“The glory of medicine is that it is constantly moving forward, that there is always more to learn. The ills of today do not cloud the horizon of tomorrow, but act as a spur to greater effort.”

— William James Mayo

The pharmaceutical industry in India is marching towards becoming a global hub for medicines and pharmaceutical equipment. It has also made rapid strides in vaccine development, and the industry is witnessing work on a mission-mode basis to set up pharma manufacturing parks across India to expand the country’s pharmaceutical influence worldwide.

According to the Decoding Jobs India Report 2023, the Indian pharmaceutical industry market is set to grow from $49 billion to $130 billion by 2030. To broaden their growth prospects and be future-ready in today’s tech-driven environment, companies are keen to hire digitally-skilled talent to fuel their next growth phase.

Current Job Outlook In the Pharmaceutical Industry

According to Mr. K Kulbhushan, Global Head and Vice President at Dr. Reddy’s, “As the pharmaceutical industry continues to advance in 2023, we will see a growing demand for professionals with skills in chemical engineering, machine learning, and artificial intelligence, as well as project management.”

At present, there are a total of 2.5 million people employed in this sector. The pharmaceutical sector is creating a surge in demand for new roles and opening up several job opportunities. The industry is optimistic about growth, and according to the Decoding Jobs India Report, the expected hiring intention of pharmaceutical employers in 2023 is 16% more than it was in 2022.

Jobs Opportunities In the Pharmaceutical Industry

The industry has scope for multiple roles– be it in cybersecurity to maintain the secrecy of medicinal formulations, blockchain to build resilient delivery models, or robotics and AI to make smarter assembly lines, there’s ample scope and opportunity for professionals from diverse digital skills backgrounds.

Let’s take a look at some of the high-demand jobs in the pharmaceutical industry. 

• Tech-based Roles

 Pharmaceutical executives are looking to reduce their product development costs and time. To achieve this, companies require talent skilled in machine learning, artificial intelligence, and static/dynamic simulation software. As per a study by Pharmaceutical Technology, 70% of drug development is already done by leveraging cutting-edge technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), and Natural Language Processing (NLP).

• Quality Assurance & Manufacturing Roles

Quality assurance is one of the core domains of the pharmaceutical industry and is responsible for developing and implementing quality standards for manufacturing drugs and medical equipment. There are several new job opportunities in this department for candidates from BPM (Business Process Management) and  Lean Six Sigma backgrounds who can develop efficient error prevention techniques, streamline inventory management, and improve the material flow.

• Project Management Roles

Project management is another key area of focus for companies, with a focus on ensuring effective collaboration among the teams. This has led to an increase in demand for professionals with knowledge in implementing the agile working methodology.

• R&D Roles

Research and development (R&D) is at the heart of every pharmaceutical company; hence, the need for research-oriented professionals is always high. The Indian Government is also playing a crucial role in promoting R&D by allocating USD 419.2 million towards research and development initiatives taken by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

This has led to job opportunities for scientific technicians who specialize in genomics, biochemistry, molecular biology, drug discovery, toxicology, and several other fields.

• Sales & Marketing Roles

Lastly, if we look at the non-technical side, companies are also looking for experienced sales and marketing professionals to gain a competitive advantage and build a strong relationship with their customers. This opens up doors for job seekers proficient in digital marketing, branding, social media management, and marketing strategy planning in this sector.

Mrs. Namrata Gill, HR Lead at Dr. Reddy’s, says that “The pharmaceutical sales market will require professionals who possess a strong understanding of marketing and product management to excel, as has also been stated in the Decoding Jobs India Report 2023.”

The Way Forward

The pharmaceutical industry is undergoing a digital shift, and there are several job opportunities available for professionals willing to upskill and reskill.

Besides technical skills, companies actively look for candidates with two main traits– strategic thinking and strong problem-solving. So, develop your skill set in these areas. Put in efforts to network with industry professionals and be active on social media to connect with the right people, and clinch the job opportunity of your choice.

Lastly, I would like to leave you with an inspirational quote from Henry Ford, founder of Ford Motor Company, “Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young.”

About the author

Pankaj Bansal is the Co- founder of Taggd and Work Universe (a Fund investing in jobs and work tech). He is a non-executive director at Karmayogi Bharat (Capacity building or Civil Servants) and many other startups. Follow him on Twitter at @pankajbansalPB.

By Dainik Bhaskar

The post Unlocking the Potential: Exploring High-Demand Jobs in the Growing Pharmaceutical Industry in India appeared first on .

If the recent tech layoffs have painted a bleak picture of the future of tech talent, let me tell you something — a sea of opportunities is waiting for you in places where you have never looked before — because “In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity,” as Einstein rightly said.

The disruption that digitization has caused in the job landscape compelled even traditionally non-tech industries and organizations to expand their reach in recruiting tech talent. The result? A 50 to 60% increase in demand for tech talent between 2020 to 2022.

But what is driving tech hiring in non-tech organizations? And what type of tech-related job opportunities are available?

Enhancing customer experience with digital products and solutions

As organizations are increasingly looking towards technological innovations to seamlessly deliver their products and solutions to customers, the need for tech talent is escalating too. For example, eyewear platform lenkart.com has taken to digital like no other competitor brand, to allow customers to try and book their prescription eye-glasses from the comfort of their homes using 3D Try-on technology. Traditionally offline-heavy industries like automobile are moving in this direction too. Mercedes-Benz India launched a D2C digital platform in early-2022 that allows customers to engage and complete their car purchase online and sold 3,000 cars within a span of just four months.

Driving growth with data

Organizations are increasingly leveraging the power of data analytics to gain insights into their customers’ preferences, needs, behaviors, and interests. As a result, the Indian market has seen a rise of jobs in data analytics and data science by almost 50 per cent in the last 12-18 months. Half of this demand is coming from the non-tech organizations such as Retail, Logistics, BFSI, Pharmaceuticals, Healthcare, etc. In fact, data scientists are also in huge demand in media and entertainment as India’s OTT market is set to increase at an annual rate of 23.3% in 2023.

Rise of Artificial Intelligence

The adoption of AI has been massive since the pandemic, especially in finance and retail. In 2022, 57% of the organizations reported using AI to optimize their business processes and customer experience. Companies like Amazon and Starbucks are using AI to engage more deeply with customers by offering dynamic pricing, personalized shopping lists, and better promotional offers.

As technology continues to reshape the global economy, traditional companies are increasingly hiring professionals in areas such as Product Engineering, Digitalization, Data Sciences and AI. Tech companies tend to have more service-oriented roles, while product or conventional non-tech organizations typically offer high-end technology roles like Product Development, R&D and AI.

We at Taggd have seen a significant shift in talent mix hired in favour of tech talent in last 3 years. This will gain more momentum in years to come. In 2021 and 2022 alone, Taggd hired 6000+ tech personnel for non-tech companies, including Mahindra, Honeywell, SKF, Bosch, Tata Motors, and Schindler, to name a few.

Innovating and manufacturing a bright and sustainable future

Traditional manufacturing and engineering organizations are shifting from being industrial-engineering to becoming industrial-software companies. This shift will require a high level of software competency to build, operate, and maintain complex systems. To put this in a numerical perspective, the Pharmaceutical sector is recruiting digital experts, developers, and data scientists in R&D, the hiring percentage of which was almost 5% in 2022 alone. As organisations allocate more budget for product development, companies are open to investing heavily in hiring talent to incubate,  research, and design future products.

With expertise in machine learning, big data, predictive analytics and other cutting-edge technologies, tech talent can develop products that meet customer needs while researching and developing solutions for the future such as digital twins, advanced robotics, blockchain technology, virtual reality, and more.

Every customer needs service, but digitally

Customer needs often go beyond physical products, which is why tech talent is necessary in developing digital solutions that can meet those needs, including virtual assistant solutions, e-commerce platforms, web applications or other technologies designed to make life easier for customers. For instance, many FMCG brands such as Dabur and Emami are experiencing a massive pull factor for their products and are investing considerably in building their digital capacities to meet this demand.

So, if you have technical skills and want to pursue a career in a non-tech industry, now is an opportune time. All you need to do is have faith in your skills and muster the courage to take that one extra step to explore these opportunities.

About the Author

Pankaj Bansal is the Co- founder of Taggd and Work Universe (a Fund investing in jobs and work tech). He is a non-executive director at Karmayogi Bharat (Capacity building or Civil Servants) and many other startups.

By Pankaj Bansal

Co- founder of Taggd and Work Universe

The post Digital Transformation: Finding Tech Talent in Non-Tech Companies appeared first on .

Have you wondered what are the factors that influences a nation’s economic growth, or what determines the outcome of elections, and what ensures financial stability for every individual? The answer to all these questions is – jobs, or employment.

2022: A roller coaster for the job market

A retrospective look on 2022 tells us that it started on a positive note, with the first half of 2022 witnessing relatively strong hiring. However, Q2 FY22 onwards posted an altogether different story. Global recessionary fears and geopolitical conflicts dampened business sentiments across the world.

Recent months have seen a flurry of layoffs across the globe, especially in IT, sparking fear, uncertainty, and disruption for those affected. There is a palpable concern among employers and employees to know how the job market will shape up in 2023 amid these unprecedented times.

What can we expect in 2023?

As we enter 2023, even though the hiring sentiment seems a bit worn down, there is not a complete pause. The position of the Indian job market remains to be powerful, the population is young and growing, and is going to become the world’s largest labour force by 2027- indicating a large pool of potential employees to fill new roles and positions.

In the coming year, we expect a state of equilibrium – with growth continuing in pockets. We See That Many Segments Of Employers Will Be Optimistic About Their Hiring Activity In 2023 – With 45% Of Employers Surveyed Foreseeing Up To A 20% Increase In Hiring, As Per Decoding Jobs India 2023 Report By Taggd In Association With CII. While the global demand for Indian talent will start becoming visible around mid-2023, India’s job and employment landscape will be driven by domestic demand for talent. Domestic demand also spurred by rise in entrepreneurship, will be an important corner stone for employment. Let me share some positive hiring outlook and sectors in focus:

Pharmaceutical

With the new variant of covid and given India’s G20 Presidency, digital health innovation, achieving universal health coverage, delivery will take Center stage. This should give the employment generation a push in the next 6 to 8 months. Opportunities in medical research, healthcare administration, public health, nursing, and heavy focus on data science, API, AI/ML, R&D can be expected.

Manufacturing

Due to geopolitical reasons, Industry 4.0 and the “Make in India” initiative from the government, we are expecting manufacturing to grow in the next year and build domestic demand in the country. Organisations like Apple and Volvo are moving their innovation centres in India. As many as 50,000 direct jobs have been created in India since August last year, and this momentum is expected to continue.

Automotive

Amid increasing push towards environmental sustainability and Make In India, the auto sector’s job landscape will remain buoyant in 2023. Companies in Auto will look to hire people for product launches and green fuel technology. The top demands are for jobs like program managers, electronic and mechatronic engineers, expertise in fuel cells, system engineers, and AUTOSAR architecture.

Internet Business

Local e-commerce expects to grow on basis of domestic demand. Demand for delivery professionals, expertise in analytics, and performance marketing will drive employment in the sector in the coming year.

IT

Tech companies will be shifting their hiring focus on quality instead of quantity as we exit the market normalization phase. Given the over hiring done in the sector, hiring will not be as buoyant as it was in past, however, demand for niche talent like: DevOps, Cybersecurity, Blockchain, Robotic Process Automation, AR/VR in Online Gaming skills, will continue to persist.

Future of jobs

Confucious said “Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life”, I would suggest- “Find love in the job you choose”. It’s essential for both individuals and organizations to stay flexible and adapt to changes in the job market.

As per India Skills Report 2023 by Wheebox, Taggd and CII, for the first time India reported a 50.3% employability score which means 50.03% of the test participants who were young were determined to be highly employable in total. Among the employable young population, 53.28% of women and 47.28% of men were deemed to be highly employable.

Successful job searching often involves a balance of both ‘science and art’, So, ask yourself:

1. Do you have the skills best suited to the roles for which you are applying?
2. If you have the right skills and knowledge, do you know it inside-out? If asked, can you speak on the subject for 2-3 minutes instantaneously and deeply?
3. How can you help your organization grow in the first 90 days of your job?

It’s important to approach the job search from the perspective of the hiring manager than only HR. If your answers to these questions are in the affirmative, rest assured, there are good jobs awaiting you. If not, start building up your skill stack, and gear up to be a part of India’s growth story!

About the author

Pankaj Bansal, is the Co-founder and Group CEO of PeopleStrong, Taggd and Wheebox. He is also a non-executive director at Karmayogi Bharat.

By Dainik Bhaskar

The post The Future of Jobs: Here’s What You Need to Know appeared first on .

In the debate between pedigree and skill, companies do tend to prefer the IIT/IIM tag for creating aspirational values. However, the tide is changing and many have completely eliminated that requirement.

Early-stage e-commerce and travel startups and software services firms are moving away from pedigree-based hiring to competency-based recruitment for mid-career professionals in India.

Hiring Trend

Some of India’s leading technology companies, including Lendingkart, upGrad, Nykaa, Cars24, Mobikwik, and Amazon India, have listed open positions that require a potential employee to be from IITs/IIMs or other premier institutes for mid-management roles, according to an ETtech analysis of postings on professional networking site LinkedIn and online recruitment platform iimjobs.com. This comes even as companies across the world have moved toward skills-based hiring. Some of India’s biggest tech startups though continue to insist on qualifications from the best educational institutes for mid-level management jobs even when there is little research showing a correlation between performance and pedigree at that level, according to HR experts.

Skills Over Pedigree

When multinational companies set up shop in post-liberalization India, they found education beyond the IITs and IIMs not up to the mark. Pedigree-based hiring consequently surged, with tech and consulting companies snapping up fresh graduates at sky-high salaries during the “placement season” every year, which is now in full swing. Hiring at startups has been no different. It is a common practice for well-funded startups to scout for fresh talent at premier educational institutes. Recruiting from such colleges also helps startups project quality to investors, according to hiring experts. However, hiring for mid-management roles on where a potential employee studied nearly a decade ago can be construed as discriminatory, according to Vikas Vats, president of Human Resources Association of India, which has more than 20,000 members. After 5-10 years of work experience, the stamp of an IIT or IIM fades, he said. “… almost no organization does research or surveys how employees are performing 10-15 years after they hire them from various institutes in different leagues — whether people who come from so-called bigger names are doing better than others,” Vats said According to Gaurav Hirey, founder and CEO of HR tech startup GoEvals Solutions Pvt Ltd, companies should ensure that the right person lands the job rather than one from a specific college, where the talent pool is limited. “Pedigree hiring causes a skills gap in the organization and is surely not a long-term play, as eventually, the organization will end up without the right candidate,” Hirey said.

Cherry-Picking

Shortly after ET sent a query to Amazon India, we found that the names of premium institutes from its listing on LinkedIn for Senior Program Manager had disappeared. Earlier, the listing had an MBA from IIM A/B/C/L/ NITIE/JBIMS and ISB under the basic qualifications criteria. Later, Deepti Varma, Director – HR, Amazon responded via email: “Our experience shows that great talent is not limited to tier-1 educational institutes, and a lot of successful Amazonians come from other educational institutes. Accordingly, we review our campus strategy on a regular basis with an objective to broaden the talent pool from where we can hire the best talent.” When asked, Manish Bhatia, president-technology, analytics, capabilities at Lendingkart, was unaware of a college-specific job listing for a product manager role at the fintech firm. The company does not prefer any particular college, he told ETtech, adding that he does not look at every job posting. “At the end of the day, the hiring manager posts what he requires… But you know, if they have a specific reason, I wouldn’t say that that’s also a completely wrong thing to do. But it’s something that I should definitely look into and see why that was,” Bhatia, who takes the final call on hiring tech talent at Lendingkart, said. “So, I think it’s not right for companies to do that, and if it is the case, I will make sure that we don’t do it going forward, so thanks for bringing it to my attention.” Despite that, Lendingkart still had a product manager listing with “IIM/IIT/ISB/MDI/FMS (5-10 yrs)” in the title. “We are not very fussed about it. Maybe there is a junior guy who is posting it,” Bratindra Sanyal, head of human resources at Lendingkart, said about the new job listing. Most of its recent hires have been from non-tier I colleges, he said, even as he refused to elaborate on the practice of naming colleges in the job postings. According to UpGrad’s India CEO Arjun Mohan, adding college names to a job listing adds “aspirational value” and helps a company get the right candidate. “Other than the fact that the aspiration will be created, I don’t see any reason why we should do it,” Mohan said. “I believe…that we should look at people from various colleges equally, and we should give them a chance to show their skill-set more than anything else.” “More than the educational background, what has helped us hire better was exposing applicants to what they will eventually do (through assignments),” he said, when asked about UpGrad’s hiring practices. Mohan estimates that 40% of the edtech startup’s sta is from tier I colleges and the rest from tier II. As of November 27, UpGrad had two mid-level job listings that specified college names in the title. Mohan was unaware of them. A spokesperson for online cosmetics retailer Nykaa said it was an equal opportunity employer with a diverse workforce. Yolo Bus’ founder Shailesh Gupta said having IIM/IIT in a job listing helps spread the word and does not discourage candidates from other colleges. Yolo Bus has a standardized test for candidates that helps assess a candidate’s skills and remove pedigree bias, he said. Mobikwik denied subscribing to the practice of specifying names or recruiting only from top tier institutes for its mid-management roles. It did not provide ET with the mix of employees from tier I and tier II institutes in its middle management. NoBroker and Cars24 did not respond to emailed queries till press time Sunday. Recruitment portal iimjobs.com is the go-to-place for startups looking for mid and upper management roles from top schools in sectors such as banking, finance, and consulting. The website is packed with postings by startups and large conglomerates with college names such as IIT, BITS, IIM, XLRI, and other premium institutes in the headlines of the posting. Tarun Matta, the founder of the portal, said each company has its parameters for recruitment based on their “own biases and prejudices and mental models.” Only when the companies mention college names in the job description does the portal display them in the headlines of the listing, he said. “We as a platform are more like a channel to help you promote your listings. We don’t have a view on it,” Matta, who is an alumnus of IIM-Indore, said.

Global trends

Technology giants such as Google, IBM and Apple have eliminated the requirement for a college degree from their recruitment process. In 2017, IBM’s vice president of talent told CNBC that about 15% of the company’s US hires do not have a four-year degree. IBM was, instead, looking for “candidates who have hands-on experience via a coding boot camp or an industry-related vocational class.” One does not need a college degree to work, Tesla Inc founder Elon Musk tweeted earlier this year, in line with the growing global trend of skills-based hiring. In Europe, startups place a stronger emphasis on the personality of the person, their people management capabilities, and the cultural t, according to Nicolas Dumoulin, managing director, Michael Page India. Scarcity of talent and smaller volume of applications compared to India are the reasons for this flexible approach in both the US and Europe, he said.

Change Is Afoot

To be sure, a few Indian startups are mirroring the shift in global hiring trends. Early-stage e-commerce and travel startups and software services firms are moving away from pedigree-based hiring to competency-based recruitment for mid-career professionals in India. According to hiring experts, these firms are leveraging technology to expand their talent pool and budget their expenses. “They are the early adopters of this model, where we are able to diminish biases to a large extent (by) using AI/ML and that kind of technology,” said Devashish Sharma, a chief business officer at Taggd, a tech-driven recruitment solutions company that counts Swiggy, Oyo, Quikr, and Pfizer Inc among its clients. About 30% of the hiring for its clients is done this way. “I can tell you with confidence that there are people within tier-II — quite a large chunk, 20-30% — who are as good or, at times, even better (than their pedigreed counterparts),” he said. “It’s just that they perhaps did not get that education, that opportunity in the beginning. I’m confident over the next two years, you will see a huge change in the pattern.” While technology has also played a role in expanding access to quality education, the onus of being competitive rests on a prospective employee — irrespective of educational background, Sharma said. “With the constantly changing business dynamics, individuals need to continually upskill and reskill themselves to stay relevant in their jobs.”

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