Things are moving from bad to worse! It’s time parents lose their pride that they made their kids an engineer. After all these engineers who paid heavy college donations and spent their teen life as a book worm end up in a BPO. And all that you need to join a BPO is good communication and basic computer skills; well not a degree!!
It was bound to happen but not so soon!! Hundreds of fresher’s who got their offer letter from Wipro were asked to join BPO with half the salary!! Sudip Shah who was designated as a project engineer was given a revised salary which was half the amount and asked to join its BPO division. “I was offered Rs 2.85 lakh/year as CTC. Now I have been asked to join as a BPO staff with 1.3 lakh/year. Why is this so? This is unfair!” said Sudip of an Engineering college in Kalyani.
Campus recruitments and great on spot offers have become a distant dream. These fresher’s were offered a job last year and were assured by Wipro of job placement by February 2009 once they pass out of college.
In the letter to the candidates on November 25th, Wipro had stated, “You would be aware of the current economic environment across all industries including the IT sector. IT analysts and experts claim this scenario is likely to prevail for a while. We have looked at various options to absorb you without much delay. The nature of job is that of a “technical helpdesk engineer” instead of “project engineer” as promised earlier.”
Students later protested in front of Wipro office in vain. With Wipro and other top software companies sacking Managing Directors to top Project managers without any reason, handling these freshers would have been easy job. But looks like these fresher’s haven’t understood what’s happening in the market now!! They protested, “We have told the HR that we will accept a reduced pay structure! But will not change our designation that was offered to us last year!”. Hey fresher’s, come to terms!! There are engineers out there with years of experience who struggle to get a software job! The industry is not so simple as you think!! Getting a job itself is a miracle!
The dissenters later mentioned to Wipro that they are ready to wait even for six months but not to withdraw the appointments if they did not join BPO. It should be noted that Wipro had clearly mentioned that it would place them in BPO only. If the engineers were not to accept the BPO position, they would not be considered for any other position.
BPO is not an industry where everyone can get a job. Today’s BPO requires excellent communication and technology skills to excel. BPO skill sets has become tough nowadays and even an engineering degree would not be considered if you do not have good communication skills