Wannabe Satyamites seek assurance

After waiting for months for Satyam Computer Services to honour their job offers, several wannabe Satyamites finally landed at the scam-hit company’s headquarters in Hyderabad to get an assurance on their jobs.

“Everyone is talking about the 53,000 employees. What would happen to the 6,000-plus students, including about 5,000 in Andhra Pradesh, waiting to join the workforce,’’ said a student from Bapuji Institute of Engineering & Technology in Karnataka’s Davangere. He got an offer from the company a few months ago.

Satyam has been the preferred choice for many students and colleges alike. But over the last couple of years, the company has either reduced the intake or stopped going to institutes for recruitment. The company usually recruited a year in advance anticipating new projects or extension of existing projects. Many students were supposed to wear the Satyam hat from August 2008 itself.

Satyam had in the previous quarter said it planned to hire about 8,000-10,000 people this year. Earlier, the company had plans to hire 14,000-15,000 in the year.

According to another student here, he got an offer letter in November and was supposed to join the company in June 2008. “We did not take offers from other companies after we opted for Satyam,’’ he said.

The placement divisions of college managements followed it up with the company HR but were told that the company was realigning its business strategy and would induct the waiting students shortly.

Sanjeev Mehrotra, head of entry level talent, Satyam, had earlier said onboarding happened on a quarterly basis and it would be communicated to the students after the company’s board meet on January 10. However, that was cancelled following the announcement of setting up a new board.