Slowdown no hurdle for campus hiring

Hyderabad: Can global slowdown adversely impact campus hiring at engineering colleges? 'No' say students and placement officers at engineering colleges in Telangana. However, there is some impact at top-notch institutes, but top companies still prefer such institutes, they add.

Companies that are into software services opt for students from tier-2 engineering colleges while pass-outs from top and tier 1 colleges are absorbed in product-based companies, it is pointed out.

"Colleges like ours attract service-based companies which unlike top companies offer basic pay of Rs 21,000 a month. But the fear of losing job remains, as, in the absence of a project they are on a bench period for six months. Therefore, I opted for a startup," Sai Vighnan Reddy, an engineering student, told The Hans India.

Vighnan says it was his decision to be one among 10 for a startup, rather than being one among the 100 that certain IT companies recruit. He also recollected the incident where a 25-year-old techie hailing from a town in Telangana, last month, committed suicide in the city, as she was given a pink slip.

According to Dr Ramakanta Bal, Director, Training and Placements, Stanley College of Engineering and Technology for Women, Accenture alone recruited 130 computer science and IT students.

"230 students out of 300, have received offer letter during on campus and pool placement drive, from September to December 2019. Till now, 10 companies have visited the campus, and others are expected in the second session, from December end to February 2020."

The lack of guidance for building the skills that is needed to make it through the exams conducted by the companies, is another hurdle for students aiming for their 'dream option'. "I have been writing online exams conducted by these companies, which otherwise do not come to our college for hiring.

I got through the first round of test but couldn't make it through the technical round," says Nitish, a final year engineering student, who is simultaneously preparing for government jobs.

The IT companies either give joining letter after students have got their results (June 2020) or during the last year of course, students are taken in as trainees for a year, (six months of internship and six months of probation).

"Employers are expecting higher order of thinking, communication skills and ability to solve problems instead of just programming. Students need to have a broader understanding of projects," says Anuradha Thota, founder, Blackbuck Engineers, a firm setting up centres for emerging tech in engineering colleges.

Training and Placement Officers (TPO) in every engineering college have the task of getting numbers, in regard to the number of companies taking part in campus placements and the number of students getting placed. This is an important crowd puller for every college and a student seeking admission.

"There is an increase of 20-25 per cent in hiring by companies, wherein the annual package starts from Rs 3.5 lakh. Till October 2019, out of 700 students, 250 students have been recruited," says M Vijay Karthik, TPO, CMR Engineering College.

Another TPO stated that, though the number of companies have increased, nothing can be assured till the students get their joining letter. "However, students play safe and smart as they prefer to keep handy at least two offer letters, so as to get into the first company that sends the joining letter," he added.

But, as students hold multiple offer letters, it leads to be a loss for the other student, says Srikar Pasula, a fourth-year engineering graduate from GRIET college. In the same line, he adds, hiring by IT companies have increased but for the best multinationals, the intake is more of quality driven than quantity.