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Raja Simhan T.E.

Chennai , Sept. 4

MS Janani, 22, a computer science graduate, is sitting next to her telephone waiting for that special call. No, it is not from her boyfriend but from a US-based multinational IT firm for a telephonic interview.

Ms Janani's fate is not rare. She is one of the thousands of computer science and engineering graduates who are unemployed. A lot of them are from tier two and three engineering colleges with specialisation in computer science or electrical and electronics engineering - EEE in short.

Recently, Ms Janani applied for a job in Infosys Technologies. To her shock, she found was competing with over six lakh applicants. She tried her luck with Polaris Software. It was no better. Her application number was 78,000 plus.

Frustrated, Janani started dropping her resume with all the recruitment firms. From hopes of working with firms like Infosys or Wipro four years ago, when she entered college, Janani today is willing to take any IT job coming her way.

Today, getting an IT job has become tough even as a large number of engineering and computer science graduates pass out every year across the country.

Infosys Technologies received 6.30 lakh resumes during 2002-03 for various posts. The number is almost equal to that of the entire software professionals employed in India. The company made about 6,200 offers.

For an entry-level post, Polaris received 1.60 lakh applications for 500 positions. For a recent half-page advertisement calling for generic skills, Cognizant Technology received over 18,000 applications. Small and medium-size IT firms are also receiving a large number of resumes.

Says Infosys spokesperson, the challenge for companies lie in distilling the best application. Today candidates have more choices, and recruitment is on an upswing. Organisations are willing to look at differential compensation package even as specialised technical skills are in higher demand.

According to Mr R. Chandrasekaran, Senior Vice-President, Cognizant, for any generic technical skill such as Java or Mainframe, the company gets over 450 resumes, and for any senior-level position or niche skills over 100 resumes for a single post. This number excludes unsolicited resumes dropped through Cognizant's Web site and boxes.

Of the total applications the "must hire" category is about 5 per cent, followed by "can be hired" 8 per cent. Cognizant recruits 60 per cent of its employees from engineering and management campuses and the remaining 40 per cent from open market. Of the 40 per cent, 65 per cent are from global consulting and technology companies and leading Indian software companies, and the remaining 35 per cent are from niche software companies. Cognizant recruited about 2,400 professionals last year, of which about 1,200 were from the open market, he said.

The recruitment firms too are flooded with resumes for IT jobs. Says Ms Saundarya Rajesh, CEO of the Chennai-based Avtar Career Creators, a human resources consulting and recruitment firm, a recent advertisement attracted over 5,000 resumes from software testing engineers for 25 posts. Even for unknown IT companies, the response is in a few thousands, she says.

Separating wheat from chaff

To cope with the large number of applications, IT companies follow different screening and evaluation process.

At Cognizant, for every 100 resumes received, at the first pre-screening level - to call candidates for interview is short-listed - 77 applications are rejected. In the next level of interviews to offer, 45 per cent of the short-listed applications are rejected, making it a net rejection rate of 87 per cent. That is, for every 100 applications received, there are only 13 candidates recruited into Cognizant. While Infosys recruited one in every 100 applicants, Cognizant's was 1.5 persons for 100 resumes received, Mr Chandrasekaran said.

Says Mr R. Shekar, Senior Vice-President - Head HR, Corporate Strategy and Business Excellence, Polaris Software Lab, at the entry level, the company follows a two-step process.

A written test is done to validate the analytical ability, numeric and written communication skill of candidates. On clearing the test, the applicants are interviewed to assess their ability to present "oneself" and express clear ideas, their thinking ability, creativity and responsiveness.

The more talented candidates are getting polarised from the average. Richness of experience and talent at work is much more valued today than experience or seniority.

With regard to professional development, increasingly more technical personnel feel the need to formally get qualified on management sciences so as to move up to supervisory and managerial roles, he said.

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