"Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services eye recruits from colleges other than IITs"

Mumbai, Sep 9: As Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IIT-B) gears up for another season of placements, the institute"s placement report from its last academic year indicates a reversal of some trends.

Recruitment by the engineering and technology sector, which was on an upward trajectory since 2012-13, hit a plateau this year. Similarly, analytical firms, which had increased recruitments in the past, offered fewer jobs this year. On the other hand, IT and software companies which hired fewer and fewer IIT-B graduates with each passing year, offered many more jobs this year.

In 2015-16, 90 engineering and technology companies offered 371 jobs, down from 381 job offers by 88 companies in 2014-15. Despite the slowdown, these companies remain the largest recruiters at IIT-B.

The declining number of job offers by IT companies stopped this year, with 75 software companies hiring 270 of 1,143 candidates selected during placements. The number of job offers had dwindled from 281 in 2012-13 to 199 in 2014-15. The number of IT companies visiting the campus reduced from 82 to 50 during this period.

When it comes to the IT sector, experts said large IT services companies such as Infosys and Tata Consultancy Services are eyeing colleges other than IITs. Instead, it is the smaller, "product driven" companies — which produce original softwares as opposed to providing IT services to other companies — that are driving IT recruitment at IIT-B.

Recruitment by analytical firms — which grew from 27 companies and 94 job offers four years ago to 47 companies and 155 jobs in 2014-15 — saw a reversal last year. According to the placement report, 38 such companies visited IIT-B last year and selected 91 candidates.

Kamal Karanth, MD, India, Kelly Services said the decline in analytics jobs this year is the result of a slowdown of the financial services market. “It is a temporary phase. The market is likely to pick up next year. Till then, analytics companies are simply looking to replace their existing employees,” he said.

Among other sectors, little variation was seen in recruitment by financial and consulting firms. The data shows that 23 financial companies hired 113 students, a little more compared to last year, while 27 consulting firms recruited 105 candidates, little less than last year.

Despite a substantial number of e-commerce firms and start-ups visiting the campus this year, IIT-B did not create a separate category for them, but merged them with he existing categories.

Experts said that while the trends reflect the market situation to some extent, in many cases, the students simply tended to follow the latest trend. For them, salary packages and career prospects trump the opportunity to work in a core company.

“The manufacturing sector hasn"t grown in recent years. It is yet to come to a boom stage. Unless there is more investment in power plants and renewable energy, placements are likely to remain on a plateau,” said Karanth.

“In large companies, the graduates are at the base of pyramids, with low scope for innovation and promotion,” said the head an executive search firm, on the condition of anonymity.

According to him, the IT as well as manufacturing companies are increasingly becoming wary of hiring IIT graduates, owing to a small retention period. “Many of these students don"t work in the company for more than a year or two and go for higher education. If they want to work on the business side, they should directly opt for a post-graduation course in management instead of joining a company,” he said.