Fewer students selected for jobs; recruiters give lower-rung institutions a miss
With IT companies recruiting merely 50 per cent of aspirants at placement drives, the season looks very bleak for final-year engineering students.
Campus recruitment at colleges in and around the city began early this week. The two major recruiters, as usual, were TCS and Cognizant. TCS roped in students from SRM University, Rajalakshmi Engineering College and RMK Engineering College. “Except at SRM, the company recruited just 200 students from the other two colleges. Last year, it recruited over 450 from these campuses,” said a placement director.
At SRM, TCS recruited 858 students as compared to 1,231 last year. “TCS, as a matter of policy, does not share slots, while Cognizant has been sharing first day slots with Capgemini and Wipro this year. We have to look for at least six more companies to get our students placed,” said a placement officer of a private college.
Earlier this week, Cognizant recruited students from St. Joseph’s College of Engineering and Panimalar Engineering College but the numbers, again, were much lesser than last year. While some colleges are worried over fewer offers, many others, with no accreditation from companies, have not received any intimation of slots.
“While the top 15 colleges can expect 85 per cent placement, the lesser-known ones find it difficult to place even 40 per cent of the students,” said the principal of a college in Ramapuram.
Students say the pattern of aptitude tests, too, has changed. “We prepared for the regular format comprising questions on time and distance, and probability among others. Instead, we got puzzles, sudoko, crossword, twisters, mind teasers and analytical questions,” a student said. The interviews too, he said, had three panellists instead of one.
Prior to the placement drive in Chennai, TCS recruited 862 students from Sastra University as compared to 1,755 last year, and 300 from Thiagarajar College of Engineering, as opposed to 702 last year.
At VIT University, Accenture recruited 1,492 students and Wipro, 1308 students. Cognizant which took in 1,820 students last year, recruited 803 students this year. Accenture has not recruited students from city colleges so far.
Companies, however, maintained that their recruitment process was on track.
Keywords: campus recruitment, employment, engineering education, TCS, Cognizant
This is great injustice to the students belong to other parts of Tamil Naudu, How the comapnies think that only students from Chennai alone have knowledge. I accept that students from rural areas may have low level of English knowldege but that doesn't mean that they are not well versed with the subject, English or any other language can be learned within a very short time. Due to this approach by the companies colleges in and around chennai are demanind too high Capitation fees and this makes the Engineering Education itself as Commodity. I kindly request the concerned person to think again their recruiting process.
Given the global economic crisis, and opposition to outsourcing in the developed world, it is not surprising that IT companies have reduced their recruitments. Whether these candidates recruited now would even be allowed to join in a years time is doubtful. IT companies must clearly indicate their manpower-needs over the next 3-5 years , so that candidates can choose other disciplines. IT companies want a huge talent pool to recruit from just to keep their salaries' levels low. Placement officers should also advise college managements and students so that students are not left without employment. A highly educated, unemployed and frustrated youth is not the best for societal well being. IT companies have a moral and social responsibility to manage expectations alongwith placement officers and college managements.Otherwise they are all playing with the future of our youth.
Talented and committed high-potential freshers are quite distributed among the institutions from urban to rural segments. Top IT recruiters are missing them, or exceptionally loyal aspirants are missing the openings with the giants. Either way, it is disheartening and shadows injustice, dispiritedness, disparity and other sorts of negatives. The leader must reach to each young talent by generating a pool of profiles from all across the country and locally. Drives should be initiated based on the talents' preferences, not the location.
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