Suheb Naik from Pilar is a third year
student studying Civil Engineering at Government Polytechnic Panjim. As soon as
he was elected as the General Secretary (GS) of the college, the first thing on
his mind was to organise a National Level Technical Paper Presentation and Expo
where students from all over the country would get a chance to present their
talents through papers and project presentation at his college. “We will try to
bring the best and top level industries of the nation to display their
machineries and technology at our exhibition, which will help the students update
themselves with the latest technology prevalent in today’s market,” says Suheb.
Though the college has not held campus recruitment in the past few years, Suheb
hopes to give better opportunities to his fellow students straight from their
classroom.
Keeping in mind the ever changing and
constantly growing industry, employers today are interested in recruiting the
brightest minds from the respective educational institutions that train in
specific skills. Campus recruitment is an ideal way of sourcing such talent
soon after training, and then moulding them to suit their goals. For the
students too, it is a great opportunity to apply the education that they
receive and learn on the job.
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Willy Goes, a lecturer in Applied Art at
Goa College of Art, Panjim, has seen many talented students being recruited
through campus interviews. “We encourage students to prepare their portfolio by
the end of the term to show it to the companies that come for campus
recruitment. One company that regularly appoints our students is Cognizance who
employs nearly five to six students per year. The students are usually selected
for their designing, advertisements and visual communication skills,” says
Willy.
The students have to go through 2-3 phases
of interview to land the job. “First, they have a short IQ test which involves
rapid answers from which students are shortlisted for another test and finally
their work is reviewed. We also make it a point to send out maximum invitations
to the industry during ‘Kala Utsav’, the annual art festival at the college,
where the best works of the students are displayed,” he adds.
Vanessa Furtado is in charge of placement
for BBA in St Xavier’s College, Mapusa. She says, “Some of the companies that
come for campus recruitment are Infosys, Brown Tape Inc, Lead Source, Tea Trunk
etc. It is a mix of established and start ups that come to interview the
students. Most of the students take advantage of this opportunity while others
go for higher studies. Campus recruitment is usually done in the last semester
of the final year. Most of the posts the students are interviewed for are
executive management trainee jobs in HR, Marketing, Finance and Operations.”
Facilitating networking in his college is
the GS of Don Bosco College, Panjim, Myron Fernandes. The college used to have
a Placement Secretary who was in charge of placements. The GS has now done away
with this post and instead, assigned the respective Class Representatives to
source vacancies; a faculty member has also been assigned to oversee the same.
“In this way, there will be more networking and students will be able to build
contacts and approach more companies. In our Third Year in BBA, we have a
subject on Soft skills, where we are trained with mock interviews, fluency in
English and organisational skills,” says Myron.
Another benefit of campus recruitment is
the freedom of choice, even after joining an organisation. Though most
companies are paying a very basic salary, the students have the advantage of
either accepting or rejecting the offer. “Most offerings are for sales and
marketing executives and software designers. The advantage of the campus
recruitment is that the students are trained by the companies itself and if
they are still not happy with the company, they can leave,” adds Myron.
The interview process also works towards
building the students’ confidence and assessing their skills, so even if they
chose to give this opportunity a miss, they are better prepared for future
calls.
