Chinmayee S
BANGALORE: 'Freshers need not apply'. Engineering graduates from various colleges would have encountered these dreaded words during the last 20 months. But with both MNCs and Indian IT services companies calling for freshers again, things are looking up for job seekers.
A look at IT companies who are hiring now.
Company
Number of people it’s hiring
Infosys
At least 1000 in this quarter
Has hired at least 1000 every quarter. 1800 employees in 2nd quarter
TCS
5000 this year
Has hired approximately 3000 candidates per year
Wipro
1000 people this year, of whom at least 500 would be freshers
At least 1000 every year
Talisma
At least 50 developers
51 developers out of which 38 were freshers.
Oracle
At least 1000 this year
Has hired at least 1000 candidates every year
Kanbay
At least 700 this year
Plans to hire more next year.
Hexaware
50 candidates this quarter
20 to 30 candidates per quarter
SAP Labs India
250 engineers this year
Despite the slowdown, hiring was on in the last 20 months. Hiring to step up now.
Cognizant
1,500-2000
Has cut down on campus hiring from 70% to 30%.
Satyam
2000 professionals of which at least 500 entry level
Apart from these, companies such as Mahindra British Telecom, IBM Global Services, and Intel India have also announced hiring plans. Companies have almost cleared the 'campus backlog'. During the years of the slowdown, there was much acrimony between the student community and HR departments of IT companies when some failed to honor appointment letters given to students.
However, companies say that those problems have been set right now and some, like TCS, claim to have continued to recruit and honor letters of appointment which it had sent out to college campuses even during the height of the IT slowdown. Hiring through employee referrals is also on the rise. Companies such as Mindtree and Oracle have relied on employee referrals (apart from campus recruitment) for hiring freshers.
What has caused the turnaround? Large outsourcing projects. Infosys, TCS, Satyam have added a number of clients this year. 'We believe that large outsourcing deals are on their way and are an indication of strong volume growth going forward', said Infosys when it announced its quarterly results. Hexaware has won a Rs 110-crore order in Germany and so the recruitment drive.
Despite the hiring spree, the slowdown has made companies more cautious in their approach to hiring freshers. Companies such as Cognizant, for example, have reversed their fresher:experienced ratio from 70:30 to 30:70. Kanbay too has recruited 500 candidates, out of which only 30% are freshers.
Aztec has hired over 70 developers this year but no freshers – only candidates above 3.5 years experience. 'Since it has been need based recruitment, we have recruited only experienced candidates', says Girish Nair, VP, Global HR, Aztec software.
Will the future see a measured increase or a huge spike in IT recruitment? 'In IT Solutions - it will be a measured increase', says Geetanjali Khatri , Head – India Recruitment, Kanbay Inc. 'Hiring is expected to increase in IT. But BPO will see exponential growth', says HR Director, Anurag Shrivastava.
Recent Gartner surveys predict that there will be an increase in both IT services and ITES projects outsourced to India. More projects, means more jobs and engineering students on the job-hunt now have reason to cheer.
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