Jobseekers find Infosys and Sikka an irresistible combo

If the number of those seeking Infosys jobs were a country, then its population would be more than that of neighbouring Bhutan.

For the second year running, more than 10 lakh applicants knocked at the doors of the Bengaluru-based IT company seeking employment. Of course, many of them had to be turned away. Infosys hired only 5 per cent of those who applied — an acceptance rate lower than that of many Ivy League colleges in the United States.

Staggering as these numbers may sound, Infosys received these many applications before the 2008 economic downturn. It received as many as 13.02 lakh applications in 2006-07, when the IT boom was at its peak and the company was considered the bellwether for the industry. But the dip in fortunes for the industry and tepid growth robbed Infosys much of its sheen, and interest in the firm dropped.

The number of those seeking jobs fell to as low as three lakhs in the pre-Vishal Sikka era when there was a leadership vacuum and it was not really clear what direction the company was headed.

But the revival in the numbers is a huge vote of confidence for Sikka, who was hired from SAP, and his new initiatives at Infosys, including Design Thinking.

“Candidates are now calling us and asking whether there is a vacancy in Infosys,” says A Kamal Karanth, Managing Director of recruitment agency Kelly Services & KellyOCG, India. “This has happened after a long gap.”

A spokesperson for Infosys says for any company the number of applications for jobs is linked to vacancies. “Last year we received applications in line with number of vacancies we had.”

Jayaprakash Gandhi, a career consultant and education analyst, says every year lakhs of engineering graduates chase IT companies, including Infosys. “However, the industry has not recruited in large numbers in the last couple of years due to a business slowdown.”

Other IT majors declined to give the number of those who applied for jobs.

While job growth in the overall economy is projected to be 15-18 per cent, in the IT sector it will be 22 per cent through 2020, says Alka Dhingra, Assistant General Manager, TeamLease Services.

Explaining the pattern in job seekers over the years at Infosys, Somak Roy, Senior Analyst, Forrester, a global research company, says most of the applicants were for entry level positions.

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