Bengaluru: Fresh engineering graduates have to undergo internships for longer period before being absorbed by the Indian IT firms in the current placement season as job market remains tough for passing out students.
According to a report in the Economic Times, employers are preferring freshers with internship experience in AI/ML, data roles, model development and analytics domains, the report pointed out.
While IT services firms are increasingly demanding internships by freshers, the global capability centres (GCCs) of multinationals are making it compulsory, it added.
The report quoting sources said that though IT services companies have resumed hiring, they are trading cautiously unlike previous years when they used to recruit students in large numbers.
Moreover, salaries of freshers in some premier institutes have been slashed by companies, it added.
After two years of lull, IT firms have again resumed hiring in the current financial year. Currently, the placement season is going on college campuses.
The top four Indian IT firms, TCS, Infosys, HCL Tech and Wipro are planning to hire more than 70,000 freshers in the current placement season.
While TCS is planning to hire around 40,000 freshers in FY24, Infosys is likely to recruit 15,000-20,000 freshers in the current season. Both HCLTech and Wipro are planning to recruit around 10,000-15,000 fresh engineering graduates each in the ongoing fiscal year.
Sources in the know also indicated that hiring has become a necessity now for the big IT firms as they have reduced their bench (number of reserved employees) significantly in the last financial year.
However, many pointed out that tier-II engineering colleges are witnessing marginal improvement in the hiring momentum despite having campus visits by top IT companies.