Time to go back to school

Many years ago, the Financial Times of London ran a competition. There was just one question: what is an actuary? There were honourable mentions for the smartest answers (no prizes). There were also no prizes for the dictionary definition - "An actuary is a business professional who deals with the measurement and management of risk and uncertainty".

There is nothing new about actuaries; they have their origins in 17th century studies of probability and annuities. But "actuaries" actually figure in new skills required for future jobs in the information technology (IT) industry. All other jobs with potential ( see box) seem vaguely familiar. What's the connection? They are old skills repackaged for a digital age.

What is the cloud but a giant library? You borrow books when you need them and return them after you finish with them. It costs less than buying all the books yourself. The Kindle and other eReaders are a step forward; you can carry your library with you. The problem is that Amazon is trying to do too much. A Kindle will eventually become a laptop.

Like the Kindle, which is acquiring diverse functions (browsing, email, shopping etc), IT industry jobs boil down to coding and marketing. Coding is the stuff the cyber-coolies do, so the less said about it the better. India has the edge out here because its coolie rates are lower. But with wages equalising across the world, that could be nullified very soon.

The National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom) has already sounded a warning note. The future belongs to Man + Machine, not to Man alone, says a recent report. "The Indian IT-BPM (business process management) industry currently employs 3.7 million employees; India continues to maintain its leadership in the global technology arena with over 2 lakh net additions and 3.5 lakh digitally skilled employees.

The report also highlights "the growth of digital technology over traditional technology from 5 per cent to 38 per cent over the next decade. Due to changing technology and skillsets in demand, there will be a gradual shift of the industry towards automation and around 5-10 per cent of existing jobs may be automated in the next 10 years, significantly changing existing skills across job functions. While technology will displace some jobs, it will also lead to creation of some new jobs - biotech, nanotech, smart technologies to name a few". The report estimates that 60-70 per cent of the existing workforce will need to be re-skilled in technology, domain, social and thinking.

So boys and girls at Infosys and Wipro, it's time to go back to school.

What about marketing? Indians are excellent at selling dreams. That's why so many fall into the trap of scamsters. They believe in the bigger fool theory. In India, it works. But in the West, where selling gold bricks to rustics is a cottage industry and the Eiffel Tower was sold as scrap metal by the same person twice, people are prepared for hardsell. Indians don't make good marketing types; they will learn.

As far as specialisations within the IT industry go, does it make a difference whether you are an expert in virtual reality or augmented reality? It does, if you want to follow in the footsteps of the latest craze - Pokemon Go. Rumour has it that the head honcho of Infosys found an employee tracking a Lickitung in the loo. At Wipro, a whole family - a Nidoran, a Nidorino, a Nidoking and a Nidoqueen - were discovered. At TCS, they thought they had caught a Snorlax sleeping in the CEO's chair, but it turned out to be a Farfetch'd. What are the chances that a Pikachu specialist will find an IT job? Rather farfetched.