The number of post-graduate engineers applying for government jobs, including teaching positions, through employment exchanges in Tamil Nadu has tripled as campus hiring by the private sector has declined, according to sources.
As on March 31, 2014, the number of post graduate engineers registered with the government employment exchange was 1.59 lakh, thrice that in the last financial year.
There was a huge drop in campus hiring by companies in the civil and mechanical engineering sectors. Further, there is a huge demand for faculty positions in government colleges, and the salary is attractive too. So, it is not surprising that most of the post-graduate engineers end up as lecturers, sources said.
“We are trying our luck with the employment exchanges but competition is severe,” said the unemployed engineer, who has registered with the exchange in the hope of bagging a faculty position at a government college.
According to Moorthy K Uppaluri, CEO, Randstad India, a recruitment company, hiring from engineering college campuses was largely driven by the information technology and manufacturing sectors.
However, with the economic slowdown, hiring in most of the core industries has been flat the last couple of years.
The IT sector has also been focussing on improving its non-linear growth model, in which revenue growth is not directly linked to employee headcount as companies move to automation and project-based models.
Manpower supply is greater than the demand, specifically for post-graduate engineering candidates.
In addition, there is a concern on the quality of education as most engineering institutes offer post-graduate courses without the right faculty and infrastructure. Companies prefer to recruit quality candidates from top institutes.
The right fit Also, recruiters prefer engineering graduates over post-graduates as they are able to fit them into generic software roles at lower salaries.
In comparison, post-graduate students focus on specialised areas and there is a perception issue in placing them at the same level as a bachelor’s degree holder, he said.
Rituparna Chakraborty, Senior VP & Co-Founder, TeamLease Services, said students anticipate that the more degrees they earn, the better qualified they are and can get better jobs.
Unfortunately, this is not the case in reality as employers are more interested in how efficiently a graduate applies knowledge.
This is the reason for the increase in employment exchange programmes, said Chakraborty.