Over last few months, I have come across a feeling of frustration and helplessness among many recent engineering graduates on not being able to secure a job.  The feeling is aggravated when companies seem to only recruit experienced folks and no one seems to have job for freshers. In India, there are following main reasons for this situation 

Demand supply gap – There are much more engineering graduates than the yearly demand in companies.  Yes, govt is planning to shut down some engineering colleges every year and hopefully, new jobs will be created as well.  Current reality however is that there is a demand-supply gap. 

Uneven campus opportunities – Companies do not (and cannot) visit all campuses for interviews.  It is significant cost and overhead to them, so they have finite list of campus to visit depending on their needs.  Within the campus also, there are rules and preferences which are conveyed by placement officers to HR (e.g. who can sit in test or which branch candidates they recommend to include). This results in uneven opportunities across different branches and colleges. 

Fascination with salary package / glamour – Many students get swayed in by companies which offer higher salary package or have fancy brochures or gifts for them.  Some of these companies are unstable but no reliable track record of honoring commitments.  These companies have little hesitation to put the joining dates on hold or revoke the placement offers when business environment is tough, leaving students jobless at last minute. 

Not using right channels for recruitment - Students start applying to positions which require different skill set than they possess or job listings for experienced folks, which leads to rejection of profile out rightly.  And the postings which need freshers, have too many applicants, so competition and selection ratio is extremely high. Truth is that only 30-40% fresher jobs are posted in public domain, so if you are not targeting the other 60%-70%, you are reducing your chances of landing a job. 

Not enough effort / complacency - Many students become complacent after enrolling into engineering/MCA courses.  It is a fact that our education is not sufficient to make you career ready.  A lot of students wake up to job search in the 3^rd and 4^th year with not enough focus on preparing oneself for the career. And when they start the search, many get disheartened quickly on meeting disappointments.     

In order to land a job, you should focus on the following 

Off-campus drives / job fairs – Many companies conduct off-campus drives or job fairs for hiring freshers. Some of these drives are advertised only locally. Keep a watch on these and participate. Usually these drives are for immediate hiring (2-6 weeks) but there is no harm in trying for this 2-3 months prior to your course completion. 

Websites and forums showing predominantly fresher jobs – Check websites or groups which show fresher jobs. This website also has an active discussion board where  fresher jobs are regularly posted and discussed.

Reference jobs - Almost 100% of off-campus jobs can be targeted through references i.e. when a company wants to hire off-campus freshers, they certainly let their existing employees know. Companies prefer hiring through referrals as it builds employee loyalty and creates more trusted environment. It also helps them save money. 

• Most companies have attractive reference programs for their employees to refer their friends and known to candidates. 

Remember, when someone is referring you – he also does a favour to his company and himself (he gets rewards from company).  So do not be shy to build connections and ask for reference.

• Focus on building your network and leverage it for job opportunities.  It would be incorrect to target unknown high ranking managers only – everyone including your junior, senior or other fellow techies across colleges can help you referral (today or 1-2 years down the line)

Make yourself career ready - You should start early (preferably from 1^st year of engineering) and make yourself career ready. Learn about the skills which are needed in industry and how can you develop them.  These are needed not only to clear the interview but also to be successful in the career ahead otherwise such disappointments are likely to continue in career.

100% commitment – Whatever you do (learning, job search, extracurricular), do it with full commitment.  It will help you remain motivated and also reflect positively in your message and interview.  Please note, business circumstances sometimes can result in temporary slowness in demand but if you are committed, you will sail through.  I know many of my friends and juniors, who didn’t have a job up to 6-9 months after engineering but they are all very well settled.  Stay positive.

Besides the fact that I have recruited hundreds of employees for many teams, I want to share a personal experience.   Almost 2 decades back, when I was doing engineering from a govt college – my college didn’t have companies visiting for campus placements.  I focused on outside channels and landed an excellent job with an MNC at the start of final year.

Not only was it the first job in our entire batch, it was with a company which mainly recruited from NITs (RECs that time) only. Internet was not big (and certainly not fast) that time in India and companies also wanted to play safe by hiring 'freshers' from known colleges only. So the tools i had to use were different than today's. Those do not matter. What matters actually is your perseverance and deploying right tools of the time.

If I can, you can too. 

There is no reason to be disappointed. Focus on making yourself career ready, continue making effort and believe in yourself.

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