Why can’t we bag top slots?

Chennai: The annual campus recruitment in engineering colleges has begun. And it is not only students who are keeping their fingers crossed.  Across the state, tier-two and tier-three colleges are finding ways to woo companies to visit their campuses and ensure a good shot at a decent job for their students.

While campus recruitment from bigger, well known establishments has been happening quite organically for years,  principals of several colleges in the state talk about the hardships they go through in bringing in big companies.

“The difficult part is the tier-one companies demand large number of eligible students from tier-two and tier-three colleges. Whereas, we really don’t have that many students,” said A. Sevuka Moorthy, placement director of Mahendra group of institutions. He said there is a huge gap between tier-one companies and tier-two colleges. These companies also should associate with these colleges.

While HR managers of private companies believe that since they make commitment with tier-one colleges and it becomes difficult to add a new college in their list, as they don’t find the features they look for in these institutions, they are reluctant to visit such colleges.

S. Vijay Kumar, placement in-charge of Angel College of Engineering, said in tier-two colleges, students’ plus-2 cut off is very low. So companies neglect them. There are large number of tier-two colleges. So they hesitate to consider these colleges, because of poor infrastructure and lack of faculty. Explaining the scenario why it is difficult to get the tier one companies, he said during 2008 due to the economic boom, the colleges, which got into the bandwagon are the ones who get these companies regularly.

“These are the large campuses regularly visited by the big five companies. As they are used to visiting these campuses even if performance by students would be a little down, these companies would still visit these campuses.”

Further, he described that even after adding value to students, conducting placement-training programmes and spending a lot of resources on it, when big companies are approached, they are already committed to tier-one colleges.

“They want 200 to 300 eligible students as well as they will ask for pool drive from nearby colleges. It is very difficult to get students from nearby colleges. We have to prove them we have good students. Last year 180 eligible candidates were placed, but a very few in tier-one companies,” he said.

On the contrary, M. Mahendran, placement director of JJ College of Engineering in Trichy, said big companies look for quality of infrastructure, faculty and students. “It depends on the networking the placement officers can make. Our college is 30 years old. We have made a fantastic network with the top companies. So, last year we had more than 60 per cent placement.”

He said most of the tier-two and three colleges don’t have proper placement system. They don’t retain the same placement officer for years. As a result, the networking with these companies is not strong.

“They don’t find appropriate person for this post. Consistency is very much required in such departments,” he said. Caroline Swaraj, HR manager, Latent View Company, said  that the main reason for visiting tier one colleges is that the top talent can be very easily found in these places. “The tier-one colleges have selection process to admit the eligible candidates. This vouches that the students have high aptitude which is developed over the years given the infrastructure and other facilities which gives access to quality learning,” she said.

Further she said already a commitment has been made with these colleges. When a new college is added to the list they look for similar features like that of tier one colleges. “Since for the past several years we have been recruiting students from IIT and NITs and a few reputed regional campuses and we make commitment with these colleges, adding a new college becomes difficult.”

She said in today’s scenario, students are expected to know beyond their academics. “When it comes to smartness and communication skills, students in tier-two or three colleges lack it,” she said.

Dhivik A, executive director of Go Green, a start-up company said when it comes to tier-two and tier-three colleges, the knowledge is not too high. But they are very hard working and eager to learn.

“The only problem they have is in communication, otherwise, the quality of students is good. We brush up their skills. They are very willing and eager to learn. Sometimes, they are on a par with or better than tier-one college students,” he said.

He further added he did not want to compare with IIT and NIT students as they enter the institution through a very tough entrance examination. But he explained that four to five students from tier one college are better than one IITian. “If an IIT student leaves that post, then there is an imbalance to the entire system. But if one of the four students leave the post the rest three or four students will be there to save it from imbalance,” he said.

Chennai topper yet to get job

S. Yogeshwaran, 22, is the first graduate in his family. But the Madurai engineer is still unemployed, after passing with 73.6 per cent this year in electrical and electronics engineering course.  

Recounting his ordeal in getting a job he said during campus placement, he managed just a Rs 5,000 package. Yogeshwaran, son of a tailor, studied in Latha Mathavan Engineering College in Madurai, which is a tier II college. During campus recruitment only four small companies came for placement, which provided a maximum package of Rs 10,000.

Yogeshwaran said four companies Kreative Dreams, Apptiv O solution, Diacritech Technology and Smart Training Reserves. “The highest pay was by Apptiv O with Rs 9, 500. I got Diacritech, which offered only Rs 5,000. I didn't take it up because they wanted us to sign a bond for two years when  they will pay us only Rs 5,000," said Yogeshwaran. Like him,  his friends also dropped the offer.

Nearly 400 students appeared for the recruitment process but only 30 got placement. He further said Smart offered Rs 8,500 and Rs 15,000 after confirmation. Since he felt let down by his college, as it could not bring the best of the companies, he through an employability bridge programme recently got placed in a multi-national firm with'40,000 as starting salary; but that too failed because the company withdrew his confirmation. Despite standing first in his college in the department of electrical and electronics, he is still unemployed.