Anybody There?

It was only through DQ Top20, the annual national survey of
the Indian IT industry, that we discovered the changing face of recruitments. It
is emerging that while on one hand there is a huge demand for IT professionals,
there is clearly a shortage of good and experienced people.

The year 2005-06 was once again a frenzied year in terms of
orders bagged, M&As, and revenue growth. Therefore, the placement cells in
colleges and universities had a great time too. The industry grew by over 35%
last year and added over 7 lakh people. The year before, over 3,40,000 new jobs
were created in the Indian IT industry. As Indian companies get more
international orders and also the domestic market sees more IT being
implemented, there would be over 11 lakh new people required next year. Where
are these many people going to come from? And will they be of the desired
quality?

Diverting a little, just look at the numbers. In 2005-06,
TCS hired almost 14,000 freshers. At Infosys, which was the biggest recruiter
last year, over 75% of the people taken in were fresh out of college. There are
various reasons for hiring so many freshers, even when the stakes, in terms of
the size of the orders, and quality and timeliness of delivery, are assuming
large proportions. First, freshers are cheaper. Secondly, they can wait on the
benches for longer than experienced people, in case unexpected requirements come
in. And training them is easier. Nothing against freshers, but it seems that in
the years to come, the industry will need to hire more freshers. This could put
the growing Indian IT on the back-foot.

As the number of big orders and long-term projects being
bagged by Indian companies is increasing, it is actually becoming more and more
difficult to take the load off entry-level managers. Yet, this is the call of
the day for a sound long-term plan.

The other problem, and a big one I must say, is that of the
gap between what the academic institutes are churning out and what the industry
needs. As Dataquest has documented, there is hardly any interaction between the
syllabus designers at colleges and institutes and the industry, which is where
the end products have to finally find employment. As expected, the industry
blames the education system, and the academia blames the industry. The industry
and the academia need to sit down and work out some key areas and action points.
That is where all the focus will have to be. It is not just in the interest of
the industry but also for the educational institutes. There would hardly be any
demand for IT education if the Indian IT boom begins to slowdown-just because
of lack of good people.

The government, along with industry bodies such as Nasscom,
will also need to take this up on a priority basis. Right now, nothing much
seems to be happening there. At least there is not much action, even if there
are some plans in place.

Not really a connected issue, Indian companies are today
also looking at other countries for hiring people. This is happening because of
two reasons. First, because Indian companies are now expanding globally and need
more local people. And secondly, they need to adopt international practices and
local market expertise. In fact Infosys is even recruiting US graduates for
India. This could be a good source till the time India gears up.