Advertisements in mainline papers result in a deluge which the companies are often not able to manage. Mr. Murlidharan said that this chore is passed on to the lowest common denominator in the office who really does not do justice to the applications.

One of the emerging trends in this sector is to outsource response management. TMI Network for instance, has been offering this service, he said.

"People who apply for a particular post must be given a response, wheither it is negative or positive is irrelevant. If the applicant does not get a response, the company's credibility is at stake.''

One of the current problems facing IT companies is that applicants tend to bluff their credentials, especially on the experience bit.

This is an offshoot of the high pressure `plug and play' syndrome in the sector, where candidates are required to start working from the word go.

Most often one advertisement in a mainline daily would draw as many as 2000 applications. If justice has to be done to all the applicants then online tests must be conducted.
Mr. Murlidharan said that TMI was in talks with an international company to develop tests which would knock off the candidates without the required skills.

The recruitment advertisements also carry detailed information about the companies and the kind of projects they are undertaking, which helps these companies build a corporate identity.
Mr. A.V Kurup, Human Resources (HR) Manager, Kale Consultants Ltd, said that most companies are fishing for people with two years and less experience and the only skill which is targeted is the `tech' skill. ``The ones with more than two years experience are not available for projects based in India.''

Companies sometimes build this image, city by city. Mr. Kurup said that Kale Consultants, for instance, has a strong presence in Mumbai, and thus finds the recruitment process easier there. In Chennai, where it is fairly new, the company has had to go in for the recruitment ads.

It is not just the candidates who are not quite straight about their skills; companies which release the big ads may not always be upfront about their projects.
Once the ad draws the numbers required for a particular project, the company's pointsman in the US pitches for project said an industry source. ``Technology is no longer an issue,'' a source said. ``It is the number of people you can muster.''

On the flip side, advertising agencies which were badly hit by the recession and low ad spends are perking up with the new business coming their way from the off-shore IT companies, according to Mr. U. Jayraj Rau, Vice President, Hindustan Thompson Associates (HTA).

index       top