Chennai: With the economy doing well, IT companies paint a positive picture of hiring this year. Vice-chairman of Cognizant and chairman of ICT Academy of Tamil Nadu, Lakshmi Narayanan said that recruitment by start-ups had also increased in the past two years. In his address at the Placement Directors’ Conclave 2014, titled ‘Recruitment trends 2015’, organised by the ICT Academy of Tamil Nadu on Friday, Mr Lakshmi Narayanan said, “The number of students joining start-ups is increasing because students have more opportunities and it offers much potential for growth in innovation.
To take an analogy from business schools, students look for diverse companies and if they find a sector, like alternative energy, they look for start-ups, like Gamesa. This is now happening in engineering colleges too,” he said.Exhorting placement directors to identify students with entrepreneurial skills and enhance their talent in entrepreneurship, Mr Lakshmi Narayanan said that colleges should encourage more students to participate in start-ups which had seen a number of companies emerge.
Pointing out that the number of companies participating in campus placements had increased, the vice-chairman said that the average number of students who get selected by a company had declined yearly.“A clear lesson for placement officers is, attract more companies to your campus. Most IIT students want to be part of start-ups. You would have read media reports about students getting into Facebook and Paypal. Although IITians get recruited by these companies the task that they pick up in that company is a start-up activity, not a regular job,” Mr Lakshmi Narayanan added.
Speaking about current trends in placement, Sudeep Kunnumal, head (talent acquisition), Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), said that his company hired a larger number of students than the last two or three years as other companies did too.“With ‘made in India’ concept catching up in India, we have many opportunities. These opportunities will rise not only in IT, but also in manufacturing, hospitality and tourism,” he said.Explaining further, he said that digital technology had become core to the IT industry, and in the next two or three years, companies would hire students in that space.
