Indian IT Firms Begin Hiring From Campuses

Campus hiring has been better this year because many companies have already tightened taking new employees so much that they started visiting campuses again -- Aditya Narayan Mishra, CEO of CIEL HR Services, tells Bizz Buzz

Bengaluru: IT hiring through campus placement has gone up this year though several foreign technology firms stayed away from the placement process or hired far less numbers than previous years.

Experts in the HR industry said that campus placement of freshers by Indian IT services companies has been one of the high points of 2024. This has come after a relative non-activity in campuses by IT firms last year.

“Campus hiring has been better this year because many companies have already tightened it (taking new employees) so much that they started visiting campuses again and gave offer letters. This is a change from last year,” Aditya Narayan Mishra, CEO of CIEL HR Services told Bizz Buzz.

In 2023, campus hiring by Indian technology firms was very low as most firms reduced their headcount in order to optimise cost amid demand slowdown.

However, most Indian IT firms have visited campuses this year and gave offer letters, indicating a turnaround in fresher recruitment.

While domestic IT services companies have given offer letters by visiting campuses, many of the global giants have lowered their hiring activity this year by giving lesser number of offer letters. Many others have given campus visits a miss this year.

“There was a stress in IITs, NITs and others in placements. Many of them have laid-off people. So, they have been very cautious in the hiring front and some firms have reduced hiring numbers,” Mishra of CIEL HR Services said. In 2024, the top four IT services firms in India have indicated that that they intend to hire around 70,000fresh engineering graduates in the current financial year.

While TCS plans to hire 40,000 freshers, Infosys is also planning to recruit 15,000-20,000 freshers inthe ongoing financial year. Similarly, Wipro is planning to hire around 10,000-12,000 fresh graduatesthis year. HCLTech is also likely to recruit about 10,000 freshers. Combined with mid-tier IT andengineering services firms’ hiring, around 1 lakh freshers have received offerletters during the current placement season.

Meanwhile, experts also pointed out that generative AI (GenAI) has emerged as a key area of hiring, which is new in 2024.

“GenAI has been the newest technology area, which is big in 2024 (in terms of hiring),” Mishra said.

Apart from GenAI; other emerging technology areas like cloud computing, data analytics, and related spaces remain top areas of hiring this year.