Date:03/12/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/12/03/stories/2008120359920400.htm

Karnataka - Bangalore

Wipro campus placements dip

Staff Reporter

Number of students selected has come down to 8,000
Company adopting ‘wait and watch’ policy

Bangalore: The number of students selected through campus recruitment by Wipro has come down from 13,500 to 8,000 this year.

Addressing presspersons here on Tuesday, Pradeep Bahirwani, Vice-President (Talent Acquisition), Wipro Technologies, said that the company would reveal its plans of recruiting these students in its next quarter.

Wipro Technologies has been in the news after the engineering graduates chosen through campus recruitment were offered jobs in the company’s BPO division. The graduates were given offer letters for jobs in the IT services segment.

Mr. Bahirwani said that this was part of its new initiative to let engineering graduates commence work without delay.

“It is a here-and-now opportunity. These graduates will join the BPO division as technical support engineers. Technical support roles require engineering graduates. It is sort of win-win situation for both graduates and the company,” he said.

He said that the company had retained the salary stack (ranging from Rs. 2.75 lakh to Rs. 3.25 lakh), as per the original offer letter.

“Their experience at the BPO will be considered relevant and continuous when they move into the IT services after 12 to 18 months. If the students choose not to take up the BPO option, the offer for IT services holds good,” he said.

Mr. Bahirwani said the company continued to on-board campus recruits as per business requirements. “Accepted that there is recession. When the offers were made, the situation was robust. We are anticipating delays, and we have adopted a ‘wait and watch’ policy.”