The job cuts are real ....
The job cuts are real ....
2009-02-06T07:07:18
Till now, there was no news of any of my students losing their job ... But just now, I got a call from a student who was waiting to join Siemens after his training ... he said that the company has terminated about 170 employees, including himself. One would believe that with all this news of "recession", people are going to become a bit more serious and not rest on the belief that the Infy's and Wipro's and Maytas's would come to the campus and "recruit" all those who don't know how to print "hello, world" - but the situation is just the opposite. Students simply don't care. There are dozens of private colleges in Kerala churning out "engineers" by the thousands - most of these guys who lack the basic skills (and the attitude, which is more important) to do any kind of "engineering" survived because of the mass intake by IT companies who used them to do brain-dead copy-paste jobs - these people will have to look for other jobs - banks, government offices, colleges ... I already have one student who is "placed" in a bank! One interesting effect of the recession will be seen during this year's admission time (to engineering colleges) - people will go for Electronics, Electrical, Mechanical and even Chemical and Civil Engineering and will try to avoid Computer Science because, yes, you guessed it, the IT industry has crashed! Some people will even go so far as to tell you that the recession was caused by the IT industry! If some of your friends/family start peddling this line, tell them that the recession was not caused by poor programmers - as far as we know, it was caused by good-for-nothing greedy financial manipulators - the IT industry, as well as all other industries, have been affected by it, and if you love computers and programming, you will do a good thing by opting for Computer Science! The bad times won't last for long (let's hope so) ....
Pramode C.E
Sat Feb 21 10:03:04 2009
Nice to hear from you, Sudeep! Where are you doing your PhD?
sreelakshmi
Tue Feb 17 04:19:33 2009
Guess I'm a little late in here. But wanted to add to the 'me too' chorus. SiRF closed the Bangalore centre in December, effectively laying off everyone from VP to security and in-between. So there :) I, for one, am taking it a little easy. After a non-stop 5 yr long mad rush of home-traffic-office-traffic-instant_meal-bed-backtothedrill, this is a welcome change. So long as I don't get into a rut. Doing some time at a startup with some friends, anyways none of the jobs out there are to die for, though the money still holds some sway. Given multiple EMIs and loans.. Specimen eh?
deepthi
Tue Feb 24 08:25:12 2009
hello sir!!!
Sayamindu
Fri Feb 6 08:06:08 2009
I graduated from college last year, and the situation is quite worrying. A large chunk of my batchmates had been recruited by Wipro, who asked them last month to join their BPO division, and now they are getting trained to become customer-service-reps for British Telecom. The only company which seems to have kept its commitment is Infosys and among 60 odd students from out batch, right now, only 10 seem to be actually working/getting training now, with the rest either waiting for their calls, or working in call centers.
divya
Fri Feb 6 07:43:07 2009
Yes sir, 170 of us are fired. Also heard that around 50 from the previous batch is under threat. We are back to job hunting now..!
sajith
Fri Feb 6 07:58:59 2009
It's deja vu all over again. :-) Back in 2002, I was sitting around in the campus, minding my own business. Another recession season, and so not many people had made it via campus placements. This father and son duo showed up to check out the campus - son had was waiting admission call, and they were asking us what course to choose, CS or EE? I tell the son that he should choose whichever that appeals to him, but the father is most unconvinced: everybody knows that there're no jobs in software now! If he choose EE he can do both hardware and software! If he do CS he has no such luxury of choice! Hehe. I think it takes deep cultural changes for parents to encourage their children to take up whichever course of life that appeals to them, including those that are seemingly riskier. Middle class Malayalee parents are fundamentally overprotective, insecure, ruled by a kind of herd mentality and therefore can't just allow their children to take up what appears to be fringe/alternate careers. And this herd mentality kind of explains all seasonal fads from "blade"/teak/manchiyam/goat businesses of old days to numerous professional colleges of today. Can't really blame anyone, because we are are here after long periods of mass unemployment problem...
Pramode C.E
Wed Feb 18 06:14:30 2009
hi sreelakshmi, I was aware of the SiRF layoff's ... Best of luck for the startup!
Manu K Mohan
Fri Feb 13 17:10:39 2009
Sir, you replied to Sajith: "the best our parents could have done was to push us to “study” whatever it takes to get a job........" I would like to complete that by saying that "parents push us to study to get a job, having more salary than neighbour's son." This is what they where thinking when I asked for going to Engg. If I asked for doing medical,they still will allow.But instead if I have asked that I want to do B.Sc in Physics or Mathematics, which where my favourite subjects other than Computer Science.They definitely would have kicked me out of the house ,phew.... You might have guessed now that my neighbour's son is an Engineer.
HR expert
Sat Feb 28 08:00:39 2009
Check the layoff tracker on JobeeHive.com to see the real news on layoffs and job cuts. here: http://www.jobeehive.com/company/layoffs great resource for sure.
Tinku
Wed Feb 11 07:47:28 2009
One of my friend kicked off from Accenture along with many others... During recession time, IMHO, most companies will do a performance analysis and put low grades for the employees in their blacklist (may not be exactly on performance basis), especially those who are sitting jobless at bench...There are many persons who want to learn new things and likes to go with interesting and challenging works.. But their organization simply make them bench sitters. They are not all getting any chance to show their capabilities even after 2 years joining the company. Another friend who was working with CTS for 2 years made a wise decision. He anticipated the lay off dramas, resigned and joined one 'Nationalised Bank' as probationary officer. He is enjoying the work as far I know. Regardless on whatever we studied, when we have to earn for our daily 'bread and butter', any job is heaven as far its secure and won't screw up our health.
Rajeev
Sun Feb 8 12:34:41 2009
Hi, I am a trainee from Siemens Information Systems Limited[SISL](or rather exTrainee)..Our training commenced on October and lasted till January. Some of the E&C students from our batch were selected into embedded s\m's department and had 2 months of training in Mumbai training centre and 1 month in Bangalore. So their convocation ceremony was already over in December, before going to Bangalore itself. Our last day in Mumbai training centre was supposed to be our convocation day.. But something else was waiting for us..Our training head comes and says that there will not be any convocation ceremony in Mumbai on that day..Instead it will be held in Bangalore after we reach there.. Also that we were being given a "Special Paid Leave" for 1 week and so we would be heading home instead of Bangalore for the time being..And also that the rest would be conveyed through mail.. Thus the joining date stood as Feb 2nd.. But on Feb 1st we get a mail saying that the special paid leave was being extended again by 1 week and that our new DOJ would be Feb 9th.. But on Feb 5th..It happened.... A mail from one of the HRs in Bangalore to all the 153 trained resources that our service was terminated and that all the benefits and re-imbursements would be given to us as per the company policy..That was our end(Many of us had high percentile and were placed in more than one companies including Infosys,Wipro,TCS etc) So..Thats it...Back to square one..
Pramode C.E
Fri Feb 6 09:01:22 2009
Divya: You guys will definitely get another job - nothing to worry! Sajith: True - can't blame anyone. As you mentioned, with the kind of unemployment history that we have, the best our parents could have done was to push us to "study" whatever it takes to get a job. Sayamindu: Yes, Infy seems to be holding on ... some of my students are now having "extended" training sessions ... TCS also seems to be slowly taking in the freshers it had recruited from campus.
Sujith H
Fri Feb 6 17:41:18 2009
Have no clue what is going to happen. My room mate who is working for wipro says that wipro is going to fire 5% of their employees in the next quarter :(
Sudeep K Krishnan
Fri Feb 20 09:32:22 2009
Few reasons y i would like to comment 1. Your post starts with Siemens, n myself being an ex-employee of Siemens (Resigned d job last May, no issues of layoff :P) 2. Passion for CS (im doing my Doctoral in Information Systems) 3. Being ur student :) As a matter of fact about Siemens lay off, firing doesnt end with the 170 freshers, but everyone who were rated 2 or below in last performance appraisal. after 9/11 crisis, Siemens didnt fire any of its employees n this shows how bad the situation is right now. Apart from Siemens, as far as i know Infy, Wipro.. everyone is following d same strategy of firing based on performance. Now about the budding engineers: irrespective of the branch i guess more than 75% find job in IT industry, so why don't they study something that will add value?. And its not the IT industry that is affected, but all industries across continents.
prasad
Tue Mar 3 20:49:16 2009
I have got placed in wipro..but since last 9 months I am waiting for JOINING DATEEEEEEEE... I have given interview for more than 20 companies, but due to bond or lack of experience or pure bad luck, I have not joined any of them..... Also, I realized, WE SHOULD STOP EXPECTING FROM IT NOW & so, I am going to IMPORT EXPORT.
Pramode C.E
Sun Feb 8 03:39:45 2009
Jason: Very true! I too am planning to get started with a small "open hardware" business of my own next month! Deepa: I don't have any more info about these layoff's other than the fact that a few of my students have been affected ... anyway please do get in touch with me by email if you need any clarifications.
Jason Kridner
Sat Feb 7 13:38:19 2009
Now is the best time for entrepreneurial engineers with a bit of savings to start building on their own ideas for what will make a better world. People still have needs to eat, shelter, play, socialize, etc. They will pay for products that help them satisfy their needs and wants, even in a down economy. And when the economy gets better, you might have a valuable business to sell or put on your resume. Hopefully, you'll have even done something valuable for the world.
hi
Sat Feb 7 17:13:30 2009
Hi. I am a journalist from The Hindu. Can you please contact me about these layoffs. My e-mail address is dipakurup@gmail.com Deepa Kurup