Campus recruitment goes on backburner

bangalore: ibm says it has taken in all campus recruits it had committed to this year. but that is not the case with many other software companies. according to director, hrd, infosys technologies, k dinesh, "we have phased out the joining schedule of campus recruits to align them with our business requirements. however, our plans for adding 1500-2000 employees on a gross basis in fiscal 2002 remain unchanged." according to a source, companies like lucent, motorola, mascot and nortel sent regret letters to students who had hoped to join them.head of placements in mount carmel college of management, thomas george, says that 11 students were recruited by it firms out of a class of 60. this year, just three girls have got jobs as financial analysts in software companies. "wipro did select one student this year but she did not get the job, finally. our students can always look for jobs in marketing for which there is a demand as well as in hr and finance. but the situation remains quite chaotic," he concedes. placement coordinator at christ college ajay pavithran says that campus recruitments in his college have begun to feel "the pinch of the slowdown a bit." there are two levels of recruitment at christ college, one at the mca level and one at the bsc level. "one firm which had approached us for the first time this year has deferred placements for a while," he said. it's too early to tell whether fresh recruitments for 2002 which start in the third week of august, will be affected, he says. "students read media reports of the it slowdown and how it's been affecting lifestyles and jobs and do feel shaky and wonder whether they will get a job or not," adds pavithran. according to head of placements at rv college of engineering, chandrasekhar murthy, the final semester students have been placed in it firms but when exactly they will be asked to join isn't clear. "it could be anywhere between october this year to january next year. some firms have been postponing placements, perhaps due to the slowdown. they don't call it slowdown though. they say that it's because of a change in business conditions." murthy feels placements for the next batch are going to be delayedbut "we have to wait and see." animesh gupta, zonal head of niit, says "it's only certain kinds of jobs like hardcore programming that are feeling the pinch. medium and small companies may have frozen jobs," he points out. "the it sector is seeing a 30 per cent growth rate. once it was above 80 per cent," he admits. "but as long as this segment is growing, job requirements will exist."