(News) IT Firms Go Slow on Hiring From IITs
IT
Firms Go Slow on Hiring From IITs
Information
technology firms appear to have lost their appeal at the Indian Institutes of
Technology. Campus recruitment figures by major Indian and foreign IT firms have
dipped this year, raising further concerns of an industry slowdown.
Firms
like IBM, HCL Hughes Software and
CSC opted out of placements this year and hiring by firms like India's largest
IT services provider Tata Consultancy Services , Infosys and Wipro has dropped.
Confirming
the trend, a placement official from IIT Roorkee said: "While many
companies say they have a particular number in mind and would recruit likewise,
our alumni network at these companies informs us that these IT giants are
exercising restraint in recruiting trainees due to a slowdown."
Agreed
a placement official from IIT Kanpur: "Like every year, the institute
offered the regular number of students to these IT companies for placements but
they did not pick as many students."
Recruitment
by IT companies at IIT Kanpur has gone down from 130 students in 2007 to 72 in
2008.
"Clients
from IT firms are increasingly in the process of utilizing their bench
strength," said Monisha Advani, managing director, Randstad India, an HR
consultancy firm.
With
the US slowdown and rupee appreciating against the dollar for most of 2007-08,
IT firms are under tremendous pressure to manage margins and costs. IT firms
have been in the news recently with TCS, IBM India, Mphasis (an Electronic Data
System company) and Yahoo! India asking several hundreds of employees to leave
on grounds of "poor performance or non-performance".
"What
we have been hearing these days is a clear case of skills mismatch. While
non-linear growth is the way forward, it is something that will happen on a
long-term basis. In the short term, IT firms will need to have volumes,"
said Sudin Apte, senior analyst and country head, Forrester India.
The
companies, however, maintain with the boom in other sectors like investment
banking and retail, and the urge to be entrepreneurs, IT firms are left with
little option but to reduce their hiring from these institutes.
"Most
students from IITs either want to get into hardcore research or prefer to go in
for higher studies. Besides, other sectors also hire in big numbers from these
institutes," says an executive from Wipro
|
BACK TO THE FUTURE |
||||||||
|
IIT |
IBM |
TCS |
Infosys |
Wipro |
||||
|
'07 |
'08 |
'07 |
'08 |
'07 |
'08 |
'07 |
'08 |
|
|
IIT Madras |
66 |
No students |
8 |
13 |
6 |
7 |
6 |
1 |
|
IIT Roorkee |
35 |
Cancels visit |
35 |
25 |
21 |
6 |
14 |
5 |
The companies insist that they
remain committed to their campus-hiring plans.
Kris Gopalakrishnan, CEO, Infosys,
said: "Infosys recruits from 1,100 engineering colleges around the country.
The number of students coming out of IITs is far too small - 5,000 - and some of
them are going in for higher studies, getting into Research and Development,
etc."
He added that Infosys had already
made its campus commitments and will stick to them. "Anyway, we recruit
just 30 to 40 per cent of our requirement from campuses," he added.
TCS, too, added over 28,000
employees in the current financial year, and has already made over 22,000 campus
offers for the next year.
The IT major is also hiring over
2,000 science graduates this fiscal and it plans to increase this to 3,000 in
the next fiscal.
Gautam Sinha, chief executive
officer of TVA Infotech, a recruitment consultant for IT companies, said signs
of a real slowdown would be best indicated by campus hiring, which is expected
in June when big companies recruit at campuses in large numbers.
Courtesy:inhome.rediff.com
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