The Hindu Business Line : A flood of job offers

TECHIES are rejoicing and with a vengeance. In 2000-01, thousands of Indian tech professionals were shattered by mass withdrawals of job offer letters. And now, as quickly as they dissipated, the offer letters are coming back, and in a flood.

"There is not a single candidate who does not have less than three offer letters on hand," says Mr Gautam Sinha, CEO, TVA Infotech, an IT recruitment company. And ironically, this is for candidates with three-four years experience.

"Weekends are job shopping time for them and some of them agree to attend three-four interviews at different companies at the same time." There is another fallout to the whole turn of events: a casual attitude toward job change and very often, a `no-show' at the interview.

"With so many jobs and so few candidates, the entire seriousness of the job market has gone," he says. TVA now finds that only three out of every ten candidates scheduled to attend interviews actually do so. And excuses are as flippant as bad memory, bad health, or worse, attending another interview.

Though this behaviour is more rampant among candidates with 3-4 years experience, there are some seniors too who do not show up. This `unreasonable behaviour' is extending beyond the interview stage too, says Mr Sinha. Some demand a 100 per cent jump in salaries and do not turn up for work on the first day.

The Managing Director of The Headhunters India, Mr Kris Lakshmikanth, said, "There was one candidate who came to the negotiating table with seven offer letters and was attending her eighth interview that day." "After the offer letters are accepted, we can be sure that only 30 per cent actually join the company," according to Mr Arjun Dev, General Manager, The Head Hunters.

Mr Lakshmikanth says this behaviour is not restricted to techies in the country alone. Even in the US, there are cases of Indian software engineers not showing up at interviews or at work on the first day.

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A flood of job offers