7/28/2019 Campus Recruitment in India Needs a Change

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Campus Recruitment in India needs a change

Current situation: Most of the Information Technology companies

conduct campus recruitment in the third year of engineering and give

appointment orders. By the time students complete their fourth year,they receive a formal letter from the organization which says, your

joining date is postponed by x months/ indefinitely until further

notice. I heard this from more than 100 students in the last 3 years and

many blogs confirmed this.

Background: This culture of campus recruitment in third year started

few years ago when companies were flooded with large projects and

hence they could project manpower requirements for next 5 years with

little deviation, being refined at least once in a quarter. The projections

were later affected by many factors including,

- Tightened visa procedures in terms of fees, time elapsed in issue,etc., which may not be too amenable to project schedules and cost.

Two decades ago we could fly abroad on business visa with one

day notice, kick off project in two days and work with project up to

18 months with legal extensions. Now the individual gets notice of

more than 3 months for foreign travel during which company prays

that the individual does not quit, visa is granted and project is not

terminated. Intra company transfers and applying visa in

anticipation had a significant positive impact, with many

constraints.- Rarely any individual is sure of his/ her stay with the companyciting factors including personal, family, company and industry.

- And technology gap, geographical time differences, Non-materialization of Marketing teams ambitious plans/ targets etc., a

bigger list normally available with HR/ Human Resources

Management Group of every company.

Impact:

When companys revised estimates of manpower requirements more

than an year after giving appointment letter, are significantly below

the earlier estimates, the steps taken by company are to discouragefreshers to join and encourage low-performing seniors to leave. As per

unwritten business rules, company is not supposed to appreciate

individuals loss and trauma.

Two decades ago we used to blacklist those companies that did not

honour their commitment. But now, many universities cannot afford

this. But it is definitely creating first-bad-impression on those

companies in the minds of affected students.

The most advanced subjects are covered in 4th year , by which the

student attains certain maturity in thinking and exposure to IT

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industry. At least he / she would be able to identify area of interest for

self.

Once appointment letter is received, the students are taking the

subsequent courses lightly, giving more attention to moderate grades

and less attention to knowledge. They are unable to project its impacton their future growth. Further, most of them are not even applying to

other companies though job melas are frequently conducted in their

own cities. Only they can explain their frustration when they receive

postponement letter, which leads to quickly jumping into less

challenging jobs with less established companies.

Message to IT companies:

Visit campus during the last year of the degree, which can fetch more

matured and more focussed employees.

If 1st January is the deadline for firming-up manpower requirementsfor that year, start campus visits after that date. The deviation from

projections in 6 months time can be negligible unless there is

termination of massive projects.

Such a change can show significant benefits, if adapted by all major

companies, than just one. HR forums would be ideal to propagate this.

Add Prospective-employee perspective to the existing industry,

organization and employee perspectives.

Message to students:Understand that you are entering a big competitive world. Getting an

appointment letter is not the end of your journey. Keep attempting

other interviews to understand your own interests and weaknesses.

Keep enriching your knowledge throughout your lifetime to stay alive

in the competition.

The opinions expressed here by Emani Sarathy, Proprietor of

MEQPRIMA Advisory Services, are based on his experiences and

interactions with several youngsters in India. The author will feel

happy if companies have already taken or willing to take this direction,collectively.