Slow IT growth forcing Infosys and Wipro to abandon mass hirings

Slow IT growth is a cause of Concern

India’s $160-billion IT industry is having a bumpy ride this year. As the demands for IT services continues falling, the brunt of this slowdown has now started affecting job seekers too.

Many IT companies, including giants like Infosys and Wipro has hinted a more selective approach in their future hirings. This departure from the conventional “mass hiring” strategy that all IT biggies had followed for the past two decades is expected to impact freshers more than anybody else.

In an interview with Times of India, Binod Hampapur Rangadore, an Infosys veteran, stated that the company plans to tighten its hiring processes at campus.

“We are trying to see how we can improve the quality of hiring — that is something we’re working on. In the yesteryears, more number of people were being taken from various colleges, the good people would get distributed across.This year, that kind of recruitments in colleges may go down with fewer companies going to the campuses — the economy is a little tight, so job markets will be tougher,” said Rangadore, who is currently leading Infosys’ quality unit and government relations.

Entry-level salaries have not seen any major increase for nearly a decade now. Most companies still offer freshers a starting package of 3Rs .25 lakh to Rs 3.5 lac per annum. Only two major companies offered salary hikes last year including US-based Cognizant and India’s TCS. The hikes were only marginal, though. Cognizant raised salaries of freshers from Rs 3.05 lac to Rs 3.35 lac whereas TCS increased the same from Rs 3.18 lac to Rs 3.30 lac.

“It’s an affordability issue. Of course we would like to give more money to freshers and like to retain those people. But today the volumes are there — so any small change you make, it will cost you because the volumes are high,” said Rangadore.