THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: While the coronavirus pandemic has hit the employment sector hard, IT companies in the state are on a hiring spree. Many large and medium companies are in the process of recruiting personnel offering high remuneration as investment in IT firms have increased over the past year.
Leading companies in the state like Infosys, TCS, Nissan, Tech Mahindra, Way.com, Ernst and Young, UST global and Quest — all based in Thiruvananthapuram — have already started recruitment, as the market swings in favour of job seekers. Some mid-sized companies have joined the hiring spree as part of their expansion plans. TCS is recruiting in both Thiruvananthapuram and Kochi while IBM is hiring people for its development centre in Kochi. Last month, Tech Mahindra appointed a resource management group — Single Point of Contact — which is a dedicated hiring team.
Ernst and Young alone has 1,000 openings in various job positions, with the recruitment process progressing virtually. Technopark-based Carestack is hiring 400 engineering graduates, including 200 freshers, while JIFFY.ai is looking for around 100 professionals in product engineering and implementation, Artificial Intelligence, and automation.
Rise in demand from investors for digitisation reason for hiring
Binu Jacob, the secretary of GTech (Group of Technology Companies), a collaborative of IT companies in the state, told TNIE that the first-line and mid-sized companies are involved in large-scale hiring due to a rise in demand from investors for digitisation of various sectors.
“There are many sectors that need to be paperless. So investments are coming in to ensure digitisation in all sectors. The investors want novel and advanced technologies and hence want experienced and skilled developers,” he said.
Another reason for the boom in the state IT job market is the demand among Keralites working in Bengaluru, Chennai and Hyderabad to move back to their hometowns. There is also the attraction of a hike amounting to double or triple the current salary. “There is a trend now of companies offering a huge hike in salary to experienced candidates in tier-2 cities like Thiruvananthapuram. Once candidates enter the notice period, they will be having four or five offer letters in hand, with hikes even up to 100% of their current salaries. But a majority of these candidates will not show up on the date of joining due to multiple job options. So we have adjusted our recruitment policies accordingly,” said M S Sivasankar, Thiruvananthapuram centre head, Agilite Group.
Prathidhwani, a welfare organisation of IT employees in Kerala, conducted a five-day virtual job fair last month in association with the Kerala Development and Innovation Strategic Council (K-DISC). More than 150 companies participated in the virtual event. It proved a huge success as more than 1,000 people received jobs from among the 3,500 openings reported in various new technologies. IBM, Wipro, Allianz, H&R Block, TATA Elxsi and many midsized companies from Thiruvananthapuram Technopark, Kochi Infopark and Kozhikode Cyberpark were among the companies that participated in the job fair.
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