Accenture and Wipro have come back with a vengeance to recruit from campuses. They compensated for the lacklustre hiring from the usual mass recruiter Cognizant Technology Solutions at VIT University, Vellore, which annually churns out nearly 3,000 graduates.
On day one of the campus recruitment on Monday at VIT, about 120 km west of Chennai, Accenture made 1,492 job offers to students as against just 90 last year. Media reports say that for the global software major, out of its 2.50 lakh global employee base, nearly one-third is in India.
Similarly, Wipro made 1,308 job offers this year compared to just 130 last year.
In contrast, Cognizant’s numbers declined by more than half to 803 as against 1,920 offers last year, according to the university. Tata Consultancy Services did not visit the university for the last two years. Infosys is also not visiting this year, said university sources. It is reliably learnt that at Sastra University in Thanjavur in south Tamil Nadu, on day one of the campus recruitment, TCS made offers to 863 students. Last year, the company created a record by recruiting 1,755 students from this university.
‘Feeling the heat’
VIT’s Vice-President G. V. Sampath said that despite the bad market conditions, the institution was able to place students with companies. In a recession-like scenario, every company wants to cut 50 per cent in recruitment and institutions are feeling the heat, he told Business Line.
Samuel Rajkumar, Deputy Director of the university’s placement cell, said Flipkart had offered an annual pay package of Rs 12.5 lakh while D.E. Shaw, a software company, which is yet to conduct its recruitment drive, has offered Rs 14.5 lakh.
A total of 55 companies have conducted placement drives. Rajkumar said that every year 150 to 160 companies visit the university. “Last year, 188 companies came and we are trying to get as many this year. In fact, last year our placement accounted for 95 per cent placing 3,007 students. The overall numbers this year could be due to the slowdown,” he said.
Keywords: Accenture, Wipro, campus recruitments, job offers, campus hiring, Cognizant Technology Solutions, VIT University, Flipkart, pay packages, D.E. Shaw
Comments:
Before a scam come out, it is the duty of the HR of wipro ,Accuture and all other software companies should explain why they are going repeatedly to some select institutions like VIIT etc etc and not recruiting from all the colleges or through common screening examinations. Will they publish the last year recruitment college wise, state wise , region wise details in their web site, ( some of the colleges are demanding higher fees stating that your ward job is assured, in the software companies like wipro,infosis etc and you can earn many more and foreign assignment is rest assured etc etc ) ,if you admit in these collegees/deemed university. or talent is only available in these colleges and deemed university and if so why GOVT giving admissions through council ling. GOVT should also come out with statistics that how many top ranker /percentage above people gone to these type of institutes and economic profile
It is very true. There is surely a large scale corruption at several levels in HR in these Companies. There is a talk that this year CTS even changed its recruitment folks by moving them to other teams when they smelled some corruption. that is probably a reason why CTS number declined by more than half. Surely there is a scam involved. When good performing students are available in various colleges across the country why is that only few institutions like VIT are chosen by the HR. Infact in some institutions the placement team is a very closed knit team - donot even allow other staff members to be part of placement team - Unlike Government institutions, the placement team is not changed which clearly is an indication of a nexus between the HR and the college. I agree with Bala. Institutions demand very high fees in the name of placements and "taking care" of the HR folks is just an investment.We need an Anti Corruption/Vigilence wing for corporates too.
If corporate employees are also corrupt God only has to save the country. We keep questioning the corruption at cl iii and cl iv employees who otherwise can't survive without extra money.
If there is some truth that Colleges pay HR of companies, a thorough inquiry has to be initiated and law enforcement authorities should come down heavily on these institutions.
Indeed very strange, mysterious and intriguing why such mass recruitments are being made from a single university. Some of these universities do not even have the approval of AICTE. All irregularities and deviations tend to go unnoticed due to such mass campus placements & parents and students blindfoldedly flock to these universities. Some of these universities made more than Rs.10 cr on application fees alone per annum. They see to that their coffers keep ringing in through such mass placements, which they never fail to advertise in a big way. Do the IT companies really believe talented students are confined and available only in these universities. These companies should not fall a prey to the selfish & money centered designs of these universities. Go thro some their websites, you will be stunned at the poor language, grammatical and even spelling mistakes they make. The country has had enough scams -one more of even of a small magnitude will leave the common man in utter despair
I completely agree with the comments by other readers.I work as an Academician. There are large scale corruptions.In VIT for example, the placement team is the same for ever.They are not on rotation like the Government institutions.I hear from my contacts that the Placement Director and his Deputy do not allow any other faculty members or student teams to even give opinions related to the placement activities.Such faculty or students some how get bad name or land into problems if they question.In VIT,Placement team reports to the Management & not to the Vice Chancellor or academic member - which is typically required as per UGC rules.Academic rules are often flexed by the placement team.VIT also conduct Campus placements for other colleges (though VIT Chancellor started with a right/noble motive).But there is a huge scam in this too by VIT placement team with few well-to-do institutions - mainly from Andhra being patronised by the VIT Placement team with the nexus with the HR team.
These companies recruit in large numbers and it is advertised. But, not all of them are actually on-boarded.Heard that Cognizant which created a record last hear has not yet on-boarded more than 50% of the students yet. Accenture has also not given the start date.These Universities not only get crores of money on Applications, but also through placements.My niece studied at VIT few years back. VIT charged a Placement registration fee initially ( Not sure of the practice today though). Once the student is placed, they need to also pay a Service fee based on the salary package. At an average each student placed would have shelled out alteast 5 to 6K. VIT earns several lakhs/crores in this way too.Probably a % of these money is shared with the HR folks.Atleast some of the good companies with clear image like CTS, TCS, Accenture need to do detailed enquiry into this allegations and come public on their findings.I also wish elite newspapers like THE HINDU should not patronise this.
I am from Chandigarh. I was recruited in September 2011 by Wipro. Till
now I did not receive my Date of Joining. After my college got over, its
been around 5 months, I have been sitting idle.
After reading this post I wonder when shall I get my joining or when
will these 1,308 people get there joining.
vit has always been interesting and fascinating to me and wonderful achievement for vit management professor and chancellor and thanks a lot to wipro accenceture and cognigent and world leading 1ST university
Mr Sastry. I echo your view.
I am also sorry to say this.Based on my personal experience in the corporate for the past 23 years, HR folks in many companies especially in IT companies, are worser than cl iii and cl iv employees. Especially Large scale scams in recruitment from colleges, recruitment through placement agencies, scams in engaging vendors and what not.
Ashesh Sharma: I am also a 2012 passout. I am yet to be called by one of this company. You are talking of sitting idle for 5 months. Last year, our seniors waited fro more than 11 Months to get on-boarded. Few of them who could influence HR through the Placement team got on-boarded earlier. When reading this article, I feel it is not enough we study well and perform well, we also need to know how to influence the HR. I suspect that the nexus between the Placement team and HR team also plays a key role not just in selection process but also in our on-boarding time. Better to be in the good books of the placement team, especially in VIT ( I am not revealing my original name while posting this message )
VIT may be good but surely not the best. The question here is about the scams between the HR and the placement teams of colleges like VIT.Even I heard that companies like CTS took some action on its campus recruitment and they were moved to other roles. As long as the IT companies give super power to HR teams, these types of scams will surely continue.
Really atrocious to see that some companies are recruiting only from few institutions.Assume a Normal Distribution curve in the skill levels of the students, don't these companies think they are recruiting the students of lesser performance? In the same logic,Top performing students are also available in Tier 2 or Tier 3 Colleges/cities. They would not have had the money (I heard in VIT, Management quota is as high as about 8 to 10 lakhs PER ANNUM) or donot had money to stay in hostel, so would have chosen a small college in home town or would have affected by the reservation policy due to which would have settled in smaller colleges. The recruitment team should actually be shuffled every year. The Placement officers should be changed often.Else,placement team becomes very powerful& academic processes are mended to suit to their likes-
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