If you are an engineering graduate on the lookout for an on-campus job placement offer, then here are terrible tidings. Placement offers extended to students at one of the premier technical educational universities of the State, Anna University, registered a marked decrease this year.
University officials state that the government shutdown in the US, which has affected markets worldwide, may be to blame as a majority of the companies coming here for recruitment have tightened their purse-strings and are extending offers to fewer students. Confirming this, director of the Centre for University Industry Collaboration at the varsity Dr T Thyagarajan concedes that the outlook on placements has been grim compared to last year. “The placement scenario this year has been sluggish thanks to the government shutdown in the US, which has had repercussions across the globe. Companies have shied away from recruiting in large numbers,” he says.
This is despite the fact that the number of companies visiting the campus for recruitment remains steady.
The numbers speak for themselves. According to data available on the varsity’s website, a total of 1,717 students, from both BE and ME streams from the College of Engineering Guindy, Madras Institute of Technology and A C College of Technology, landed job offers in 2012-13. However, as on Thursday, in the first two-and-a-half months ever since the placement season began this year, 42 companies have visited the campus, extending job offers to about 674 final-year students — 30 per cent of them being postgraduate students.
The companies, he adds, have been visiting Anna University due to the fact that they do not want to burn their bridges. It may be noted that early this year university officials had reportedly said that the companies had expressed their intention to cut down on recruitment.
Pay packages of the job offers range from Rs 3.5 lakh to 16 lakh.
“Since the placement season is expected to go on till February, we hope to exceed last year’s figure of job offers to students. The students are also being offered training in soft skills and communicative skills in order to help them face job interviews better,” he said.
The VI pay commission announced by the University Grants Commission has played a role in the recruitment scenario, as a good 30-35 pc of PG students take to the teaching profession year after year, says Thyagarajan.