Indonesian employers expect entry-level talent to have digital skills: LinkedIn

• 22% employers expect entry-level candidates to be computer literate
• Increased demand for skills in STEM as companies go digital

WITH nine million members in Indonesia, LinkedIn revealed that students and young professionals are one of the highest growth drivers for the platform in this country.

Referring to a recent survey conducted by LinkedIn, titled “Dream Jobs” that shows how average youth prefer to choose a job that is in line with their passion, LinkedIn Asia Pacific managing director and vice president Olivier Legrand says that 58% of youth choose another career path, 29% working in a related field, and only 13% live their childhood dreams.

“Young people must be able to create their identity, build their network, and know what is important in the industry that they prefer. The most important thing is to learn new skills,” says Legrand.

He says that the demand for technology-related skills and knowledge has greatly increased. In fact, the top three in-demand skills of each top-hired occupation are influenced by technology and digital intelligence.

According to the “Insights from LinkedIn in Emerging Markets of Brazil, India, Indonesia, and South Africa” report, the top three in-demand skills are those for salespersons, marketing specialists, and software developers.

Skills for salesperson include enterprise software, cloud computing, and big data while those for marketing specialists include customer insight, trade marketing, and brand management and development.

Software developers need to have skills in Ruby on Rails (Rails is a web application development framework written in the Ruby language), spring framework, and mobile applications.

Compared to India and South Africa, in Indonesia, digital disruption across industries results in rapid change, creating a need for adaptable skills.

The report shows that 22% of employers in Indonesia expect entry-level candidates to be computer literate. Only 4.29% of employers in India, and 20.46% in South Africa have the same expectations.

Other expectations are soft skills and job-specific technical skills.

Go-Jek vice president Dayu Dara Permata feels that the positive development of the digital world in Indonesia has increased the demand for skills in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) in various industry sectors in order to launch digital transformation and expand its utilisation.

“This development also urges students who will enter the workforce and young professionals in the same field as well as other fields, to improve their skills and continue to develop and update their knowledge, in order to be able to follow the flow of industry and heavier competition locally and globally.”

LinkedIn research also shows that Jakarta is the fourth most connected city on LinkedIn behind London in the UK, San Francisco in the US and Amsterdam in the Netherlands.

Legrand says this is a good indicator of the value Indonesians place on the importance of networks.

Finding the right path

Legrand explains that a story-telling portfolio will become the means to penetrate the employment market.

In an increasingly globalised environment, professionals are no longer competing on a country scale. Young people should focus on what success means to each of them, since success means different things to different people.

“Find your own definition of success to determine how you are going to realise your success,” says Legrand.

“The second is be confident. You have a lot of assets, and you still have a lot of opportunities before you. And then find an organisation that is aligned with your values.”

Legrand encourages young people to use learning and development tools to upscale their skills.

Bukalapak founder and chief executive officer Achmad Zaky feels that the younger generations are the ones who can compete in a digital world because they adapt fast to change.

“We are not competing locally, but also globally. It’s important to elevate that one skill that we only have and focus on it.”

Achmad thinks that internet is an “eye-opening” tool that can enable young people to access more employment opportunities and this, in turn, could encourage companies to “take care” of their staff.

Go-Jek’s Dayu says that young people should challenge themselves by grabbing every opportunity and learning.

“Think of it as life-long learning where you have to learn every day and work hard.”

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