Fewer jobs for graduates this year

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Hyderabad: Campus placements have begun in engineering colleges, but the hiring pattern has changed.
 
Colleges have started registering students from the past week for the ensuing placement drives and have finalised schedules for the purpose in consultation with the recruiters.
 
Companies that used to recruit fresh graduates and experienced applicants in the ratio of 70:30 earlier have now made it 50:50. For some companies, this ratio is expected to be still lower at 40:60.
 
This means less job opportunities for fresh graduates who pass out this year.
 
Global firms such as Microsoft and Google etc will launch campus placement drives in August followed by Indian firms such as Infosys, Wipro, Tech Mahindra etc. in September. 
 
However, there are high expectations this year, with all the major Indian IT firms registering a decent growth rate of over 15 per cent over last year, which may translate into more jobs.
 
Last year, there was a drop in campus placement compared to 2011 because of the slowdown in the IT sector and other related fields.
 
This year the situation looks more promising with the recovery made by IT firms and allied companies.
 
“There will be a big difference in the hiring pattern this year. There are indications that most companies will hire only 50 per cent of their annual requirement from college campuses this year unlike earlier when it used to be nearly 70 per cent.
 
Some companies are expected to scale down campus placements to even 40 per cent. This is because the companies prefer to make ‘in-time hiring,’ depending on their requirement next year.
 
Though campus placements are made now for final year engineering students, they will actually join the jobs only next year after completing their course,” said N.L.N. Reddy, placement officer, Chaitanya Bharathi Institute of Technology, known to be the top college in the private sector after the government run Osmania Engineering College and JNTU-Hyderabad.
 
Experts say the needs of the IT sector have changed significantly over the years and unless students acquire these skills, it will be tough to secure jobs during campus placements.
 
“Just a degree in computer science engineering or information technology is not enough to secure jobs in placement drives. Those with exceptional skills in mobile applications, cloud computing etc. will have the edge over others.
 
These are the focus areas of the IT firms now,” said prof. N.V. Ramana Rao, registrar, JNTU-Hyderabad.