The changing landscape of campus placements in Tamil Nadu Premium

College placement concerns for 2023-24 academic year due to IT industry downturn and changing hiring trends.

Last September, during the second quarter of the academic year 2023-24, college placement cells were concerned that students graduating in May 2024 would face a challenging time, as companies were cutting back on hiring. They were anticipating lower placement scenarios, as the Information Technology (IT) industry sector had been expecting a turbulent phase, and was risk averse.

Some industry observers blamed the Covid-19 pandemic- induced lockdown for having robbed from students, the opportunity for hands-on experience and the developing of interpersonal skills at workplace settings. K.E. Raghunathan, national chairman, Association of Indian Entrepreneurs, observed that placements drives would have been better but for the pandemic. “The present batch of students underwent at least one year under the Covid-19 lockdown phase, where they lost practical experiences and missed out on in-person classes, affecting their interpersonal and communication skills,” he said.

Most students depend on campus placements, as such recruitments ensure a higher pay scale as compared to direct walk-ins and through Human Resources (HR) consultancies.  Campus placements have been a disappointment however, for engineering students this year, who had centred their hopes on landing a job in an IT company. Four years ago, when these students enrolled for an engineering degree, the IT industry was hiring from campuses in bulk, but not this year. Colleges report that while compared to previous years, the number of IT campus placements have come down, companies are now focusing on specialised skill sets among students. Even in arts and science colleges, students who took up technical courses and commerce graduates followed by those from science disciplines, have had it better than engineering students, said placement officials. 

The downturn in the IT industry will impact students across engineering courses, experts said. Students pointed out that the IT sector not only pays well, but also gives several allowances and increments. Therefore even who chose streams such as mechanical and civil engineering are equally concerned. A mechanical engineering student at a city college said: “IT firms hire students from across departments. So even if we don’t get placed in the core sector, we had always believed we would have IT as a section option.” 

Director of the Centre for University Industry Collaboration, Anna University, K. Shanmugasundaram, said IT companies such as Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and Wipro, who generally recruit in large numbers, had their own selection process and did not come to campuses this year. However, core companies that planned to establish plants in the State and those developing products, had come. “The companies decided to select 250 engineers from India. At Anna University we had only 60 students with the required skills and of these, 70% have been placed,” he said.  

The University conducted a pooled placement programme for its 16 constituent colleges. “Smaller companies wanted a larger pool, and so, we held pooled placement drive,” he said. At Anna University, of the 1,700 eligible candidates for placement 1,125 (60%) have received an offer. On average, 90% of undergraduate students in all IT and circuit branches have been placed, varsity officials said.

This year, about 95% of students in Compute Science Engineering (CSE) and IT, as well as exclusive branches such as printing, biotechnology and mining also received offers. Around 70% of students in the ceramic engineering department were hired as well, Mr. Shanmugasundaram said.