An ex-colleague of mine had called me up last Sunday evening. He was a bit perplexed and wanted to discuss about a "deal" that his cousin has been "offered". This cousin has been studying in one of the average private engineering colleges for her B.Tech in Computer Science and is currently in the last semester. Although a decent student, she had failed to land up any job offers during the major campus recruitment drives conducted at her college. As a result, she has been a bit tensed over the last 4-5 months and has been attending all sorts of fresher recruitment drives conducted in the city. That's how she came to know a certain person, who claims to be an HR Manager with a company of repute. She had meet this man at one of the pulled-campus events conducted at a different college and where final year students from multiple colleges took part. After the interview was over, the so called HR Manager informed her and some of her classmates, through their college's In-charge for Training and Placement, that theirs were borderline cases and that they could be accommodated in the company if they are ready to pay a certain amount as "Training Fees". Once they pay the sum of Rs.50,000/- in cash, he would hand over the offer letters to them. He justified this by saying that the students did not meet the cut-off criteria set by the company and as such, the company will have to incur some costs in training them on the job and uplifting their skill-sets to the required standard. Even the In-charge of Training and Placement of their college was urging them to take up the offer. Now, the cousin is in a quandary and cannot decide whether to pay or not.
gap
This is just one example from the thousands of such "offers", which the students are bombarded with, every year. Of course, I told my friend that the most sensible thing to do in such a situation is to walk away. As far as I am concerned, I don't know of any company worth its salt, which will recruit candidates in this manner. But, every year many colleges and students are falling prey to these scamsters.
gap
India, today, is home to the largest number of private engineering and management colleges. Over the period of last 5 years, the total capacity of intake, for all the engineering colleges combined together, has more than doubled. In case of management, the percentage increase is even bigger. This has definitely enabled more youths to choose engineering or management disciplines as career option, but at the same time, this unchecked explosion has also resulted in lower quality of the final output, i.e. the graduating students. Moreover, students taking admissions in private colleges have an attitude that providing placement is the responsibility of the college authorities. The authorities, on their part, find it extremely hard to provide placement to students, who are not up to the mark. Again the market dynamics demand that to attract new students, the colleges will have to provide the best possible opportunities to the students.
gap
It is in this grey area, that many an unscrupulous businessmen and companies have started operating of late. In fact, there are multiple instances of companies conducting recruitment drives in colleges, rolling out offer letters to candidates after collecting a good amount of money and then vanishing without a trace.
gap
These companies normally follow three types of modus operandi.
gap
A company may ask the students to enroll for a training with them after the final examinations are over. On completion of the training, paid for by the students, the successful ones are retained by the company and candidates who do not meet the expectation are discharged with an experience certificate. This policy, although not purely ethical, at least prepares the candidate in terms of their expectation.
gap
There are also companies, which act as an agent of another company, the actual recruiter. It is common knowledge nowadays that these agents can get a confirmation from the recruiting company on the minimum number of candidates that will be recruited from a particular campus. On the basis of that commitment and other internal dynamics, they charge an amount upfront as Placement Charges. In this case too, the chances of getting a fake offer letter is limited if the agent is chosen carefully.
gap
Lastly, there are the pure fraudsters. This can be anyone - a fictitious company, an unscrupulous agent, a rogue employee of a genuine company and even college authorities themselves! Their operation procedure is simple. They hype up the news of the recruitment drive and collect money from the maximum number of students in return for the offer letters. They promise that the final offer letters would be issued in near future and the candidates would be able to join the company on completion of their course. Once a candidate hands over the money, s/he normally does not get to contact the concerned persons again.
gap
Unfortunately, the number of such fictitious entities, employing the third, method is on the rise. And, this will continue unabated till the students and their parents refuse to pay any amount for getting a job. We have seen many such companies duping students to the tune of crores of rupees and yet, the college authorities and the students fail to learn their lessons. In fact, in some cases, even the college authorities are found to be hand in glove with the fraudsters. Over the period of last few years, at least half a dozen companies have taken the students for a ride. Astonishingly, the same persons come back in a different avatar after a period of time, carrying a different nameplate and continue their loot.
gap
So, my request to all the stakeholders - colleges, as well as students & their parents/guardians - would be to walk away from these type of offers. The simple reason is that none of the genuine companies would be recruiting someone in this manner. And, if a company promises you an offer letter at a price, then it does not follow ethical business practices and in all probability, does not have the requisite cash flow to sustain its operations. If a person or agency makes the promise, then either s/he is lying or s/he is cheating with her/his own company or client(s). In both the cases, if the actual recruiter's upper management has an inkling of what's going on, then the offer letters would have only one place to go - the waste paper basket. It is far better an option to enroll in a program for upkilling yourself and enter the job market on your own competence.
gap
This is just one example from the thousands of such "offers", which the students are bombarded with, every year. Of course, I told my friend that the most sensible thing to do in such a situation is to walk away. As far as I am concerned, I don't know of any company worth its salt, which will recruit candidates in this manner. But, every year many colleges and students are falling prey to these scamsters.
gap
India, today, is home to the largest number of private engineering and management colleges. Over the period of last 5 years, the total capacity of intake, for all the engineering colleges combined together, has more than doubled. In case of management, the percentage increase is even bigger. This has definitely enabled more youths to choose engineering or management disciplines as career option, but at the same time, this unchecked explosion has also resulted in lower quality of the final output, i.e. the graduating students. Moreover, students taking admissions in private colleges have an attitude that providing placement is the responsibility of the college authorities. The authorities, on their part, find it extremely hard to provide placement to students, who are not up to the mark. Again the market dynamics demand that to attract new students, the colleges will have to provide the best possible opportunities to the students.
gap
It is in this grey area, that many an unscrupulous businessmen and companies have started operating of late. In fact, there are multiple instances of companies conducting recruitment drives in colleges, rolling out offer letters to candidates after collecting a good amount of money and then vanishing without a trace.
gap
These companies normally follow three types of modus operandi.
gap
A company may ask the students to enroll for a training with them after the final examinations are over. On completion of the training, paid for by the students, the successful ones are retained by the company and candidates who do not meet the expectation are discharged with an experience certificate. This policy, although not purely ethical, at least prepares the candidate in terms of their expectation.
gap
There are also companies, which act as an agent of another company, the actual recruiter. It is common knowledge nowadays that these agents can get a confirmation from the recruiting company on the minimum number of candidates that will be recruited from a particular campus. On the basis of that commitment and other internal dynamics, they charge an amount upfront as Placement Charges. In this case too, the chances of getting a fake offer letter is limited if the agent is chosen carefully.
gap
Lastly, there are the pure fraudsters. This can be anyone - a fictitious company, an unscrupulous agent, a rogue employee of a genuine company and even college authorities themselves! Their operation procedure is simple. They hype up the news of the recruitment drive and collect money from the maximum number of students in return for the offer letters. They promise that the final offer letters would be issued in near future and the candidates would be able to join the company on completion of their course. Once a candidate hands over the money, s/he normally does not get to contact the concerned persons again.
gap
Unfortunately, the number of such fictitious entities, employing the third, method is on the rise. And, this will continue unabated till the students and their parents refuse to pay any amount for getting a job. We have seen many such companies duping students to the tune of crores of rupees and yet, the college authorities and the students fail to learn their lessons. In fact, in some cases, even the college authorities are found to be hand in glove with the fraudsters. Over the period of last few years, at least half a dozen companies have taken the students for a ride. Astonishingly, the same persons come back in a different avatar after a period of time, carrying a different nameplate and continue their loot.
gap
So, my request to all the stakeholders - colleges, as well as students & their parents/guardians - would be to walk away from these type of offers. The simple reason is that none of the genuine companies would be recruiting someone in this manner. And, if a company promises you an offer letter at a price, then it does not follow ethical business practices and in all probability, does not have the requisite cash flow to sustain its operations. If a person or agency makes the promise, then either s/he is lying or s/he is cheating with her/his own company or client(s). In both the cases, if the actual recruiter's upper management has an inkling of what's going on, then the offer letters would have only one place to go - the waste paper basket. It is far better an option to enroll in a program for upkilling yourself and enter the job market on your own competence.
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