The Hindu Business Line : IT cos look to push campus hiring closer to pass-out date

Mumbai, Feb. 12 Students of the country’s best engineering colleges may now have to wait till their final year for clinching a job with an IT firm. In a bid to get greater visibility of the business environment while hiring, IT companies, such as TCS and Wipro Technologies, are now looking to push campus recruitments closer to the pass-out date.

“We want to do real time talent management. While in the past we would go to campuses to recruit in the fourth or fifth semester, we will now do so only in the seventh or eighth semester. This will enable us to better match hiring needs with actual demand,” TCS’ Chief Executive and Managing Director, Mr S. Ramadorai, told Business Line.

The move would also help TCS to reduce the bench and increase utilisation, as the company attempts to raise efficiency. TCS has also increased the performance bar for its employees to meet higher productivity demands.

Mr Ramadorai said that the company would soon be informing various colleges about its plans. “The first letters are going out today,” he added. Premier educational institutions such as the IITs and IIMs generally invite IT companies to hire in the final year.

“For instance, in case of a four-year course, we may approach the campuses only three months before the students pass out. Earlier, we would do it either before the end of the third year or beginning of the fourth year,” he said, adding that this was also in line with practices followed globally by companies.

“We will do it for the next batch…for those graduating in 2010,” Mr Ramadorai pointed out.

TCS is not the only one doing this. “This issue has also been deliberated in Nasscom and more or less, member companies have agreed to follow this practice,” the TCS CEO said.

Earlier, Mr Pradeep Bahirwani, Vice-President-Talent Acquisition, Wipro Technologies, had told Business Line, “We have encouraged campus hiring both for IITs and other technical colleges to be held during the final semester of engineering and not during penultimate year of engineering, as is the current practice. This would give students enough time to be well-prepared for assessment and will also enable organisations to get a good grip on the future business demand.”

Agrees Mr Arjun Malhotra, Chairman and Chief Executive of Headstrong: “I am sure most college professors would endorse the same view as students tend to lose interest in their academics after getting a campus offer in the penultimate year of college.”

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