India has recently surpassed US as the largest consumer market of smartphones. With the rising number of the digital native generation consumers this demand is only poised to grow further. Hardware plays a major role for us to stay connected with one another. High end laptops, HD cable and iPhones are found even in the most unsuspected parts of India.
The fact that market researchers do not check mobile phones while collecting information about SEC data due to their ubiquitous presence bears testament to this. We go to the fanciest malls to purchase these gadgets, but if anything goes wrong we visit the local handyman.
But on hearing the price of repair, very often one is often confused between repairing and simply buying a new device. A similar thought has been reflected in the career choices students are make when it comes to IT. There is an increase in the number of students wanting to learn app development and a drop in the number of students wanting to learn hardware, which is essentially the backbone of IT.
At present, our education system is heavily tilted in favour of software courses especially at the higher levels of education. This can be attributed to a large demand of entry level executives in the booming IT and ITes sector and as a result hardware has been largely neglected. System administration, animation and graphics, python, DBA, computing languages, SAS and cloud computing are some of the popular courses. Network security, desktop engineering and CCNA are popular courses that directly deal with hardware and networking.
Hardware and software have a stronger symbiotic relationship now than ever before. From old mobile phones to even cars, performance of hardware can be significantly improved with a simple software update to their computer control unit. For one to be successful IT, it is vital to have a thorough understanding of what we one is ‘programming’ for it to actually be effective.
With the government initiatives in motion to set up smart cities and firms warming up to digitisation, experts are bullish on the market hiring. However, considering the statistics, a massive crunch in the number of skilled hardware professionals required is expected.
With automation sweeping in changes in the industry, a candidate having holistic and in depth knowledge in both Hardware and Software domains will be an invaluable asset for organizations to invest in and create revolutionary products and services for the next generation.