IT Companies find hard to recruit right candidates
“Water, Water Everywhere, but not a drop to drink”.
This is the situation of many IT companies looking for talents from our campuses. It’s literally true that, number of engineering colleges in Kerala as well as the recruitment drives are increasing day by day, but IT companies find it hard to recruit the right talent.
The placement scenario in the state is going through a turnaround situation. Earlier there were lot of students with excellent academics and talents were looking for an opportunity in reputed IT companies. But now the situation has changed. Many IT companies, including MNCs are ready to recruit students from Kerala, but fails to find the right fix.
The percentage of students meeting the eligibility criteria set by companies is decreasing these days. As a result, many IT companies including TCS, UST Global, Poornam etc has temporarily reduced their Criteria for selecting students, as they couldn’t achieve their recruitment numbers. The prominent reason being inconsistency in academics as students go higher up in their studies If the recent results of first year exam of KTU (APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University) can be taken as a symbol, things will be worse in the coming years.
Gone were the days, when companies recruited students based on academic performance and marks. Later it was skill – both hard and soft skills that mattered. Now the major selection criterion is “Attitude”. Today’s hiring mantra is “Look for attitude, you can train them on skills and knowledge”. But it is difficult to find students in our campuses with positive attitude and right perceptive. Colleges must take initiatives to educate students the importance of possessing the right attitude and necessary measures should be taken from first year of their studies onwards.
How serious are our students about a campus placement? We can see many students attending a recruitment drive even without Curriculum Vitae. We can even find students appearing interviews in T Shirts and Jeans, that too in low waist. Our students need to understand that getting a Job from campus is indeed an achievement and it will bring lot of confidence in them. At least they should think about their parents who toil to pay the Education Loan.
Lack of effective Communications Skills, English Speaking skills, Interpersonal Skills, Good Etiquette and Manners etc are found in our students.
These might be the reason why the number of selections in 2016 has gone down in many colleges, in spite of more number of companies recruiting. Remember, the intake by big IT Companies from Tier one colleges has improved this year. Private Universities in India is turning out as a big pool of quality students and all our IT Companies are recruiting from such institutions in large numbers. This year we also have witnessed many e-commerce giants like Flipkart , Snapdeal etc in our campuses with huge pay package.
Improving the academic performance, seriousness in studies and placement, in combination with the right attitude is the solution. However, quality training in technical skills and soft skills are also important.
Brijesh George John
Associate Professor & Head – Corporate Relations
Marian College, Kuttikkanam (www.mariancollege.org)
Chairman – Placement Officers Kerala Group
Head – IPSR Career Centre (www.Ipsrjobs.com )
Soft Skills Trainer
