Engineering students aspiring to join the IT industry are likely to find it less easy landing a job this year as compared with past years, as companies are paring their campus hiring targets.
Industry consultants said that on-campus fresher hiring dropped more than 20% last year and it might decline further in the current year. Traditionally, IT services majors visit engineering and technical education institutes in August-September.
Companies such as Infosys, Wipro, TCS, Accenture, Cognizant and Mindtree hire more than 1,50,000 freshers from colleges annually. But automation and other new technologies have meant that offer numbers have declined.
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Steep decline
“The on-campus hiring of freshers has witnessed a steep decline,” said Kris Lakshmikanth, Chairman and Managing Director, The Head Hunters India. “One of the major reasons is automation. This trend is likely to grow and we will see lesser campus hiring [numbers] going forward,” he said.
Industry consultants said Tier-1 colleges would be able to place students in companies through campus hiring, but Tier-2 and Tier-3 colleges will face the brunt as the companies will skip visiting them.
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IT majors like Infosys, Wipro and Accenture declined comment.
“The number of companies visiting campuses has not gone down. But we are seeing a decline in the number of job offers given to the students by these companies. Last year, we saw an over 20% drop in campus offers,” said a placement officer of a college in Coimbatore.
“The campuses in Coimbatore or Chennai will see more companies participating in campus hiring but smaller cities like Madurai or Pollachi will not see the same action,” he added.
IT industry body Nasscom has also spoken of a decline trend in hiring. Recently, the apex body revised the growth guidance to 8-10% due to slower growth.
‘Optimising workforce’
“The organisations have achieved a scale in the number of employees and they are looking at optimising the workforce. So, the companies are changing their hiring strategy,” said Sangeeta Gupta, Senior Vice-President, Nasscom.
Another factor is the quality of talent. Companies are eyeing the creamy layer of the talent available in top colleges.
“The campus hiring numbers have come down...the major reason is that the growth rate of the IT services firms has come down and at the same time the need for quality talent is increasing,” said Mohandas Pai, Former board member and Head of Human Resources, Infosys.