The Hindu Business Line : IT now competes with automotive, electronics sectors for talent

The IT industry has a different view on why bright young engineers are looking beyond software for careers. Mr Lakshmi Narayanan, Vice-Chairman, Cognizant Technology Solutions, points out that the gap in the demand-supply ratio has reduced substantially due to an increase in the supply of talent as more colleges add more seats.

Compensation and salary, once very important criteria, are not so anymore as students are increasingly considering other factors such as diversity of work experience, learning opportunities, challenges in the workplace, and also the work-life balance a job has to offer.

“These considerations seem to be taking precedence over compensation alone. While compensation is a hygiene factor, it must be noted that the compensation levels in other industry segments such as construction, manufacturing and automotive are going up. The reason for this is that many overseas companies are coming to India in a big way,” explains Mr Narayanan.

Manufacturers

For example, he says, the likes of Renault-Nissan and BMW have set up plants here with the result that component manufacturers that have been supplying to these companies elsewhere in the world are also required to set up a facility in India.

They are willing to offer higher salaries. “This has also resulted in greater parity between the salaries offered by the IT-BPO sectors and the manufacturing sector. So, the preferences of fresh graduates seem to be changing even on the count of compensation,” he adds.

Eyeing Fresh graduates

Mr Narayanan also points to the two sectors which are eliciting greater interest from fresh graduates – one is the automotive sector and the other the electronic manufacturing sector which has been seeing huge investments.

However, he says that the IT industry has nothing to fear as it still attracts the best talent and not only because it pays well but also because it has built bridges with academia by collaborating with institutions, faculty and students.

“The alumni network is so powerful that we continue to be among the most preferred employers. While all students may not prefer joining the IT sector and could be looking at the manufacturing and other sectors as well, this does not worry companies such as Cognizant. We are realising that this will actually result in a healthy growth ecosystem, which is good for the betterment of the organisation and the industry in the long term,” he elaborates.

IT offers global careers

Ask Mr Mohandas Pai, Director, HR, Infosys, whether IT is no longer considered a plum job, he’s quick to disagree. Says he: “IT is till the top pick because it offers a global career, the ability to go up the ladder rapidly, tremendous learning and training and, above all, a wonderful work atmosphere. IT has more scope than the others as people can easily get jobs in many companies, many countries and many areas, unlike the rest.”

Mr Pai also points out that manufacturing companies are now paying much more than earlier, which is a good trend since “our graduates need to have choice and should not make a choice because there is nothing else.”

Ma Foi’s Mr Balaji agrees with the view that manufacturing industries have caught up with the pay packages of IT companies in many cases.

“There are times a fresh graduate joining a manufacturing firm could also get a richer job content in terms of interfacing with designing the product, vendor management team, quality, production and management when the same candidate may have a regular software development job in an IT company which only involves performing a set of defined tasks in a prescribed way. In such cases, the intellectual stimulation is higher in the manufacturing job,” he explains.