-Design, Auto-Cad in less than a fortnight each, your lively, young brain and With talent it is possible to learn it in less time or better in that time. The desire to learn is required.
Where will you learn this? There is no need to go to any farmgate and spend 5/10 thousand rupees to learn ‘with guarantee’. “Guarantee” I give you. You can learn all these things from YouTube in fifteen to thirty days. Because I learned from there.
Three things are very important here. First of all, you need to decide what you are interested in learning, or what you enjoy doing. Secondly, don’t try to learn everything at once, learn one thing at a time and thirdly, don’t expect to become an ‘expert’ in a month’s training. After learning any task, skill is gradually developed by practicing it. So what you learn, practice a lot and you’ll find yourself doing it like a pro!
You set a goal, set a time or deadline to master a subject and concentrate on learning the subject. You will see that it is not a difficult matter. It’s no use saying ‘Ish, it’s too late, why didn’t I start earlier’. Because it’s better to start now than to regret the time that has passed, ‘Better late than never’!
Apart from learning various subjects of computer, acquiring skills in another subject is the demand of the time. And that is learning English language. Learning English does not diminish the Bengali language in any way. We have heard a lot of debates and passions about it before, but the reality is that there is no alternative to learning English if you want to survive or thrive in today’s world and today. Especially if you want to do freelancing, you must know English. Now our world is spread across the world. So everyone must acquire sufficient proficiency in English language. It is equally important in all four areas of speaking, reading, writing and understanding.
My post on time management talks about one thing – procrastination, which means procrastination or procrastination. Saying ‘I will start from tomorrow’ will never happen. If you want to do something, you have to do it today, right now. Because there is no such thing as tomorrow. When tomorrow comes, tomorrow will be the day after that, the day after tomorrow will be the day after that… ie tomorrow is an ‘imaginary’ day, it is always one day behind!
Just as everyone’s areas of interest will be different, not everyone’s learning pace or progress will be the same. But no one knows better than you what your interests are and where your limitations are. So bring out that hidden talent of yours and master it.
Then you don’t have to look for work, work will find you!
