Academic performance and background – To what extent should it be considered to offer a job

Recently I got an e-mail from the HR manager requesting me to accept a meeting invite for a one on one interview with her as part of my induction process into the organization on a permanent basis. When we met the very first question I was asked was to tell about myself right from my class X as to when I cleared it and with what percentage. So I started and immediately she was taken aback when she learnt that in class X my percentage was a meager 46.4%. She asked for an explanation as to why my performance in class X was less than 50%. To which I told her that at school I was average at studies. Having said so I immediately wanted to ask her, “Was I selected for this position on the basis of my X class percentage or based on the performance of my technical interview?” However I asked her the same question in a different manner. I asked her what my class X marks had to do with the induction process something which I cleared 15 years ago. To which she replied saying it was a company policy that one has to have at least 50% of marks throughout ones academic career. Not at all satisfied with her reply I again questioned her but why class X which is in no way related to the job I do? And I am not even a fresher. I would say even for a fresher you are not supposed to take class X marks into account and not even class XII, definitely not when the job is in no way related to your education at class X and XII. She then replied saying we are relaxing this policy in your case because you have more than 60% in the remaining of your educational career. But the fact is that there is a need for experienced professional for the project I am in and hence she has relaxed the policy.
However in this article I would like to focus as to why corporate India looks for an academic performance right from class X while recruiting a person be it a fresher or an experienced pro? Not only do they ask for consistent educational track record but in many cases they ask only for engineers even if the job profile is such that which can be done by any one from non-engineering background. In India it has become a notion that IT jobs can be done only by engineers which is not true in many cases. Also the recruiters clearly mention in some of the job advertisement that diploma holders need not apply. Now what sin have these diploma holders committed to bar them from not applying for an IT job? Indians have this wrong notion that engineers are best suitable for any technical work, then preference is given to graduates from other disciplines and least preference is given to diploma holders.
If consistent academic track record is one way to filter the candidates at an interview then in my opinion it is definitely not a good tool to filter. I would go to the extent of saying that companies that do not consider candidates with less than 50% in X class are practicing academic discrimination. There are many companies in India that practice this kind of academic discrimination and one such company is Infosys. I still have the e-mail from Infosys which clearly mentions that your application cannot be considered as your class X percentage is less than 50%. Agreed that one has to have consistent academic track record but why discriminate on the basis of something which has hardly got anything to do with the job one is doing? At this point I would like to mention the discrimination which Mrs. Sudha Murthy was subjected to when she had applied for TELCO after completing her engineering. Many of you must be aware that she was rejected when she applied for TELCO on the basis of being a woman as the TATAs then recruited only men at TELCO. When she wrote to them complaining of gender bias, she was invited for an interview and was selected based on her performance in the interview and of course on her exceptional academic track record. In my case even I shot an e-mail to the HR department at Infosys but I never got any reply. So Mrs. Sudha Murthy if you ever happen to read this article then please reconsider your company policy on not hiring people with less than 50%. I agree that you want crème de la crème for Infosys but please note that there are many gems among the five pointers too. I was reading this news article in the website http://www.siliconindia.com/blogs/ titled ‘To join Infosys, get 65% marks’ published on January 14th 2010 which says now they have raised the percentage level to 65% to be eligible to apply at Infosys. Check this article to read the comments of likeminded people like me who share a similar opinion.
In America for instance there are many natural American citizens working for Indian companies like Infosys, Wipro, TCS to name a few. Do our Indian companies while recruiting these natural Americans ask for their marks memos right from Year XII which is their equivalent of Class X? Definitely not. Then why practice such double standards and show a bipartisan attitude in India?
My argument is that when I have done the same job for more than two years in a previous company and when the technical panel in my prospective company interviewed me on my past experience and not based on my class X performance then why does the HR have a problem in recruiting me just because my class X percentage is less than 50%. On top of this the HR uses this as one of the criteria to decide my salary. Now I think this is not fair at all. If you really want to see my educational track record then check it from my graduation or post graduation which is related to the job I am doing. Does the HR think that people with less than 50% are fit only to do sales job and not good for any other jobs as shown in the recent Bollywood flick Rocket Singh – salesman of the year.
In X class one is only 14 years old and not everyone is mature enough to understand the Mathematics and Science. Over a period of time we evolve and tend to perform better. Similarly in my case also after class X I opted for arts and commerce and secured 74% in class XII and I have maintained a consistency of over 65% ever since. Our Indian education system especially until the ‘90s was still to rote and learn unlike the western way where it’s more practical oriented. Well it’s entirely a different debate topic as both have their own merits and demerits. But the point I am trying to make here is that not everyone is comfortable with this rote based learning. Because most of the times the student might be repeating along with teacher but his mind might be wandering somewhere else. As shown brilliantly by Aamir Khan in his movie ‘Taare Zameen Par’ the main protagonist of the movie Ishaan Awasthi’s academic performance improves after Aamir Khan starts teaching him in a practical manner instead of teaching him with the books in a classroom. By mugging one might get the desired marks but to what extent he has grasped the concept is known in the real word when he comes to do the work. A classic example of a person who rose to great heights inspite of securing just 45% in class X is Mr. Sunil Handa, founder of Eklavya Education Foundation. Because of the nature of his father’s job he could never study at one school for a long time until class X. He joined Hyderabad Public School in class XI where he got the right direction and guidance from his teachers and in class XII was one of the toppers in ICSE board throughout the country. From here there was no looking back for him, who gained admission into BITS Pilani and then into IIM Ahemadabad. Imagine a person like Mr. Sunil Handa who would apply for a job in today’s competitive world at any of our IT companies then he would be rejected straightaway just because he failed to secure at least 50% in class X. For me this is not fair and this has to change.
One cannot predict a person’s efficiency at work based on the marks he/she has secured in class X or class XII. People also tend to become smart over a period of time by observing others and the company they grow in makes them to adapt to changing situations. There are many instances where the distinction holders have failed to perform well at work. According to a survey by Business Week in 2005, 96% of India’s children enroll in primary school, by the age of 10 about 40% have dropped out and just over a third of high school students graduate. Which means out of every 100 high school students roughly over 33 students manage to clear class X and of these 33 students those who have secured less than 50% are forced to look into jobs in non IT sector when they finally hit to hunt for jobs. Ours is a country where a majority of students clear their X and XII in villages and towns where the infrastructural facilities in schools is bare minimum and the teaching standards are also not to the mark. The family background from where these students come is such that the parents are either not highly educated, or where only one of the parents is educated or even worse in many families their child is the first one to appear for class X in their entire generation. Also in many of these villages and towns the medium of instruction is the local language and not English. These students may score well in Maths and Science but their percentage comes down with their poor performance in subjects like English and Hindi. The average rural Indian student studies in the local vernacular medium until graduation. Then after completion of graduation they move to big towns or cities for post graduation. The sudden growth in the IT sector in the 1st decade of this century has seen many students opt for IT as a career path mainly because of the huge salaries that this sector offers irrespective of their educational background. Now if the job is something which is completely application oriented where one is expected to have a consistent academic track record then considering academic performance from class XII might seem relevant. But most of the jobs that we do here are support oriented jobs for which having good knowledge of the process is more than enough and which one can acquire during the training period. I like the concept in America very much where in they give a chance usually for 3 months and then if one cannot prove his worth he is politely asked to leave. They do not have restrictions based on marks or educational qualification for the normal IT jobs. I know people with diverse educational background working as software programmers. One of my friends graduated in B.A (Psychology) and his other subjects include American History, Mathematics, and Music. After graduation he worked for a retail chain for about 5 years then learnt SAP Sales and Distribution module as this was implemented at the company where he was working. From there on he moved into IT, ERP implementation and now works for one of the best ERP implementing companies in a senior management level. Can anyone in India who has Arts or Commerce background and having worked in Retail industry be expected to reach the senior management level in IT role in an IT company? That would be a rarity I believe. In India to reach such a position the management would first see if he has got an engineering degree or not and then delve into his educational track record. I think it’s high time that corporate India has to reconsider its hiring policy and give an equal opportunity to everyone based on a better practical evaluation rather than educational performance which has hardly got anything to do with the job for which one is being recruited for. One way to evaluate a candidate’s real knowledge is by making him appear for a system oriented practical test based on the skill he is being recruited to. To hire the quality talent better practical evaluation tests should be designed and candidates should be hired based on the performance in these tests. Say if you are hiring an experienced professional he should be practically evaluated on his skills rather than his academic percentage. Similarly if the company is hiring a fresher in Java or .NET then the practical test should be designed to the extent what the student had learnt in his degree or Java or .NET training course however some of the questions that one finds in these tests for freshers are lifted from RK Aggarwal’s competitive examination books.
We have one of the world’s largest workforces and to effectively utilize the potential of our workforce I think corporate India has to stop its partial attitude towards non engineering graduates and for the five pointers when the nature of the job is such that it can be done by any average graduate. Because there is no law in India which says that jobs in IT and ITES sectors are reserved only to those who have maintained a consistent academic record of 50% and only to engineers. Thanks to Mr. Kapil Sibal, union minister HRD for having initiated to scrap board examinations at class X level. The future generation won’t be subject to this kind of academic discrimination at least with their 10th standard marks if this practice were to still continue then.