IT companies to visit campuses in the final semester only

Previously before getting in to the last year of college the students used to got placed in the companies during campus hiring but this year the scenario has changed.

The biggest recruiters and the most preferred companies amongst the students in colleges is the IT industry, has decided that they will visit campuses only in the final semester which means students have to study hard even in their last year.

Earlier most of the IT companies used to do hiring at least a year or so before graduation which made easy for the students to take it easy in their final year.

Som Mittal, president of software industry body Nasscom informed, “All our member companies have unanimously taken this decision. The change is not only for this year, it is permanent”. Also there is no chance of change in decision taken by Nasscom is even though demand picks up. Indeed, the trend is likely to catch up even with companies other than IT industry.

Nasscom has sent a letter to industry associations, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), which have in line circulated the message among their members.

In 2008-09 the IT industry had hired 2,26,614 people, but the number was much higher in the previous year to around 3,89,000 people. In the last few quarters of 2008-09 and in the current year due to slowdown there has been less recruitments in the industry and also the freshers are being given extended joining dates. Due to uncertainty in demand IT firms are finding difficulty in predicting how many employees they will be requiring to meet their future requirements.

On the other hand students who have graduated in 2008 and have been selected by the companies are still waiting for joining the companies as uncertain demand made difficult for the companies to predict the exact number of employees they will require in the coming year.

Ajoy Mukherjee, Global Head - Human Resources, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) pointed out, “WE felt it would be better if we go to campuses in the eighth semester when we would be in a better position to understand what the demand would be”.

TCS usually have an annual interaction with the heads of some of the top management and engineering colleges informed the colleges have agreed to their decision.

Mr Mukherjee said, “That’s the kind of feedback we were getting from the institutes also. They felt students tend to relax once they have got a job and focus less on studies. Trainee offers were being done a year in advance. For example, the students we made offers to last year will be joining us this year”.

Infosys Technologies board member and director-human resources, Mohandas Pai stated, “It is better for the companies and for the students”. He told Infosys has informed about its decision to all the 500-600 colleges it generally visits. He said, “I cannot comment on how many colleges we will exactly visit. All I can say is that the colleges are happy”.

Mr Mittal, informed that generally companies have been hiring almost three years ahead of demand as they visit the campuses in the fifth semester (around the third year) of engineering.

After the students complete graduation, approximately it takes one year before they actually become productive as they have to undergo training before they can handle any client projects efficiently.