Trump's America First policy hits IT hiring in B-Schools, IITs

Trump's 'America First' policy has compelled IT companies to slash hiring this season

From building walls in Mexico, creating bridges for IT companies and laying a thorny path for students in developing countries, the United States newly elected President, Donald Trump, has left no stone unturned to give jitters to the global community at large.

Trump's  'America First' policy has compelled Information technology (IT) companies to slash hiring this season. Total hiring by top-four Indian IT companies in the September quarter stood at 14,421, a decline of 43% from a year-ago period, mainly due to a slowdown in growth of these companies, reports Business Standard.

According to a report in The Economics Times, IT recruitments have slumped 20-40 per cent in several tier-II — and even some tier-I — management schools this season.

IT companies are usually among the largest recruiters at B-School campuses.

Reportedly, at Management Development Institute (MDI), Gurgaon, IT hiring fell 26 per cent; at Great Lakes Institute of Management (GLIM), Chennai, it dropped 30 per cent; and at Welingkar Institute of Management Development and Research, it's down 30-40 per cent.

Hiring by companies:

At one business school, Infosys took on 13 people compared with 40 last year. Dell hired three against five and Wipro recruited five compared with nine last time.

"We are expecting at least 30 per cent less hiring in IT as compared with last year,"  Saveeta Mohanty, associate dean for career advisory services at Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar (XIMB) told ET.

IT companies hire from B-school campuses for a variety of roles including management consulting, technology consulting, sales/pre-sales, account manager, management trainee (IT projects), business analyst, data analyst and quantitative analyst.

ET said, "While hiring at tier-I campuses is heavily skewed toward consulting and solutions roles, at tier-II B schools, companies tend to recruit in big numbers for back-office operations and support functions for international offices".

US could lose its competitiveness without India

Nasscom says that the Indian IT industry helps in making corporate America more competitive.

“We are aligned with the idea of creating jobs in the US. The Indian IT industry helps in making corporate America more competitive, thereby raising its ability to create more jobs,” said Nasscom President R Chandrashekhar.

Both Nasscom and the Indian government will lobby with the Trump administration saying Indian firms are net job creators and pay local taxes in the US.

Other reasons 

At IIM Indore, placement officer Bhavya Kapoor told The Economics Times that demonetisation was cited by some companies for skipping recruitment for the year. Apart from Trump's policy, muted growth numbers and increasing automation are also responsible for the decline in recruitments.

Sanjay Verma, joint corporate and placement advisor, IIFT said that recruiters were much more cautious this year.

Fintech to the rescue:

Fintech and FMCG companies came to the rescue to keep the hiring mood bright. Welingkar Institute of Management Development and Research said that they were able to tap companies in the financial services, consulting analytics, market research, internet-based companies. Business Standard reports, "there is a shift of IT spending towards consulting and consulting firms, especially with strong technology practice such as Accenture."