Offer Salaries for skills, Not for the university attended.

This is a controversial topic. Many will blame me. Not every company is like this. But for the majority of companies in Sri Lanka, in the field of Information Technology, this is the bitter truth.

Racism, Sexism, and with all the other ‘isms, this too is a serious issue. Imagine yourself being very skilled in a certain technology with good prior experiences and being offered a lesser wage than a person from a state university who has less experience and half the knowledge, just because you did not attend a state uni.

Please note that I’m not demeaning the state uni students, the remuneration packages they are offered are absolutely worth it, given their potential and skillset. After all, it’s not easy getting selected to a state uni in the first place.

However, the problem lies for students who goes for private universities who has equal potential and sometimes more technical knowledge and experience on a certain technology. They get offered a lesser remuneration package compared with state uni students, purely based on the the university they attended, disregarding their skills and technical experience.

I recently spoke with a few of my friends who have faced this issue and most of them were really disappointed in this practice of some companies which I will not mention in this post. This will result in good employees who could be real assets to a company leaving, for a place where their worth and skill is acknowledged and paid accordingly.

Imagine, you doing all the hard work to get the degree, Have all the experience, up to date with the latest technology and still getting paid less for a person with lesser experience and technical knowledge just because of the university they attended. Imagine a situation where you have a private degree and a state uni person with a state degree is absolutely equal in every level to you. How would you feel if they get a higher wage than you? Equal pay is a serious issue in the industry, not being limited to IT only.

Imagine a person getting paid less just because they are black, or a woman getting paid less just because she is a woman. Imagine not being considered for a job just because you are from a minor race or religion in the country. When it comes to choosing candidates for a job, or setting remuneration packages, only factors that should be considered is their experience, technical knowledge and the skillset and potential determined through the interview panels. Anything other than this, like gender, skin color, religion, race, university attended should not become a deciding factor.

I hope this post would raise some awareness in upper managements of companies who practice this rule and start treating everyone equally with regard to their skillset rather than the university attended.

Clap and share this post to spread awareness if you feel the same way as I do.

Cheers!