Takeaways from 2018 and skills required for the next-generation technologist.
Excerpts of an exclusive interaction with Mr. Sanjay Goyal- VP – Times Internet Ltd., Head of Product & Technology, TimesJobs and TechGig.
Mr. Sanjay Goyal- VP – Times Internet Ltd., Head of Product & Technology, TimesJobs and TechGig.
Q. How is TechGig ramping up the tech talent in the country?
A: TechGig is a site primarily for coders and developer’s fraternity to learn compete and grow. We start working with freshers who either have just passed college or even with school students. It is a platform, open for all.
Our users essentially come to visit the website and read more about interesting subject themes. Users can learn programming and learn how to code. They can also compete with other programmers and feature on leader boards.
Users can evaluate themselves and enhance their skillsets, gauge where they stand in the coding fraternity and get into different contests hosted by multi-national companies or IT companies, looking for innovative solutions to a problem.
In this manner, we can say that we are trying to popularise programming in our country. But considering the number of programmers India produces in a year, we just want to make the number bigger by the day.
Q. What would you recommend to techies in becoming a desirable talent for hiring in the current age?
A: Traditionally, India has always benefited from a curriculum which is
mathematics and science dominated. People talk about, that Indian Education
System need to undergo changes, I think this is strong even today, and the
reason why people like me succeeded in this market is just because we had very
strong mathematics and science in our school and colleges that has always
helped us.
So, the fresh graduates or even people with the experience of 5 to 6 years, they are fairly competitive and the newer technologies that are coming out in the market, really requires you to unlearn lot of old technologies to become competitive with the new ones.
Now considering those challenges, I would say that millennials are at a higher advantage of learning these technologies faster and then become productive also. For people with higher experience band it is a big vertical challenge for them, to basically upgrade to newer technologies and be updated with the industry.
Q. What are some of the most-in demand technical skills?
A. One thing, I would like to add before we jump to the technical skills is that, while soft-skills is considered easier to get are not easy to get. Even Mr. Warren Buffett, mentioned that communication is the first and the most important skill that people should own because until and unless you cannot communicate, the knowledge you have is useless.
So, soft-skill and communication are the need. People need to work hard on that so communication matters and in terms of technologies the latest technology is out in the market are blockchain and artificial intelligence, machine learning these are new skills but to be very honest none of these technologies are based on the fundamental concepts are still the same. For example, in blockchain you are still using the stuff that we are used in C++ or C and the hashing algorithms that we had learnt in college (1st year) so the technologies are the same it’s just that the newer innovative uses are coming out so people need to learn these technologies fast in order to be valuable in the market.
Q. Are the challenges being resolved at hackathons, different than the challenges they face in real life?
A. So, hackathons, primarily are based on challenges that companies face in real life. At Hackathons, mostly companies are not able to solve a problem and they require fresh minds to suggest solutions. I recently met somebody where the gentleman was of the view, that he would love to do hackathons and outsource solutioning to masses, so that they get one solution which is very good and worth it.
He also talked about Hackathons and much more…For information and details, please watch the full video above.
