SAP Labs India, which has traditionally hired only experienced people, has gone to the campuses for the first time.
“We are keen to build ourselves as a big brand in the campus circle. Our target is to have 220 freshers on board this year from the 30 top engineering colleges across the country. We have visited 25 colleges since December and finished our first round of hiring,” says Mr V. R. Ferose, Managing Director, SAP Labs India.
Offers have already been made to around 180 computer science graduates from the National Institute of Technology (formerly REC) and top government engineering colleges across the country and they will be join the company between May and July.
SAP Labs India has been in India for 13 years and has never looked at campuses. But the company's board has now taken a conscious decision that 25 per cent of its hires every year will be from campuses, to encourage diversity across generations and breed “young energetic” engineers in the organisation.
Says Mr Anil Warrier, Director, India Staffing: “An organisation must have the right pyramid shape. We are slightly top heavy with 70 per cent of our talent falling in the ‘4-years and above' work experience category. In 3-4 years, we are looking to have at least 50 per cent of our talent in the 0-5 years category.”
What took the company so long to hit the campus circuit?
“Any product engineering multi-national company waits for 5-6 years before doing campus recruitments. We could have gone to the campuses 3-4 years ago, but it is important to at least have 5-10 job offers on hand in each campus. There is no point going with just one or two offers. That will not help build a brand. Also, as a technology development company, we feel we have now matured into a large organisation with the appetite to absorb young talent. We also have the business readiness and the right set of product to engage the next generation,” says Mr Warrier.
SAP Labs India currently employs around 4,000 people.