‘Hiring scam' by colleges leaves engg grads in the lurch

Time of India

3 days ago

Hyderabad: Amid a slowdown in recruitments, several engineering graduates from Hyderabad are being taken for a ride by 'fake' job offers. And it isn't dubious consultancies but private B Tech colleges that are at the centre of this scam, students allege.
According to them, at least a dozen colleges across the city – to lure more students with 'impressive' placement records – are tying up with small firms to issue fake offer letters that, soon afterwards, are withdrawn.
In some instances, fresh graduates TOI spoke to said they landed up at work with these letters only to find that the firm is a sham and exists only on paper. Majority of them are being offered 'trainee engineer' or 'trainee developer' posts with modest starting salaries of Rs 25,000 to Rs 30,000 a month.
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"A Hyderabad-based firm even gave me a joining date. But when I went there, I realised there was no such company running from that location," said B Balaji, who recently completed his electrical engineering from a college on the outskirts of Hyderabad. He alleged that the company hired hundreds of students in the placement drive, only to leave them high and dry.
"When the company came for placements, we ran a background check.
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It had a LinkedIn page with a decent following. So, we assumed it was genuine," said Balaji, adding, "But later, when it was time for us to join, we found that the company had deleted its online footprint. There was no way we could contact anybody either as the phone numbers weren't working."
B Tech graduate, Praneeth Kumar, from another mid-size private institute had a similar experience. "While the company recruited 10 students, the management gave job letters to over 25.
I realised that the offer given to me was fake when the placement officer kept giving vague replies about my joining and eventually said the offer was rolled back," alleged the CSE graduate.
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Students claim colleges have turned them into advertisement material to showcase on placements boards even when they know these jobs are bogus. "My college's publicity material claims I got two job offers.
In reality, one company hired me as an intern falsely promising a Rs 3.6 LPA salary after completion. The other, which offered Rs 4.5 LPA for a Salesforce developer role initially gave May 1 as joining date but has since gone silent despite repeated follow-ups.
My college says it's not its responsibility," said Nithin B, a ECE graduate.
'Only way to save colleges' reputation'
Shockingly, training and placement officers (TPO) at some of these colleges admit to this practice.
They claim they are forced to manipulate students and create fake records to protect the college's reputation.
"In the last two years, the job market has been very dull. So, to help colleges show placements, in order to attract fresh enrollments, we have been drafting fake offer letters in one of the recruiters' names or paying a firm that's willing to give job offers to students," said a placement officer working with engineering colleges for almost two decades.
He added: "It is true that these jobs are often only on paper."
Another TPO claimed that the count of such colleges increased by at least 30% this academic year. "Earlier, only a few colleges used this tactic. Now, many are doing this. They call companies even when they do not have job requirements and are issuing fake offers," she added.
Members of the Telangana Schools Technical Colleges Employees Association said the issue has been brought to their notice by faculty from different colleges. "They have even filed complaints about this arrangement between college managements and firms. Both parties are aware that these offers will not be honoured," said A Santosh Kumar, president of the association, demanding action against such colleges.
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