“Re-skill or Perish” – the new mantra for survival of techies!

If you are thinking that getting a lucrative IT job is the most viable option, then you might want to
think again. This comes amid reports of massive layoffs in major IT companies of India. So, large scale
layoffs are no more a myth.

National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) has strongly advised the
employees to “re-skill or perish” in order to tackle the situation. Nasscom is the trade association of
Indian IT and BPO industry which encourages the business and research in software technology.

But Nasscom has denied the various reports of mass layoffs as exaggeration. It has said that Indian IT
sector is still the “net” hirer and will hire about 1.5 lakhs people this year. Though, it stresses the fact
that the techies have to be relevant by re-skilling themselves with latest technology.

Over the past few weeks, major IT companies have started their annual appraisal process and
already began the process of cutting down the workforce citing low performance or non
performance. According to reports, Infosys will release nearly 1000 employees belonging to project
managerial level, Cognizant to cut at least 6000 jobs and Capgemini to let go off about 9000 people.
The list goes on and will only increase in the coming months.

The IT companies have maintained these layoffs to be a part of routine process which leads to
termination of workforce and stress that it is nothing different this year. But, the fact cannot be
denied that the current situation has really shaken everyone from employees to bosses. The IT
sector is already worried about the stricter work permit regime in countries like US, Australia,
Singapore and New Zealand. The US Government under Donald Trump has already implemented
restrictions on H1-B visas. The H1-B visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows companies to employ
foreigners for a period of upto six years. In addition to that, newer technologies like automation,
robotics, artificial intelligence (AI), digitalisation and cloud computing help to complete the job with
less workforce. Thus, most of the workforce will be deemed as irrelevant in the future owing to
these technologies.

Due to the slow growth in the sector, companies have started working towards reducing their
dependence on work visas and has initiated the process to hire more locals. These have put a
question mark on the future of the employment of Indian techies. To tacle this, employees have to
keep up with the fast evolving trends in technology. Re-skilling is the need of the hour which we all
need to understand.