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Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Mera Number Kab Aayega?


4 years prior to graduating from an engineering college, at the time of admission, all parents give the same thought, would this college fetch my beta/beti a decent job offer? Well all daddys and mummys out there, you have one more question to answer now...Would there be a recession 4 years down the line from now? Being from the elite 2008 freshers' batch, I along with many have had the privelage to bear the brunt of ongoing ominous-recession period.People have got so used to lay-offs and firing, that no one is really surprised not to find his/her system at the desk the next morning.


Inspite of really tough times, Indian MNCs like TCS and Wipro have succeeded in training all the recruited students and even assigning projects for many. Yes, there have been lay-offs even in these companies, but they were more inclined to performance basis rather than mere head-count slashing. But it's really pathetic to see a company like CTS, which is known to have the best HR policy amongst Indian MNCs not caring about the woes of a fresher. It's been more than a year since the 2008 batch has graduated, and many have not received their call-letters yet. I have seen so many of my friends and batchmates trying in vain with the CTS HR to know when possibly could they receive the letters. The automated reply service that the company has implemented has always given the same reply for over a year now. The expected date of receiving the call letters has been unconditionally postponed from Nov 2008 to Jan 2009 to Apr 2009 to Jun 2009 and in some cases to Dec 2009.

I remember a bigshot of CTS answering at the pre-placement talk in my college when asked by a student about "How good the future is for CTS" as, "I assure you we are stable atleast till 2010." Agreed that many didn't see the recession coming, but having said that by a bigshot of the company, it's so sad that none have come forward to help the students for the past 1 year. There are communities in social-networking sites named, "Victims of CTS", "CTS-CheaTerS" etc. It's not one or two, there are thousands of young hearts in the country who have faced this mental torture of being recruited and yet being pushed back. And even the few who have got the letters say they detest to be part of the company which has just ignored their concerns but are helpless as this is the only option they have in this period of recession.



8 comments:

Mayank said...

that is right...most of the Indian companies are now exploiting freshers on the name of recession..! I believe this issue needs to be addressed much more serious. We all are just sitting ducks.

PostMan said...

I agree, this is not a minor issue and has to be addressed on a bigger scale. And I don't understand how have the same companies which haven't yet called 2008 batch people recruited the 2009 batch. It's better that respective colleges watchout for such companies and warn the students atleast.

Bobinky said...

But dont you feel there should be some genuine reason behind it? I mean, what happiness do they get by recruiting people for no reason.There should have been some serious problem behind it.

PostMan said...

@Bobinky
What happiness have they got by unconditionally forcing students to wait over a year? Atleast they could have told a year back about the arrival of call-letters to be in dec 2009 so that students could have thought of other alternatives instead of waiting in vain thinking they would be called after a month or so? The "genuine" reason as you say need not be told to everyone, but definitely the company would have known its requirements and capacity well before. And being an MNC do you think it made sense for an automated reply system that's been spitting out the same reply for over an year now? This definitely doesn't come under any form of ethics.

Unknown said...

@Postman

I do not blame the companies for the current recession. All that companies were hoping is that market recovers and they offer the promised jobs to freshers. I hardly doubt if companies ever derive sadistic pleasure from making people wait. Well i do i agree that they should have been more informative and communicative about the current scenario prevalent in their companies. But u cannot blame companies for students doing nothing in anticipation of receiving offer letters soon. It has been one year and still many haven't figured out what to do with their lives. All of us have been a part of this vicious circle, all u can do when u fall is get up dust yourself off and keep moving or do nothing keep cribbing.

strings.raj said...

@ Postman

In this recession, the companies who offer services to bigger companies, have by no means, power or knowledge by which they can predict the events, as they are "dependents". The serious problem which is being experienced by many companies, is that the projects which were signed to them, are being cancelled unconditionally due to lack of funds, or trying to be in so-called "safe-mode" (cut-off spending and save). The service providers are the biggest sufferers, but the companies which work on "design and invent", are surprisingly still recruiting.

PostMan said...

@Sushanth
The blame is not on the companies. CTS simply can't send the call-letters putting it's stability at stake. But they could have informed the students well before asking them to get prepared for the worst( and that's waiting for over a year). And as far as students blindly waiting is concerned that's a total different issue. Probably you will have a post on it soon..;)

Unknown said...

It would be interested in getting a optimistic view from the company rather than a pessimistic one.