The $60-billion Indian software and services industry, which was till last year staring at an acute shortage of talent, could be very soon facing an oversupply of engineers. For India, which is highly sought after as a technical talent powerhouse, this would be a first in many decades.
Around 5 lakh engineers pass out of colleges every year. Out of these more than a lakh were snapped up by top five IT companies, which used to make offers a year before their passing out year. However, the top four IT companies?TCS, Infosys, Wipro and HCL would not be going to the campuses this year. The global economic crisis and the reduced IT demand is forcing most of the IT companies to follow a just-in-time hiring policy.
When contacted by FE, TCS, Infosys and Wipro confirmed that they would not recruit students who are in the third year of the four-year BTech course and would only visit the campuses towards the last few months of their course completion depending on how the supply and demand matrix of the industry develops.
Considering that the recovery in the IT sector is still a couple of quarters away and companies are struggling with huge benches (employees who are in anticipation of projects), the batch which passes out in 2010 could find few takers in terms of job offers. ?Most of the companies are hiring very limited people or are not hiring at all. So, it is possible that many pass-outs may face a tough time getting a job this year or even next year,? said Ganesh Natarajan, former chairman of Nasscom and CEO and vice-chairman and MD, Zensar Technologies.
For instance, India?s largest software firm, TCS made 24,800 offers on campus last year. ?The joining of these trainees will be aligned to the recovery in demand for our services. TCS has adopted the policy of real-time talent management in FY10 whereby we will hire in the last three months of the final year of graduation rather than a year before,? said Ajoy Mukherjee, vice-president and head, global HR, TCS. Mukherjee added that this will help the company optimise and increase utilisation, but also align its hiring strategy closer to the demand and supply of business.
Till last year, IT companies usually hired in anticipation of work as training of hires usually took between two-three months. While talking to FE recently, Vineet Nayar, CEO, HCL Technologies said that company would not be making any campus offers. ?There is a 90-day window before a project is launched. We will utilise that period to recruit people who are sitting on other companies benches,? he had said.
Similarly, the country?s third largest software company, Wipro will not make any offers in 2009-10. It had offered jobs to 8,000 students last year. However, the company is mum about when they the hires are expected to join. ?From this year, Wipro would be making campus offers to engineers in their final year or semester of their course,? Pradeep Bahirwani, vice-president, talent acquisition, Wipro told FE.
Infosys Technologies, which has been a heavy campus recruiter for many years has also joined the bandwagon and the company will visit colleges only during the last year or the final semester. It has made around 20,000 offers for the current fiscal and TV Mohandas Pai, director, HR, Infosys said that from next year onwards the company will only hire as per demand. Meanwhile, the industry has been working with the government and academic institutions to start finishing schools or skill development courses for technical students to better prepare them for the job market.?
