Close to 80% of job seekers have stated that they would be likely to leave their job if a technology-based issue occurred at the company for which they work.

With the turn of a new decade, the IT sector in India has witnessed some interesting job trends that have shaped the industry in the past years and will continue to do so in the near future. In terms of job seeker expectations in the tech space, STEM-related (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) job roles in India have been among the most promising, as these job openings have seen consistent growth in the past three years with a 44% increase in job postings.

As the current tech workforce largely comprises millennials and Gen Z, the expectations and sentiments of job seekers in this age group are highly aligned with transparency and flexibility. Organizations that have a transparent work culture, providing constructive and effective feedback, have garnered increasing job seeker interest and attention. Bearing this in mind, another keenly observed trend in the sector is the growing intolerance towards sexual harassment at the workplace, with 87% of women opining that they would be likely to leave their job if a gender-based scandal such as sexual harassment, bias in hiring, etc. occurred at the company for which they work, with 82% of men in agreement. Similarly, a study by Indeed shows 95% of respondents said that if their company was transparent about the issue in question and made attempts to correct it, they would be more likely to stay at their job.

Owning to the digital nature of business today, data security has become a topic of growing interest across industry stakeholders. Close to 80% of job seekers have stated that they would be likely to leave their job if a technology-based issue such as data breach, product failure, etc. occurred at the company for which they work. However, only a little over 10% of respondents said they were less eager to work in the tech industry as a result of public offences such as data breaches, sexual harassment exposures, disingenuous privacy practices, and so on.

With an emphasis on work culture and transparency, job seekers are becoming increasingly reliant on company reviews and ratings in order to match their expectations with available listings. Judging by the general sentiment towards STEM jobs and workplace hygiene, job seekers are slowly but surely riding the tech trend wave to find the best opportunities in the field.

The future of work is becoming increasingly reliant on STEM roles; and job opportunities in the field go beyond traditional engineering roles. Data from Indeed indicates that roles such as web optimization specialist (78%), dsp engineer (71%) and database specialist (69%) remain hard to fill. User experience director (63%), senior computer scientist (60%), senior staff engineer (59%) and biostatistician (59%) are also some roles that are included in the list of hard to fill roles, followed by computer scientist (58%), principal software engineering manager (56%) and principal product manager (55%). This indicates that while there is ample opportunity to explore work, there might be a lag in terms of the skills required to fulfil these roles.

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