This series, the Class of 2024, aims to simplify the way to navigate the world beyond the campus by talking about the sectors with opportunities, ways to use online platforms and preparing resumes, among other things.

This is the second part of a 10-part ‘Class of 2024‘ series.

For many young people, LinkedIn opens the pathway to build a professional network and a doorway to the world of formal jobs. The platform becomes an important port of call even for many students from colleges that offer placement assistance — LinkedIn profiles being resumes to apply for jobs; to network; to learn, upskill and more.

LinkedIn says that as of October 2023, the platform had 117 million members in India. And with Gen Z entering the workforce, there was a 73% year-over-year increase in student sign-ups.

While youngsters can take many actionable steps by using the platform, a couple are worth mentioning here: updating profiles with the right skill sets and using the “open to work” feature. These can enhance visibility to users’ profiles, helping them stand out in a hyper-competitive world.Globally, LinkedIn says, members have added over 595 million skills to their profiles in the 12 months ended September 2023, up 69% YoY. Adding relevant skills to the profiles can showcase youngsters to companies looking for certain traits. The “Open to Work” feature helps many professionals to find their next opportunity by telling recruiters they are looking for jobs, says LinkedIn. Globally, 28 million members have chosen to display this status on their LinkedIn profiles as of October 2023.Read Part 1 of the series here: Job trends that will rule the 2024 placement season

Freshers would definitely find these features helpful to land a job if they can play on their natural strengths. “Gen Z stands out for their eagerness and adaptability. They exhibit a natural curiosity and readiness to adjust to new challenges, actively seeking to broaden their skill sets to open up diverse economic opportunities,” says Nirajita Banerjee, Senior Managing Editor and Career Expert, LinkedIn India.

She says Gen Z is embracing non-linear career paths, where networking and learning are key, more than others. “The trend towards non-linear career paths is evident in their engagement patterns on LinkedIn, where they frequently network and acquire new, soft, transferable skills more than any other generation.”

Emerging job opportunities for freshers

Data available with LinkedIn shows that those entering the job market for the first time will see opportunities vary according to their educational degrees.

Here is a look at the jobs based on education, according to LinkedIn data:

For bachelor’s degree holders:

• Top industries: Financial services, administrative and support services, technology, information and media, and accommodation
• Fast growing jobs: Risk consultant, investment manager, and finance administrator
• Fast growing functions: Product management, human resources, military and protective services, and consulting
• Top cities hiring for top roles: Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune for software engineer; Hyderabad, Pune, Bengaluru for system engineer; Pune, Hyderabad, Chennai for programming analyst

For those without a bachelor’s degree:

• Top industries: Administrative and support services, accommodation, and financial services
• Fast growing jobs: Placement coordinator, user interface designer, and application engineer
• Fast growing functions: Human resources, finance, consulting
• Top cities hiring for top roles: Bengaluru, Pune, Delhi for software engineer; Delhi, Mumbai, Pune for graphic designer; Mumbai, Delhi, Pune for civil engineer

MBA graduates:

• Top industries: Utilities; oil, gas, and mining; accommodation; and technology, information and media
• Fast growing functions: Product management, consulting, program and project management
• Fast growing jobs: Technology associate, catalog specialist, and business integration analyst
• Top cities hiring for top roles: Delhi, Bengaluru, Pune for human resources executive; Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi for recruiter; Bengaluru, Delhi, Chennai for business analyst

Green skills are on the rise

The share of green talent on LinkedIn has increased 12% YOY since February 2022, while paid job postings on the platform that require green skills increased by 5% YOY. The top 5 green skills in India are carbon footprinting, sustainability reporting, environmental law, sustainability consulting and radiation safety.

The industries leading green transformation are farming, ranching, forestry, and construction. These have the highest growth of green talent share. Oil, gas and mining industries also have a high share of green talent and high year-over-year growth.

Electric vehicle skills among Indian auto workers experienced an increase in demand from 2018 to 2023; 5.1% of auto workers in the country now have EV skills based on LinkedIn skills data.

Financial services, technology, and information & media industries show lower green talent shares but high year-over-year growth.

AI careers

Apart from these, a trend taking root firmly across industries is the use of artificial intelligence (AI). This technology is seeing growing adoption at work.

In India, job posts mentioning AI or generative AI have more than doubled (2.5x) in the last two years on LinkedIn. Applications for posts with AI or generative AI have grown by 2.1x over the same period, compared with the growth of job posts that don’t mention AI.

The recognition of AI’s importance in improving career prospects is high, with 60% of all workers and 71% of Gen Z professionals in India from LinkedIn data acknowledging that acquiring AI skills could enhance their career opportunities.

India’s Gen Z professionals are the most interested in acquiring AI skills than their older counterparts — 1.3x more than Gen X and 2.4x more than Baby Boomers. Skills that Gen Z professionals are acquiring programming languages, data science, spreadsheets, cloud computing and data analysis. Specifically, millennials (79%) and Gen Z (68%) professionals agree that AI, by reducing their workload, will help them achieve greater work-life balance.

As AI gains traction, soft skills are gaining more prominence and will remain irreplaceable. Millennial and Gen Z professionals agree that human skills like creativity, time management, problem solving, among others, will become increasingly important as AI tools become more widely used at work.

But recruiters should remember that Gen Z is looking for other things too. “Beyond skills and agility, Gen Z values authenticity in their professional lives. When job hunting, they look beyond the role, compensation and benefits. They prioritise alignment with their employer’s values. They express themselves more openly at work, even discussing pay with close colleagues, signalling a shift in workplace dynamics. Gen Z’s approach is effectively rewriting the workplace rulebook, nodding towards a promising future of work,” Banerjee adds.