Real Graduation

India is uniquely placed today, by an accident of history, with a predominantly young population. This coupled with a reasonably good education system and proficiency in English provides enormous opportunity for building on our strength to become the primary provider of variety of services the aging world around us need.

In this article I don’t intend to discuss the magnitude of this opportunity or the strategic priorities for exploiting this opportunity. The primary intent of this article is to reflect on the cultural and attitudinal reversals that are expected when a young graduate joins an organization. This is also a reminder on the special attention that the organizations need to give to facilitate a smooth induction.

Now let us take a look at the major changes required for a student to graduate to being an employee, a part of the team with delivery obligations.

1. Neither a prima donna nor a recluse

A student has infinite choice of whether to study, when to study, where to study and what to study. His choice is of no concern to his peers of for his profs. He is really not answerable to his classmates and his choice doesn’t affect their life.
An employee of an organization becomes a part of the team with very heavy interdependence on what he does, when he does, where he does and what he does. He is an inherent part of a team that delivers and his pace will affect the delivery of his team.

2. From independence to interdependence

It is true that the colleges need students and the students need colleges. But in short term the interdependence of student and the college is quite limited and both can exist with limited ritualistic interaction (attendance, exam etc)
An organization cannot be successful without active and strong employee engagement. Without this the organizations will have a team of drifters or at best those who or just ‘jamming for their daily bread”

3. Exams are over

A student’s life in general is directed by syllabus for the year, assignments, FAQ, possible questions, short cuts and exams etc etc. The real cool guys/ gals are considered to be those who don’t study (or appear not to study) the whole year, copy all the assignments and finally ‘crack’ the exams. He can afford to forget everything that was learned once the exams are over.
In an organization there is no exam to prepare and pass. One needs to get things done day in and day out; continuously upgrade knowledge and skill and keep building on and improving upon.

4. Who pays whom

In a college the student pays for being there and he chooses what he studies
In an organization en employee gets paid and the organization needs return on investment. The organization expect the employee to play as per its dreams and act as per its plot

5. No more an affair

When a student joins a college he normally knows how long he will be there.
When an employee joins he doesn’t normally know his period of stay. Either he or the organization can choose to terminate the relation fast or the relation may extend a lifetime. One is an affair and other could be a marriage.

6. From chaos to structure

A student’s life, except for attending classes, is the life of a free bird. No boss(es) to report to, no client to please..
As an employee, life gets a lot structured and there are lots of expectations to live up to (a much unstructured freewheeling organization is still a utopia)

7. From structure to chaos

In a different plane, the employee life is a transformation from structure to chaos. In a college the defined curriculum, syllabus etc etc gives enormous certainty on the demands of daily life.
In an organization, the life is uncertain. The environment is transient and the demand on the employee’s life is even more transient.


A total reversal of life style... We need to take this into cognizance when we design and implement the induction programs.

Keep in mind that such changes don’t happen overnight. Keep in mind that this transformation doesn’t kill the openness and curiosity and scare the fellow away. Therefore we need to have well planned processes and rituals to manage this transformation, develop a new habit and spot a new attitude.

The above thoughts are based on the conditions prevailing in most of the educational institutions in India. I acknowledge that there are number of institutions that are exceptions and outstanding and a number of pupils who mange the transformations smoothly.

But there exists large number of institutions which are quite mediocre and which are nothing but factories producing degrees (often sub-standard). Similarly there are many organizations that treat their recruits as nothing but another input and not an asset that can appreciate in value. If we really need to scale our global offerings we need to enable this vast source of raw material and not just the cream.