Wipro on recruitment spree; hires 157 engineers (TOI - Engineering Colleges Tamil Nadu)

This is the second phase of the Tamil Nadu State Level Placement Programme, organised by Anna University to make one last attempt to get jobs for students filtered out by companies during campus placement sessions in affiliated colleges over the last year.

Software developers Cognizant also picked up around 150 candidates from a group of students shortlisted based on their academic performance over the last four years. While Cognizant conducted their recruitment process in Chennai, Wipro held the interactions in Dindigul on February 7 and 8. A written test will be held on the first day and shortlisted candidates will be interviewed on the second day.
The 2011 placement season is widely considered to have been better than last year despite talks of a recession earlier this year. Leading corporates recruited more than 1,000 candidates from a single campus in a few institutions in the state. However, in some self-financing engineering colleges, students protested against the college management for failing to conduct campus placements or getting companies to visit their campus. As the season ends, students in several of these colleges have still not been able to land jobs. 
The Centre for University-Industry collaboration of the university is taking the initiative to help a few bright students from self-financing engineering colleges find placements before they graduate. "We received inputs from top companies that they require only 1,500 candidates. The selection criteria have been decided keeping this in mind," said Anna University vice-chancellor P Mannar Jawahar.
The eligibility criteria for participation in this placement programme are higher than in campus placement sessions conducted by individual colleges. Often, colleges are able to convince companies to pick students with lower criteria because of their good ties with the particular company. "It is easier to get a job in our own campus placement than here, because corporates will give no consideration for a particular college and only the best will be recruited. Placement officers will not be able to push their candidates, whereas in our campus placement even students with arrears will be able to land jobs sometimes," said a final year student of a self-financing engineering college in the city, who declined to be named.