Due to the lockdown situation, some companies have postponed the date of joining, few have resend the offers and in some, placements have not even started. How does a student plan his future in such a case?

This is an extremely tough situation for everybody across the globe and there are no winners here. Unlike most of the other situations where some industries go down and the others benefit. There are pros and cons. Unfortunately, this is the situation which is bad for everybody. If we consider the lowest level, migrant labourers or daily wage workers, it is very difficult for them to feed their family. Considering the student who has been preparing for the last 4 years for the IIT entrance exam and the exam is continuously postponed, that is also a challenge. Take an example of a student who has completed 4 years of engineering course and got an offer from a good company but due to the circumstances, the company resends the offer. So from a confirmed job offer, he doesn't have a job now. No new companies are coming to the campus.

So, it's an extremely difficult challenge for everybody. For students, I would like to say, if you are healthy, if you have a roof over your head, if you are able to have meals then you are better than 80% of the people in the world. Your job problem or offer has been resend is a very small problem as compared to the 80% of the other people. You can improve from here. If you're able to raise  your chin up, able to face the world, able to handle once in a century adversity, and come out as a winner  then you have built a character that nobody else can. So, people who are in their 20s or 30s should see it as an opportunity by God.

If you are doing computer science, digital or stuff which actually will benefit because of the pandemic, you are golden. As of now, jobs may not be there but your skills are very strong and they are the skills of the future. Video conferencing, digital transformation of the companies, etc. All are these things that are going to go exponentially high. Skill set required for those is something that you need. If you are not in that segment and are in different sectors which were strong pre COVID times, but post COVID it will be a challenge like event management, these sectors may face challenges for a few more months. But fortunately, you are young and at the beginning of your career so you are flexible, have the ability to learn much better. Use the next one year to learn the post COVID skills which will be beneficial for you.

Krishnan Ganesh
Founder & Partner/Serial Entrepreneur, Promoter: Growthstory.in, BigBasket, Bluestone, Hungerbox etc