HYDERABAD: With as many as 56,000 IT employees to be shown the door reportedly and more to follow from several tech giants owing to automation, the laid-off techies are looking for other job opportunities. Many have been up-skilling themselves to be more marketable for the challenging times to follow in the coming years where lay-offs are predicted to be worse than this year.For Ankit Kumar (name changed), a 34-year-old techie, worked with a city-based tech giant as a functional consultant until June when he was fired without any notice period owing to the cost optimisation drive in his office.
“I had a leg fracture because of which I had to take leave from the office. But they terminated me without any notice,” he said. They gave me a three-month basic pay for my retrenchment without even giving any severance package, he alleged. He is now on a hunt for another job in the city and meeting his family needs through his savings.
“I was a project lead at Tech Mahindra for two years until last month when I was asked to go. Though I filed my petition with the labour commissioner, I got a job at Capgemini as a senior consultant with 30 per cent pay hike,” said a techie on condition of anonymity. Interestingly, some employees who have been warned for non-performance are on guard with a foresightedness to be technically skilled. Lohith, a city-based techie said that he was cross-training himself in selenium testing framework, an automation tool to deal with the future. “I am sure to leave the MNC I am working right now within five months from now landing in a start-up where my experience is valued for,” he said.