IT industry is slowing down!!! What are its implications on the student community ???

Hi All SBCEians… It is Vishal here from the EC02 batch.  I just wanted to share with you all some of the latest trends in IT.

As most of you know, the recession in US combined with depreciating Rupee value is giving sleepless nights to the CEOs of both Indian and international IT companies. The profit margin for indian IT companies is decreasing and the cost of operation shooting up. India is loosing its ranking as the favourite destination for “IT Outsourcing” to countries like srilanka, philippines,vietnam etc.

IT majors like IBM,Yahoo,Siemens,Texas Instruments and a host of top tier indian IT companies are giving pink slips to their employees or cutting the salaries in a bid to have the profit margins on the up side. And with US presidential hopefuls like Barack Obama strongly against Outsourcing, the future of indian IT industry doesn’t look very bright.

Ok, having said all these I am not trying to intimidate you guys. I am just putting forward some plain truth about the IT industry. Indian IT industry has come a long way and a complete washout is near to impossible!!! Whatever the world market statistics be, the indian IT industry is going to stay.. We will still be developing softwares and powering the machines around the world. The only thing is it is going to be a tough competition from now on..

So what does the IT slowdown implies to all the students of SBCE ???……………………………………………… It implies that getting in to a good IT company is going to be even more “harder” because the companies are cutting down their recruitments by almost 30-50 %.Then what can be done from your part to survive ????

Some suggestions from me would be :

1. Be rock solid on your technical knowledge in whatever stream you are like CS,IT,EC,Mech,BT,Electrical etc.. and prepare well for the tests. Soft skills also holds a very important role……………………….During the time we were passing out, the IT companies used to take truck loads of students and that also with a plum salary.We had a long list of recruitment drives in kerala to attend. Getting in to an IT company in those days was lot more easier compared to present scenario. But now the companies seems to be much more choosy. The tests are harder and more painful.

What I want to communicate with you all is to be strong in the technical areas. Even after getting into the company, it is the non-technical guys or the non-performers who face the axe. By being technically sound you guys can jump to better companies even if the present one looks lousy!!

2. It is always better to  have 2-3 offer letetrs rather than a single!!

I have read and noticed that a lot of IT companies are INDEFINITELY delaying the joining dates of the candidates to some future dates due to the slowdown. This means that even though you have got an offer letter from an IT company, you can’t still be sure that they will definitely call you. So better to have 2-3 offer letters in your hand, so that if one doesn’t give you a joining date you can still join the other company.

3. One more thing is to “Look Beyond IT”.

It is time to look beyond IT. There was a time when mechanical engineers, civil engineers, chemical engineers etc & etc used to be the front runners for securing an IT job.  The explanation of choosing  IT field to core engineering field was the fat pay package offered by the IT companies compared to the traditional engineering companies. But now I think it is time to rethink over this approach.There are lot of core engineering fields like automotive,mechanical, electronics, communication etc, which generates a lot of job oppurtunities and are more or less immune to the global financial turbulence. And morever they are also now giving handsome pay packages .

4. Start your own company.

—- “It is time to not go to work. It is time to get people to work for you”. May be this might not be practical to all of you, but for some it may!!! Come On!!, who knows one of you will be building the next “Infosys” or “Wipro” or “Reliance” or “Google” or “Microsoft”… The list will go on and on and on…

Regards,

Vishal