Freshers back in demand as IT companies revive campus hiring drive

Infosys, HCL, and Wipro ramp up fresher intake as AI reshapes skills demand and hiring shifts from 'hire to train' to 'train to hire'

Indian information technology (IT) services companies have resumed campus hiring and onboarding engineering graduates after a lull of two years, even as the macroeconomic environment stays sluggish and technology spending remains under tight control.

 

Companies such as Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Infosys, HCLTech, and Wipro are in the process of meeting their fresher hiring targets for the ongoing financial year of 2025-26 (FY26). They had said at the start of FY26 that campus recruitment would be higher this time.

 

Infosys said last week that it hired 12,000 freshers in the first half of the year, and that it remains on track to meet its target of 20,000 engineering graduates.

 

“At the beginning of the year, our target was to recruit 15,000-20,000 freshers. So far, we have hired 12,000, and are on course to achieve the annual goal of 20,000,” said Jayesh Sangrajka, chief financial officer (CFO), Infosys.

 

To strengthen its campus hiring programme, the company has asked senior employees to join panels that will visit colleges and interview students for job offers. These employees are expected to recruit digital specialist engineers.

 

Smaller rival HCLTech hired 7,180 freshers in the same period. It had said in April that campus hiring this year would be higher than last year. About 18-20 per cent of those recruited belong to the “elite cadre” — engineers with specialised skills who will be paid up to four times more than entry-level recruits.

 

Experts say there are several reasons why IT firms are turning to younger talent, including the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) and the adaptability of new engineers to changing job dynamics where many roles are being automated, and a significant share of code is now generated by machines.

 

“The young students bring agility and eagerness to learn — qualities these companies need right now because of the ongoing disruption caused by agentic and generative AI,” said Neeti Sharma, chief executive officer (CEO), TeamLease Digital. “They will need to upskill and reskill on the go. As you move up the hierarchy, this agility reduces. Retraining mid- and senior-level staff at scale is costly, and most firms are operating under budget and profit constraints,” Sharma added.

 

Wipro hired about 2,900 freshers in the second quarter, even as it shifted to a “train-and-hire” model. The company has maintained a hiring target of 10,000 for FY26, similar to last year.

 

“AI skills are not available in abundance,” said Saurabh Govil, chief human resources officer, Wipro. “So, there is a strong focus on building this capability internally. For freshers, the emphasis is on ‘train and hire’. We are spending time before they come on board — working with campuses, shaping curricula, providing inputs and training, assessing students, and then onboarding them. We aim to shift from ‘hire to train’ to ‘train to hire’. That helps speed up project deployment,” Govil added.