Untitled

“How many ?”
“3, what about you?”
“4. “

No, this is not the number of times they watched Sivaji; nor is it the number of wheels on their vehicle of choice.
It is, sadly the number of placement offers engineering graduates get these days. If you don’t have atleast three, you are not 'good enough' these days. Of course no prizes for guessing what happens to the rest of the 2. Flushed down the drain. Little do they realize what the effects are.

In this process of "de-selection", these graduates are hurting the corporates, their college, their friends, and believe it or not, themselves. Let me dwell upon each of these.

Corporates getting affected is obvious. They spend lots of money in sending a panel down; the people spend 1-2 days at the venue, make offers to whosoever qualifies. Finally, very few people actually join. Let me quote some figures here. Assuming you have a panel of 5, working for two days; resulting in 80 man hours (assuming 8 hours a day - though in reality it’s much much more). Lets multiply it by the offshore billing rate of a developer - which could be 20$/Hr. 1600$ - Rs. 64k. This is just the cost of the people. To and fro flight tickets - assuming 3000Rs/head one way - Rs 30k. Stay in a five star hotel - Rs 20k. So they spend more than 1 lac for two days; and let me again take a recent example; Accenture came to our college; I heard that about 10 of those selected are people who don’t already have offers. Which means, there is a chance they would atleast turn up. So the hit ratio is just 30%. Spare a thought for the recruitment team, whose appraisal is dependent on these numbers - they are way off their targets. No wonder corporates are now spending more time on this process. But of course, who cares! Corporates? Bah; they have loads of money. What is a lac to them?

College? Definitely yes. From the above it is clear the corporates are taking statistics seriously. They have now started keeping track of the conversion ratio for each of the colleges they visit. And if it goes below a certain rate, the college could well rule out a subsequent visit by the corporate. Of course, who cares? It is for the next batch right? I won’t have to suffer!

Your friends! I guess this is another quite obvious thing. Remember that the corporates wouldn’t usually be having a fixed number in their mind. The cut offs for their tests would be floating; which would mean, if a certain % of people don’t clear the initial cut off they had in mind, they would lower it. I have been on enough recruitment drives to know this for a certainty. But what are those guys who have already cleared test doing? They are very clearly setting the bar higher and virtually ruling out a chance for their unlucky friends who couldn’t get an offer as yet! One thing to note is that the companies which come in at later stages understand that other corporates have already visited the campus, and hence would expect a lesser standard of performance. Hence, if these people sit out, they are virtually guaranteeing their friends a job. But of course, who cares! I wanna show I'm capable of more!

But what they don’t realize is one thing - that attending many such drives, landing offers would one day land them in the soup as well. I've mentioned on how corporates are tracking conversion ratios w.r.t colleges; with advanced ERP packages on offer, corporates have now begun to keep track of people who have spurned their offers. It is being vehemently practiced for lateral recruits. That is now getting extended to the freshers as well. So, in future if you want to join a company which you rejected as a fresher, chances are they'd turn the tables on you.
Moreover, it reflects on your ability to make and back up a decision. With there being an abundance of opportunities, all freshers have an opportunity of virtually choosing which firm they want to join. My opinion is for all to exercise this option judiciously; atleast that is an ideal way to start off your career. You have made a strong decision; you are backing you decision; you are giving your friends a chance; you are giving something back to the college; and you are not harming the corporates either. C'mon its time to show some spine!