Placements: slowdown blues persist

Updated on: Tuesday, August 11, 2009

If one is to take a hint from the signals emanating from the Indian IT industry, campus hiring activity by software companies in the last leg of 2009 is likely to be dull. The impact of the global financial slowdown continues to reverberate across the IT sector dampening expectations that the hiring prospects will brighten up this year.

According to the latest industry estimates, the chances of a revival in the recruitment of freshers are likely to emerge only by the first half of 2010. IT major Infosys Technologies has already announced that it will start campus recruitment across the country beginning January 2010.

S. Gopalakrishnan, CEO and managing director of Infosys Technologies, had recently said that the company had skipped campus recruitment in view of the global slowdown. He said recruitment and expansion would begin early next year and that the economy too will start looking up by the second quarter of 2010.

The company has also enhanced the present training of freshers from three-and-a-half months to six months. Gopalakrishnan said previously the freshers were put on training in one technology but now they are training in two technologies.

The economic slowdown has also forced companies to modify their recruitment plans. IT companies, such as TCS and Wipro Technologies, are now looking to push campus recruitments closer to the pass-out date.

Earlier companies used to visit campuses to recruit in the fourth or fifth semester. They will now do it only in the seventh or eighth semester. The aim is to do real time talent management. HR officials hope that it will enable them to better match hiring needs with actual demand. The move will also help companies reduce the bench strength and increase utilisation. The National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM), the premier trade body and the chamber of commerce of the IT-BPO industries, recently sent a communication to industry associations, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), saying that companies need to visit campuses only in the final semester.

Som Mittal, President of the association, said that companies were hiring almost three years ahead of demand as they were visiting campuses in the fifth semester of engineering. Students required approximately one year before they become productive, as they have to undergo training before being assigned any client projects. Organisations like the NASSCOM had pointed out that students were taking it easy, as they had received job placements a year before passing out from the campus. The IT industry hopes that the decision to hire only during the final semester will force students to work hard to secure good grades.

Admitting that the slowdown has affected the overall sentiment in campus recruitment in the State, Bindu V., placement officer and faculty member of Model Engineering College in Kochi, said that some companies have promised students that they will be taken on board by September. A few companies might absorb students only by 2010, she said.

Explaining that non-IT sector players including banking and telecommunication services were visiting campuses even in times of the slowdown, P.M. Joy, Chief Co-ordinator, Placement and Training, Matha College of Technology in Ernakulam, said that companies in these sectors were ready to recruit B.Tech. students interested in openings like technical support, business associates and development executives. Many students including techies had turned up for the recruitment held on the campus recently, as the number of openings in all sectors had gone down following the financial slowdown, Prof. Joy said.

Young techies are also scouting for job openings to beat the recession blues. B.Tech. graduates in Kochi term the jobs in start-ups, as ‘decent and comfortable’. Sruthi Ravindran, a graduate in information technology, said that start-ups offer up to Rs.3 lakh a year for the best candidate. “At the entry-level, the salary offered is often similar to the pay packet offered by the leading companies,” she said.

Shilpa Vasudevan, a Computer Science engineering student, said she had already applied for openings in start-ups based in Kochi. “I have no other option but to switch gear and look for placements in start-ups. Hopes of a revival in the recruitment scene seen are minimal. I have started getting response from a few start-ups in the State,” she said.

The young techies also find the atmosphere in start-ups, as ‘creative and challenging’. Joseph Mathew, who joined a start-up recently, said that his boss offered him full freedom to come up with creative ideas. “There is no tension. Work is rewarded and you are not always under stress,” he said.

But a few IT companies are exploiting the grim situation by demanding money for recruitment from young techies. Students, who do not want to reveal their identity and the company’s name, told The Hindu-EducationPlus that some of the companies in Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram were demanding money ranging between Rs.25,000 and Rs.1 lakh for recruitment.

Beena Varghese (name changed), an engineering graduate, received an attractive offer from a start-up firm but with a condition. “I was asked to pay Rs.25,000 before taking up the job. They told me that the money would be used for training. But I told them that I was familiar with the operating platform. It was also made clear that I would not like to pay the advance amount. They called me thrice but I did not respond,” she said.

Manoj Mathew, who passed out of engineering course in 2008, said, “A local IT company tried to create an atmosphere that the recruitment will be based on merit. And to prove their point, they gave me an aptitude test followed by a technical test and an interview. Finally, they told me that I could not clear the technical. But assured me a seat, if I was ready to pay Rs.40,000,” he said

Realising that the job scene will improve only by 2010, many B.Tech. graduates are busy updating their profiles by taking up higher studies and quality improvement programmes.

Several students have opted for MBA programmes assuming that the openings in financial and marketing areas will see a spurt once the hard times are over. Prathap Nair, a B. Tech. (Mechanical Engineering) graduate in Kochi, has opted for a management programme in IIM, Kozhikode.

“I opted for the programme, as there was no point in joining a company in these tough times. My profile will improve once I complete the management programme successfully,” he said.

Engineering graduates have also enrolled for coaching programmes for various tests conducted by organisations in the Central and State government sectors. The general mood is that these sectors offer job guarantee even though the payment does not match the offers given by private companies.

Students also pointed out that they can always opt for an opening in an IT company, with the passing of these turbulent times.

Placements: slowdown blues persist

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