Placement officers in engineering colleges step up vigilance over rising IT job scams

Pune: Placement officers across engineering colleges have tightened verification processes for companies participating in campus hiring, following a series of alleged fraudulent recruitment drives and job scams targeting their students. Institutions are conducting stricter background checks, seeking proof of company registration, client credentials and office locations.

“Companies start approaching us for placement-related requests from Dec every year. We usually get repeat companies visiting and they do some internships in the third year before placements. That’s how we get an idea if the company is genuine,” said professor Anuradha Jadhav, placement officer at the Pune District Education Association’s College of Engineering.

Professor SN Dhole, training and placements officer at Matsyodari Shikshan Sanstha’s College of Engineering and Technology in Jalna, said that they have to be extremely vigilant before allowing companies on campus for hiring considering these job scams. “We have started checking on forums and internal social media groups if a new company comes for recruitment. Only if there is some credibility is the company allowed on campus,” he said.

Maharashtra Association of Training and Placement Officers (MaTPO), which has 700 govt colleges (around 400 engineering colleges) as members all over the state, has been working since over a decade trying to help students get placements. “Thynk Tech must have approached new colleges, or colleges with inexperienced training and placement officers,” said professor Sanjay Jadhav, secretary, MaTPO.

At least 500 IT engineers, employees, and interns were rendered jobless after ThynkTech India OPC Pvt Ltd, a Noida-registered IT company, shut down its divisional branch in Hinjewadi without notice on April 22. An intern working with the company lodged a complaint with the Hinjewadi police on Monday night accusing the company of cheating its employees, withholding salaries and misappropriating security deposits. The incident pulled the spotlight onto hardships faced by engineering graduates in recent years, with delayed campus onboarding, shrinking entry-level hiring and a series of alleged job frauds adding to uncertainty.

Jadhav added, “If there is any new company that approaches colleges for placements, we have started doing a lot of checks. We check the company registration on the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) portal, employee reviews on Glassdoor and Reddit, and we also tell colleges to discourage companies from taking money from students,” he said.

MaTPO is also working on issuing guidelines to placement officers on how verification of companies can be done so that freshers don’t get scammed. Points like checking the working capital of the company, background of owners, company registration and building premises, and employees’ past reviews should be assessed by placement officers, as per the association,

Placement officers are also educating students about warning signs, such as upfront payment demands, unrealistic salary offers and unofficial communication channels. “In the case of Thynk Tech, they didn’t come to our college via an official channel. We got a message that it is off-campus hiring, so there was no way to check the genuineness of the company,” said Preeti (name changed), a fresher from an engineering college in Solapur, who got an offer from the company in March.

The lack of verification by colleges and students stems from the desperation to get hired. “Only 50% of engineering students are getting hired as there are very few companies coming to campus. When a company comes for placements, there is a huge rush of students willing to take the jobs,” said Sumit (name changed), an engineering fresher from Narhe.

Maharashtra produces approximately 1,50,000 to 1,75,000 engineering graduates annually, with placement rates at 30-40%, said placement officers of various colleges.