Discover the World beyond a Campus Placement

Sarath Syam
The trains and interstate bus services from Bangalore are always crowded on Friday evenings. It was in the November month of 2013, the travel agencies were surprised with the same kind of weekend-rush on a Thursday evening, even though there was no holiday announced on that particular weekend. Most of these added travelers were fresh engineering graduates from the nearby states like Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. A curious case of a serious cheating unfolds here.

They packed their bags from their hometowns to the IT – Hub, with an offer letter from anonymous IT Startup Company based in Bangalore. Interestingly, most of them failed to get placed from their campuses and were desperately waiting for an opening anywhere. The company exploited the desperation of these fresh graduates and sacked them by offering a lucrative offer of Rs. 20,000 per month. However, the company had a tricky prerequisite for this job. Candidates had to pay a cautionary deposit of Rs. 25,000 in the company's account. With this fake offer, the company recruited more than 10,000 students from various locations all over Southern India through off-campus drives and brought them to Bangalore in the name of training. The happy bunch of trainees arrived in Bangalore on last week of September 2013 and they attended the training classes without knowing that their glee will not last long. In a span of one month, the people behind the recruitment vanished without a trace. Apart from the bank account where the students deposited their valuable money, whatever happened was a fake adaptation of a recruiting drive. Alas, for the victims of this coup, it was a late realization.

If someone decides to delve more into such incidents, he/she can find many more such fraudulent cases taking place in various cities all over the country as faking a recruiter is not a new idea in the market. While the numbers of such faulty coins are rising steadily, only one thing can help the students from becoming a victim. It is nothing but one's own willpower to wait for the true opportunities.

Do not lose Hope

In this highly competitive world, many graduates believe that, if they failed to get a good job from campus, then their life will become miserable. They need to understand that campus placements are only one among the many opportunities for students to get a job immediately after their studies. Therefore, one who could not find a job at the end of their graduation should always keep their hopes alive. There are many companies in the industry, who need fresh talents. However, they are not ready to knock on the doors of campuses. Students can use the help of their seniors in finding such companies. It is a safer route than approaching any job consultancy.

After listing out the companies that are hiring fresh graduates, write to the company directly stating the interest level in working with them. While writing to them, do not simply attach the resume and say you look forward to hearing back from them. Instead of that, ask for a conversation and if luck favors some will respond. Even if no one responds, it is not a failure again - there are many more paths to tread.

An individual can become an entrepreneur, politician, creative worker and many more. However, one of the many unwritten rules in the modern society, which is not valid anymore, is that, if an individual has studied engineering, then he/she should choose the IT sector or any other technology job that will pay like the IT sector. It is true that, IT companies recruit largely from campuses and pay fat paychecks to the employees. However, it does not mean that, they are the only job providers in the country. An engineering graduate can hit upon many more avenues. However, until individual finds his/her actual potential, these avenues will always remain hidden from them.

In a state like Tamil Nadu, which is known for hosting huge number of engineering colleges, over 3.3 lakh engineering graduates, including 1.59 lakh postgraduates (ME, MTech), are waiting for jobs after registering their names with the State Employment Exchange. While, the unemployment ratio is steeping steadily in Tamil Nadu, other states in the country also have the similar statistics to display. The figures of unemployment may vary in different states, however, the suffering community faces the same fate. If job is the ultimate aim of our engineering graduates, then they need to break the barrier of niche job concepts and start exploring their own abilities, which will definitely open up a path towards a new career and a new perspective to their life.

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