The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Placement programme next week

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Sunday, Oct 12, 2008
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Placement programme next week

Priscilla Jebaraj and Sruthi Krishnan

CHENNAI: Anna University will hold its second State-level placement programme (SLPP) of the year next week, when Infosys recruiters head for Coimbatore. Students who apply, for a fee of Rs. 750, must be aware that at the first placement programme held at Virudhunagar last month, in which Cognizant participated, only 15 out of 950 candidates were selected.

These statistics underline the gloomy picture for mass IT sector placements this year for engineering candidates, especially those in Tier II and III cities.

Last year, almost 1,500 students were placed through the combined SLPP that Anna University organises especially for the benefit of bright students in less well-known colleges or remote locations. The previous year, 20 companies conducted 55 placement sessions, recruiting 15,000 students.

This year, at a time when IT recruiting season is usually over, the grand total is two companies in one location each.

Dollar devaluation

“Last year’s dollar devaluation followed by the U.S. economic crisis in the last few weeks has led to this situation. IT companies are already delaying appointment orders for those they have placed. So, now, they want to delay fresh recruitment till the situation has stabilised,” says Anna University Vice-Chancellor P. Mannar Jawahar, adding that several companies have promised to re-examine the situation after the U.S. presidential elections.

“This is a temporary phenomenon.”

IT major Wipro says they will not participate in the SLPP this year, considering their current requirements. They added that they are “an ardent supporter of the programme” and if the situation changes, they will participate. Another IT major said it was not likely to take part in as many centres as in previous years.

“We are seeing a slump of at least 10 per cent in terms of number of companies and number of recruits per company,” says S. Mohamed Tajudeen, placement officer of Crescent Engineering College, adding that the situation is worse in Tier II and III colleges.

“Companies have been very selective this year, going to only the top campuses,” says Arun Ramaswami, placement officer at Velammal Engineering College. Industry sources confirm this trend.

Most of the mass hiring has gone to the best colleges, with 60 companies recruiting 2,500 students from College of Engineering, Guindy; Madras Institute of Technology and AC Tech, out of which Cognizant alone hired over 1,000 students.

Srinivas Kandula, HR head at iGATE Global Solutions, which will take part in the SLPP this year, agrees that quality is the key. In the current situation, IT services companies will move from the principle of maximisation to the principle of optimisation, he says.

Higher expectations

A placement officer from a Salem college confirmed that industry expectations are higher this year. For instance, the board examination cut-off percentage has been hiked from 60 to almost 75 in some cases.

Students have also changed their expectations. IT is no longer the secure, lucrative option, especially for core engineering students.

At Velammal, all Civil Engineering students were placed in infrastructure companies. Mechanical engineering students in several colleges are willing to wait for automotive and other core companies, which have also started offering higher compensation packages.

“Students are once again considering security. Core companies offer a slow but steady job,” says Dr. Jawahar.

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