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Campus recruitment
looks up once more
After the spectre of selective hiring in the IT industry last year as firms grappled with the shock of a demand slowdown in the global tech market and backlash against outsourcing, its recruitment time again for software makers. Placement officials at top engineering colleges in India’s tech capital, Bangalore, are quoting double the usual number of campus placements in the third week of recruitment and a "lot more companies, including multinationals, are yet to come in", as one of them put it. The officials are keeping tight schedules as companies led by the likes of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Infosys Technologies, Wipro, Cognisant, Satyam Computer, Talisma and MindTree, along with multinationals like Huawei Technologies, IBM and Oracle, line up to offer letters for the batch passing out in 2004. By the third week of September the figures were exciting, and the process was still on. "We should be doubling our number this year. TCS has already recruited 50 as against 35-40 of last year, Infosys has taken 76 against 34 last year, Cognisant has taken 38 as against 16 last year. "This is the most positive sign in the last couple of years," Chandrasekhar Murthy, placement officer, R.V. Engineering College, told IANS. "A couple of multinationals are to fix up the dates but their participation has been confirmed," added Murthy. Industry officials—a couple of whom agreed to speak on condition of anonymity because this is the silent period before the second quarter results are out—agree that campus recruitments indicate more offshore work flowing to India. "Let us be straight about this. The industry had taken a very conservative approach on this in the last couple of years. The difference now is that there is a cautious optimism that is making companies go to the campus," an official at the human resource department of a top company said. "Companies are also going to the campus because they are getting a good crop. Campus recruitment helps in grooming people. Campus brings in energy and culture into a company. We want them to grow along with the company. And it cuts the cost of recruitment," said T.G.C. Prasad of MindTree Consulting. The cautious form of recruitment has led to conservative offerings to the engineer-to-be. Companies like Infosys and Wipro are offering Rs10,000 during the training period before deciding to offer a concrete package. Others are offering an
average of Rs 240,000 to Rs 300,000 per annum. "There is no doubt that there is higher activity in the industry. It is only indicative of a more sustainable trend as of now," said a senior human resource department official of another company. "But in the long run
whether it is sustainable and for how long depends upon various factors.
Fortunately, so far it has been good and that is why deliberate but
cautious hiring is happening." — IANS |
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IN
a sign of continuing large-scale outsourcing to India by global
corporations, a host of local IT firms are rushing to pick up larger
than usual number of students from engineering colleges this year.