In 2020, all final year college students will be stepping into a job market that will see a recession due to the coronavirus pandemic. This means that hiring will dry up and companies will be looking to save money to protect themselves from the hits they are taking. Economists have predicted that 2021 might see a gradual recovery but current college students still in their first and second years cannot take things lightly. Recessions and slowdowns are cyclic. They repeat themselves after a certain period and you can very well find yourself on the wrong side of the job market in your future as well. College is your time to learn and master skills that will recession-proof your career irrespective of the underlying cause and enable you to hold on to your source of income when others are seeing layoffs.
Here are a few areas that you need to explore and work upon. While the world is currently in recession, use this time to build a shield around your career by learning from your present experiences.
- Look into the changes the current recession is bringing
As a college student of 2020, you are more likely to get affected by the coronavirus recession than the financial crisis of 2008. So, closely analyse how the job market is about to transform itself following the pandemic. For starters, the entire corporate world will embrace the work from home culture even more than what it used to. As a student of one of the best BBA colleges in Delhi, you will want to lay more focus on your virtual management classes and technological grooming. Can you work from home as an employee in your future? Can you manage a team effectively that is working remotely? Build your skills here and learn the necessary tools.
- Analyse the sectors that will open up after the recession
The 2008 recession taught the world that banks need better experts to manage their debt handouts. The 2020 recession is showing the world its fragile healthcare and supply-chain management systems. Right after this pandemic, companies will shift their focus to these sectors and that is where the jobs will exist. Build basic expertise in such domains where the company does not have to train you in order to hire you. Take readymade skills of healthcare management and supply-chain networksto the hiring firms who will be looking for business experts of all levels to help them reverse the lingering effects of this ongoing crisis.
- Keep an eye on the future
The best colleges for BBA will maintain a curriculum that prepares you for the future of the job market. And that approach automatically recession-proofs your career as you will dwell on the right side of the demand curve. In management, blockchain, cloud computing and artificial intelligence are technologies that deserve a look. For business in general, data science, analytical reasoning and scientific computing will have a good market. A certification course during your college will add value to your CV and keep you in that assets list owing to the skills that you bring to the table.
- Focus on collaboration and emotional intelligence
As companies start to hire remote workers from different locations, your candidature will hinge largely on how well you gel with people. Recruiters, with limited resources and spaces to fill up, will search for candidates who can bring the company together instantly and do not guidance to do the same. Hence, during this present recession and for all in the future, your people management abilities will matter more hereon. How you negotiate, conduct, play and sustain within your department will stamp your value to the company. Hard skills will definitely give you a competitive edge. But it is the soft skills that can make you irreplaceable.
The best BBA colleges in India will also teach you transferrable skills, adaptive abilities and interconnected professional aptitudes that enable candidates to switch jobs seamlessly. Even during layoffs, you should have the arsenal to find another instant and that is what recession-proofing truly means. The Lingaya’s Lalita Devi Institute for Management & Sciences, based in South Delhi and affiliated to IP University, has always prepared its students along these lines as real talents do not need to worry about recessions and its implications. The right candidate always has a job in the market, provided he/she has prepared right and harnessed the required skills. Finding a job in 2020 might be difficult, but it will certainly not be impossible. Search in the areas where hiring is happening and continuously sharpen your skills along the way.
