IT service firms get picky with campus recruitments

HYDERABAD: IT service companies are adopting a selective approach in campus recruitment drives being held in engineering colleges. 

Apart from cutting down the number of institutions visited, firms have reduced job offers to final year students by almost 40 to 50 per cent when compared to previous years. 

No notable change is observed when it comes to IT-product companies and core-manufacturing companies that have been frequenting colleges in the past. 

These software firms are scouting for meritorious talent mostly in the CSE and ECE branches. The state-run JNTU and Osmania University Engineering College are an exception, with students from mechanical and civil branches also given a chance. 

The shift towards an automation process, restrictions on H-1B visas by the US government and an increased focus on technology, students with knowledge of the latest IT technologies are some of the reasons attributed to this development. 

Mr Srikanth Srinivasan, Nasscom regional director for TS, said that IT companies were interested in students who have knowledge of data analytics, who are internet-savvy, keen on machine learning, artificial intelligence (AI), cyber security etc.

“Nasscom is constantly in touch with the the TS Council for higher education, to ensure that students are taught about these new areas. Having worked with the leading colleges, we hope to increase the count to at least 50 top colleges next year, so that college-freshers are industry ready,” he said. 

Mr Srikanth feels that IT companies don’t have the luxury of recruiting freshers and training them for six months or so, like in the past. “They want freshers with some knowledge of recent technologies before joining, so that they can be quickly assigned responsibilities in just two months,” he said. 

Prof. Umamaheshwar Rao, chief placement officer in Osmania University Engineering College, said that special workshops on specialisations like internet, data analytics, artificial intelligence were conducted for final year students. 
He said that out of the 320 BE final year students, nearly 250 received campus job offers so far. 

While service companies have slowed down on their recruitments, IT product  companies and core- manufacturing companies are going on with their business as usual, just like the previous years. 

Freshers recruited by service companies are being offered a salary package of '3 lakh to '3.5 lakh, product companies are recruiting students with an annual pay-package of '9 lakh to '10 lakh.