Placement blues on campuses

By M H Ahssan

Engineering Students To Graduate Soon But Companies Have No Jobs To Offer

Placement sessions in top engineering colleges in the city are yet to begin though final year students will soon graduate. In some institutions, placement sessions are getting endlessly postponed and interview dates being cancelled.

Though institutions were not too positive about recruitments this year due to the economic meltdown, a complete job freeze by companies was not expected. Some companies which had given offer letters to students have backed out from their promise by suspending their recruitment for six months. “We expected about a 20 per cent drop in the job market. But the meltdown has hit freshers badly as no company is even ready to hold interviews,” placement office of JNTU, Hyderabad, K Eswara Prasad said.

He said 60 per cent of the students are yet to get offer letters. The companies willing to recruit students include national companies with their bases in the city.

“Their requirements are not as big as the MNCs and other big companies which used to come for placements. Hence the number of students getting placements this year is also less,” a student said.

He said the students who got placements had got them as early as February 2008 when the meltdown blues had not started.

The placement session at Osmania University engineering college has been postponed twice as companies kept cancelling interview dates. “Only reputed companies in the market were allowed to participate in the recruitment process. We are now forced to call companies not included in the recruiters list earlier,” placement officer, JNTU said, V Uma Maheshwar said. When OU had a placement of 100 per cent in February 2008, it has not gone beyond 50 per cent this year.

The salary packages being offered by the companies are also less when compared to the previous year. While last year saw an all-time high of Rs 18 lakh per annum in JNTU and Rs 10.2 lakh per annum in Osmania University it has reduced to Rs 6.5-7 lakh in both the universities.

While at least five students shared the top salaries last year, this year only one person each has got the top salary in both the universities.

Students who graduated last year and were given offer letters by companies, however, complain that they have been kept waiting with no signs of being given the jobs so far. The students have lodged a complaint to the college authorities and Andhra Pradesh State Council of Higher Education (APSCHE) on the matter.