Vodafone to recruit more talent from IITs, to focus more on freshers

Telecom giant Vodafone India is all set to recruit more talent from technology campuses, with specific plans to go the premier Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs). The company is also thinking to start its first summer internship programme for tech students this year. The number of trainees will increase upto 90 for 2014 from 60 in 2013. Of these students, 65 will be selected from management schools and 20 students will be selected from technology institutes and five from the departments such as finance and marketing.

Ashok Ramchandran, director, human resources, Vodafone India, said, “Two years ago, we were taking just 25-30 people. Focus on investing in more freshers who can be groomed for top roles is becoming a secular trend in telecom.”

He further added, “Time to success is much lower; cost of failure is much higher. You need a pool of young people with fresh ideas and steeper learning curves ready to take on leadership roles in the next two to three years.” The biggest change in the company will be now be its presence in IITs. Last year company issued six offers to IIT students.

This year the company is thinking to recruit more talent from top five IITs of the country and will roll offers to 20 students. It also plans to start a summer internship programme for tech students, which will be similar for the management students as well. Of the total 70 internships planned, 20 will be for students from the IITs and 50 for management students from institutes such as the IIMs, Symbiosis, SP Jain and so on.

The trend of recruiting more fresh talent at the company goes beyond management and technology trainees, with a hike in the intake of fresh sales and customer service executive as well. The company, which has an employee base of 11,500, will have 550, or 30% of its total 1,800 hires for FY14, as freshers.