Infosys to resume campus hiring in US

Infosys, India’s second-largest information technology (IT) services company, has decided to resume campus hiring in the US as it plans to create a delivery structure there.

Hiring of more local people has been necessitated since majority of its American clients are not comfortable sending works offshore, which the Bangalore-based company had been experimenting with. US is the largest market of the company in terms of revenue.

“We were of course experimenting with extreme offshoring model. There are a few companies who are interested in that. They feel more secure and find it affordable having some people on site. This is a trigger for hiring more people on site,” said S Gopalakrishnan, CEO & MD.

Infosys had stopped recruiting freshers in the US as its focus shifted to hiring more laterals (people with experience). Now, with a change in business demands, the company has decided to restart the campus programme.

“We plan to restart the process in the second half of the year. We have had placement talks with several engineering colleges in the US,” he said. The company plans to visit 30-40 engineering colleges in the US.

Infosys has 12,000-13,000 employees in the US which includes H1 and L1 visa holders. In 2010, Infosys had hired 1,000 local American. In the current year, Infosys intends to recruit around the same number. “We want to hire a mix of both laterals and freshers,” said V Balakrishnan, CFO.

In the quarter ended June 30, Infosys’ North American business grew five per cent, whereas in Europe, which is the second largest market, it grew just 0.4 per cent. In terms of revenue contribution, North America improved its share to 64.2 per cent from 63.7 per cent a quarter ago. The share of Europe, however, went down to 21.3 per cent in the first quarter this year from 22.1 per cent in the previous quarter.

“We are positive about US. In the US, it is more about unemployment than anything else. I think, US will continue to recover and do well,” said Gopalakrishnan.