Engineering colleges stare at uncertain hiring

IT services companies and back-end technology centers of major multinationals, including Tata Consultancy Services Ltd, Infosys Ltd and HCL Technologies Ltd, are expected to recruit fewer college students for 2026 compared to last year, according to at least five placement heads of the country’s top universities.

For IT services companies, this will be the third consecutive year of lower hiring from campuses as they now shift their sights to talent with specialized skills in artificial intelligence, cloud and data analytics. This means higher competition among engineering graduates, who will have to prove their abilities beyond coding and app development; this skill has long been seen as a gateway to a job at an IT outsourcing provider.

IT hiring decline

At least one recruiting official noted that much of the decline in hiring can be attributed to automation and companies doing business with multiple IT providers, reducing the need for IT outsourcing providers to hire graduates en masse for service projects.

“There are fluctuations in demand due to AI and the number of project requirements has reduced as IT services companies choose multiple vendors to handle IT work. Instead of hiring employees and laying them off, they are stopping hiring,” said Sreenivasa Ramanujam Kanduri, dean of training and placement at Ramaiah Institute of Technology, an engineering college based in Bengaluru.

“While the country’s largest IT services companies were hiring in triple digits two years ago, now the number has dropped to double digits, that is, 50-70 students,” said Kanduri.

Ramaiah has completed placements for nearly three-quarters of its 2026 batch students, mainly in roles related to software and AI engineering as well as data analysis. Kanduri expects the remaining student placements to be completed by January. Last year, the university’s students received 1,892 job offers from 358 companies and their average annual salary was 1,892. ₹7.7 lakhs.

A placement officer from a second university expressed a similar view.

Dean of Corporate Affairs and Extension Activities, Thanjavur-based SASTRA Deemed University, Dr. “Due to tariff wars in the US, the impact of AI and the post-covid pandemic, IT services companies are each looking to hire fewer people this year compared to last year,” said Badrinath V.

In the US, the largest market for domestic IT outsourcing providers, uncertainties about tariffs have caused large companies to redirect their technology spending towards the procurement of raw materials needed to run their day-to-day business. As a result, IT services companies are hesitant to hire more employees due to the uncertain demand for IT-related jobs.

Check placements

On the other hand, covid has increased business for local IT services companies as companies look to digitize their operations, while demand has stabilized and technology services providers are no longer recruiting en masse from engineering schools as they did during the pandemic.

Of course, the low hiring seen in IT services companies in the last two years has been offset by Global Talent Centers (GCCs). But with the rise of automation tools, even GCCs may not be able to hire that many people.

“They (GCCs) are currently looking at different avenues of engagement, including campus recruitment, and are in the process of mapping compensation for this in line with our average salaries ( ₹20 lakhs). Okta, Epicor, Expedia etc. Companies like are also paying in a similar or higher range,” said Balasubramanian Gurumurthy, chief placement officer, Birla Institute of Technology and Science, India and Dubai.

This double whammy underscores the anxiety at top engineering schools and among 2026 graduates.

Placement managers at universities do not want to talk about the number of placements in IT services companies and the Gulf Cooperation Council for the 2026 graduate batch, but they believe there is a real risk of the lowest placement offers of the last few years.

The fourth head of placement said automation is one of many reasons why companies may delay hiring.

registrar and placement head of PES University, Bengaluru. “IT services companies and GCCs delayed hiring this year because they started interviews late. Normally they would have finished their recruitment by this time, but it got delayed as they finalized the hiring numbers a little later. We were told that they would be hiring,” said KS Sridhar.

PES University sent over 1,500 students to approximately 350 companies last year.

Students face uncertainty

According to management comments, TCS, Infosys and Wipro Ltd expect to hire 42,000 new students, 20,000 new students and 12,000 new students respectively this fiscal. HCLTech, on the other hand, expects to hire more than 7,800 new people, albeit in specialized, skill-based roles.

The Big Five ended the April-September 2025 period with a cumulative total of 3,097 employees; This is almost a third of the total number of employees compared to last year. On the other hand, the nation’s midsize IT services firms, which generate between $1 billion and $5 billion in revenue, ended with 7,802 employees; This is almost half as much as last year.

Mint It reported on Nov. 13 that midsize companies are expected to hire more than larger companies, but future college graduates are mostly selected for roles ranging from: ₹4 lakhs ₹30 lakhs is hanging in the balance.

The nation’s largest IT services companies, which have traditionally hired en masse from engineering schools, said the hires will not correspond to revenue growth as automation rewrites the rules of the country’s $283 billion IT industry. Mint‘s report on November 4 covers this in more detail.

“For much of the last 30 years, IT services have grown through a linear model. More people and more projects have driven incremental growth. AI is reshaping that equation by compressing time, cost and complexity and redefining how value is created,” Cognizant CEO S. Ravi Kumar said during the company’s post-earnings call on Oct. 29.

As delays and uncertain hiring plans from major IT services companies make students nervous, some colleges are trying various methods to keep them happy.

Skill-based roles

“Since IT firms usually hire large numbers of people with lower entry level packages around 100,000 ₹3.5-4 lakh per annum, we decided to limit the recruiter’s involvement to minimum wage ₹6 lakh per annum for campus placements would be in the best interest of our students, said Saroj Kumar Sarangi, professor in charge of Training and Placement at National Institute of Technology (NIT), Jamshedpur.

Sarangi expects the GCC to recruit graduates for skills-based roles, especially in artificial intelligence, rather than traditional software developer positions offered by IT companies. The placement season in the country’s largest engineering colleges starts in September and continues until March.

For B-schools, the placement cycle for older IIMs like Ahmedabad, Bengaluru and Kolkata usually starts in late January and February, while newer IIMs start in December.

This year, IT services firms, which have traditionally recruited en masse from both management and engineering campuses, are particularly interested in World War II. Tier and III. While they are cutting offers at tier-one institutions, consulting firms are expected to maintain strong recruiting momentum for the 2026 class. Early trends in summer placements currently point to continued demand from these recruiters. At the same time, core sectors such as engineering, manufacturing and infrastructure, as well as emerging sectors such as semiconductors and AI-focused businesses, are increasingly stepping in to fill the gap.

At least one brokerage firm indicated a reduction in hiring in junior positions but expected a higher increase in specialized roles.

“While the outlook for junior IT hiring remains uncertain, demand for senior talent, GCC roles and non-IT roles remains strong,” ICICI Securities analysts Abhisek Banerjee and Jayram Shetty said in a Nov. 13 note.

According to a Mint The country’s leading IT firms were pursuing employees with more specialized skills, building on their existing strengths rather than hiring en masse, according to an Aug. 27 report.