The truth about IT cats & dogs

June 24, 2004

There are two kinds of engineering students in India -- the cats whom all companies run after, and the underdogs, who are running after the companies. The cats usually bag the cool jobs which pay you well, send you abroad and keep you far far away from sweaty industrial shopfloors. 55,000 such cats found employment with the likes of Infosys, Wipro, TCS and other such companies in 2003-2004, by Nasscom estimates. But considering that India produces over 300,000 engineers annually, it's a dog's life for many fresh graduates out there.

So, what is it that separates the IT cats from the dogs? It's a question that needs to be asked, as yet another admissions season is upon us. The mad rush for engineering seats continues fuelled by this simple logic: Engineering has more value in the job market than an 'ordinary' BSc. And the jobs that are fuelling this perception are the lucrative software careers. Few would be happy building roads and bridges or working in factories -- as previous generations of engineers did.

Let's face it -- an engineering degree is a means to an end, not an end in itself. But it can turn into a dead end if you don't keep the following facts in mind:

* It's not what you study, but where you study that counts: Always, always choose college over branch. The reputation of a college is what determines campus placement prospects. This might mean doing civil engineering at VJTI although you have little interest in the subject. Live with it. At the end of 4 years, a bunch of software companies will visit the campus. If you pass their aptitude test and interviews, you're in.

It sounds illogical but companies look at it this way. "We believe in the generic concept of learnability," says Hema Ravichander, Senior VP (HR) at Infosys. "This, we define as the ability of the individual to derive generic knowledge from specific experiences and apply the same to future contexts." So when the company visits a campus engineers from any stream are welcome to apply for the aptitude test. All recruits are subsequently put through 14 1/2 weeks of intense training.

The scene at Wipro is similar. "At one time, we insisted on BE Electronics/Computer Science," says Ranjan Acharya, corporate VP, HRD, Wipro. "Now we look at basic analytical ability, understanding and grasping power." Wipro has a 45-day training program for computer engineers, and a longer one of 70-days for those from other streams.

Here's the catch, though. Infosys visits 60 to 70 engineering colleges for campus placements annually. IITs, NITs and a few top colleges in every state make up that list. "Historical relationship, performance of hires from a particular campus, ratio of offers made:joined are the main factors which determine which colleges we visit for placement year after year," says Ms Ravichander. Wipro visits 120 colleges, but its intake is less than Infy. TCS is the other large recruiter which visits about 130 colleges.

A relatively new recruiter -- Cognizant Technologies -- has also started hiring aggressively from premier engineering campuses. The company planned to pick up 60% of its targetted 4,000 new recruits for 2004 through campus placements.

* Performance does matter: The top software companies are pretty sticky when it comes to grades. It's not enough to just get into a great college, you must perform once you get there. Consistency is a very important -- companies will look at your grades right from class X onwards and expect to see a first class through all years of engineering. ATKTs (Allowed To Keep Term despite failing a subject) or dropped years are a strict no no.

This is a tall order, especially in some universities like Mumbai known for its vagaries, which often affect even the brightest students. As a popular shayari on Mumbai engineering campuses goes: Woh baap hi kya jiski beti nahin... Woh engineer hi kya jiski ATKT nahin.

Jokes apart, performance is key even if you get into a college which doesn't have attractive campus placements. A 60% throughout your engineering career ensures you still have a shot at your dream job. You can apply when these companies conduct aptitude tests off-campus.

The story goes like this. Companies have to make offers through the campus placement route, 12 to 15 months before the actual joining date. A lot can happen during this period -- often requirements drastically change. So a certain % of freshers are taken in at a later date, through off campus hiring. Infosys for example will visit various cities and test up to 10,000 applicants in a single day. Graduates from any engineering college can apply, as long as they have a first class throughout.

Aptitude tests normally cover arithmetic and analytical skills, GDs (group discussions) gauge communication skills and in the interview applicants are usually quizzed on basics from their core subjects. Any project work you may have done, as well as extra technical knowledge, eg having leant a popular programming language could help tip the scales in your favour.

Since many engineers are eventually put on the project management track, qualities such as leadership skills, teamwork and all round personality also matter.

* The year you graduate matters: An engineering course takes 4 years to complete. A lot can happen in the IT world in that time.

Some factors are simply not in your control. The graduating class of 2002 had a tough time finding jobs. 2003 was better, and the current year -- 2004 -- has seen a boom in demand for freshers. Infosys alone recruited 10,000 employees, a majority of them straight from engineering campuses. At Bangalore's RV College of Engineering 43% of the 460 students seeking placement were recruited by just 4 software companies -- Infy, TCS, Syntel and Cognizant.

This upward trend is expected to continue. But if you are entering an engineering college today, it's hard to tell exactly what the job scene will look like in 2008. Especially since the ups and downs in the US economy directly affect the fortunes of Indian software companies.

In boom years, students have more choices and better prospects. For example, at IIT Chennai last year, a strange thing happened. Less than half of the 450 eligible students took the TCS aptitude test. And there wasn't a single computer science student in that lot. Why? The salaries offered by Indian software companies (in the Rs 1.8 lakh to Rs 4 lakh per annum range) weren't attractive enough compared to other recruiters like McKinsey (Rs 7 lakhs pa), Intel and HLL (both offered Rs 4.6 lakhs pa).

In a tough year such as 2002 there was a major hue and cry when Infosys hinted it was reconsidering some of the offers made on the IIT campus several months earlier. The offers were later honoured. Companies realise that some years are hard on freshers. For example, in February 2004 TCS continued to invite entry level applications from engineers who had graduated in 2002 and 2003, as long as they had not been interviewed by the company within the last 6 months.

* You're no 22, try harder: It's true that graduating from a lesser known engineering school may mean you leave campus without a job. But it's not the end of the world. It simply means you have to conduct your own jobhunt. Respond to ads in newspapers, upload your resume on job sites and start doing the rounds of companies. Staying in touch with friends and seniors who've already got jobs is a great way to get to know about openings and entrance tests. Some companies actually prefer to recruit through employee referrals.

The good news is, a sustained effort of 3 to 6 months usually gets you a job. The important thing is to stay optimistic! As an underdog, you may end up joining an underdog company, ie a smaller outfit. But with the right experience and skills picked up along the way you can always hop, skip and jump your way to the software company of your dreams.

* Engineers@call centres: Last but not the least -- the call centre option. BPO outfits such as Wipro Spectramind actively recruit engineers, paying them higher salaries than regular graduates. And they have no dearth of applicants. But most engineers see call centre jobs -- even if they're in technical support -- only as a short term option.

If things don't work out on the software front, there's always the option of going in for higher studies. Which for most, boils down to an MBA. But remember, there are two kinds of MBA students in India -- the cats whom all companies run after, and the underdogs, who are running after the companies... But that, is another story waiting to be old.

Rashmi Bansal is an IIM Ahmedabad graduate and founder-editor of the popular youth magazine JAM www.jammag.com

She can be reached at [email protected]

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If you ain't a cat, don't worry!

July 13, 2004

There are two kinds of career paths in India -- the 'safe' ones that bring in crisp, kadak salary slips by age 23 and the 'risky' ones which pay off in the longer run, given a mix of time, talent and unwavering personal faith. Which basket does middle class India put its eggs in? Doesn't take a genius to figure that one out!

The rush for medicine and engineering seats continues unabated, despite the fact that these degrees are no longer guarantees for a 'good job' or a 'chance to go abroad'. The demand for professional courses is so high that hundreds of colleges have sprouted up in the last decade. Most of these are literally 'sweatshops' -- the students sweat it out with meagre facilities while the teaching shop rakes in ready cash for the management.

So, you can do 'computer science' from some God forsaken college in Navi Mumbai or Karnataka and find that in reality, you are as much (or as little) 'in demand' as an ordinary BSc graduate. This is terribly demoralising for two reasons:

a. You have spent four years ragdoing at a course far more rigorous than a regular degree, sacrificing most of the simple pleasures of college life. Extra curriculars at small time engineering colleges are phenomenon sighted as rarely as Manmohan Singh cutting ceremonial ribbons on television!

b. You have spent at least a couple of lakhs on an education which has little perceived value in the job market.

As the editor of a youth magazine (JAM) I have seen the agony of hundreds of students stuck in this bind. "Why didn't someone warn us it would be like this?!" is a common refrain. This was the context in which I wrote 'The Truth about IT cats and dogs.' The article provoked some pretty strong responses -- it has in fact been raining cats and dogs in my mailbox for the last two weeks.

There have been two kinds of reactions: Appreciative purrs ('wow this Is exactly what I went through') and indignant grrrs (what-the-hell-advice-is-this).

A typical hellraiser writes: 'The nature of jobs done by Infosys, Wipro and TCS are not suited for Engineers (Comp. science may be an exception). Fifty over years of independence we still don't have our own planes, efficient automobiles, good roads and other infrastructure. Engineering graduates have to do more for our Nation.'.

Should engineers take pride in building roads, dams and bridges? Of course! But is that the reality? It is unfortunately not. Let's get this basic fact straight. Most 16 year olds slogging over their PCM portion don't have an inherent interest in engineering. It's an option arrived at by process of elimination after class 10.

'I have the marks for science but I don't like medicine, ergo I'll try for engineering.' Science has more 'scope.' One has the option of shifting to commerce or (God forbid!) arts after class 12 science but not vice versa.

To those who have quite rightly accused me of 'misdirecting aspiring engineering students to just go ahead and take admission for whichever branch they get,' my point is this. The 'choice' as far as stream of engineering goes is pretty limited. Limited by the marks you get at the state board exam or your entrance exam/JEE rank. The top dogs invariably opt for computers or electronics. The rest take what they get.

Does every top ranker have an inherent passion for computers and electronics? Yes, but merely because these streams are perceived to have better 'scope.' And on a more practical level, most students have used PCs but have never seen lathes and machine tools. They can envision themselves writing software in a slick a/c office in Bangalore, not standing in factory overalls on an industrial shop floor.

The more 'old economy' and 'get your hands dirty' the course is, the less it is in demand. The odd maverick will fight the trend and opt for say, Metallurgy even though he could've 'done better.' But this is the rare bewakoof. Sense and Sensibility may have been written by Jane Austen but it is the personal yardstick middle class India lives by.

I am firmly of the opinion that a student's passions and interests should rule his or her career choices. But the System does not support that.

In the case of engineering, students should not have to make choices at the time of admission. They should get exposure to all branches of engineering for a year and then make a decision.

At this point, if most wish to take up computer science -- so be it.

That will straight away eliminate the farce of mechanical engineers biding their time until they are picked up by a software company. If the IT sector is hungry for engineers -- and this appetite is only expected to grow further -- why not produce more of the right kind of engineers?

Let only certain colleges offer less popular branches like mechanical and civil. Market forces will once again kick in. Once Mech and Civil engineers are in shorter supply they will definitely command a better price. Besides, only those actually interested will opt for these courses and hence make better and more committed professionals.

To take the argument further, Arts students should actually have the option of taking some science courses and vice versa. Interests and passions can only be discovered when you are exposed to diverse thoughts, ideas and subjects. So if at some point of time during one's graduation -- as in the American system -- one seeks to change one's major it should be no big deal.

Fat chance! Citing problems of resources and faculty, no Indian college currently offers such flexibility. But a deeper rooted reason is the innate urge in us all to seek order and stability. Rigidity in choice of streams and majors gives the illusion of having once and for all decided where you are headed. And this is exactly what the Great Indian Middle Class parent most desires -- a well charted out future.

For example, the new rage in Mumbai are the BMM (Bachelor's in Mass Media) and BMS (Bachelor's in Management Studies) courses. Both media and management have traditionally been courses taken up after graduation 'in any stream.' The aajkal ki thinking is -- let me take it up at bachelor's level itself and get a 'headstart.'

Now this is a great philosophy if you were to take up a job -- any job at any pay -- after the bachelor's, get some experience and then decide to go for a master's. Instead, the BMS graduate invariably takes a year off to attempt CAT and other management entrance exams -- and there's no visible edge he or she has over the ordinary graduates.

Even at the IIMs, Year 2 is pretty redundant in terms of incremental academic learning. Hence, the rationale of spending FIVE years studying management completely eludes me. Uni-dimensional individuals do not great leaders make! In fact, a uni-dimensional approach to anything in life rarely works.

Perhaps being an underdog -- and therefore not getting picked up on campus like the cats -- is the best thing that could happen to you. The initial break may be hard to get and the stipend low but there is more hunger to prove yourself when there is no 'brand name' to cling to. And, the work at smaller companies often turns out to be more meaningful and interesting. Prompting many to spurn offers from the IT giants who once spurned them.

Cats and dogs aside, the core issue to me remains that of square pegs in round holes -- people choosing the 'right' careers for the wrong reasons.

As Po Bronson, author of the inspirational book, What Should I Do with My Life, predicts, 'Individual success will not be attained by migrating to a particular 'hot' industry, or by adopting a particular career guiding mantra… Instead, the individuals that thrive will do so because they focussed on the question of who they really are, and from that they found work that they truly love, and in so doing unleashed a productive and creative power they never imagined.'

Can we shift the paradigm and unleash this power within?

Rashmi Bansal is an IIM-Ahmedabad graduate and founder-editor of the popular youth magazine JAM (www.jammag.com). She can be reached at [email protected]