Ramadevi Women’s (Autonomous) College in Bhubaneswar. Telegraph picture

Bhubaneswar, March 13: Headhunters are casting their net not only on engineering colleges, but also general colleges in the capital city this placement season. IT giant Infosys has offered jobs to as many as 38 students from the Ramadevi Women’s (Autonomous) College here this year. The recruitment for the company’s technology and BPO wings was conducted in the last week of February, which saw participation of nearly 250 students from the college. The students from science, arts and commerce streams appeared for the placement tests, which included a written test, group discussion and telephonic and personal interviews. Most of the students selected belonged to the commerce stream, said college placement officer Jhumki Rath. In the arts stream, English, economics and psychology honours students fared best. Botany and biotechnology students also made an impression in the test rounds and received jobs offers. These new recruits, who have received their appointment letters, will be required to undergo training at the company’s office in Mysore before they are posted at other locations. Infosys has offered them a modest salary of around Rs 12,000 per month. Besides Infosys, other reputed companies such as Genpact and IBM had also recruited students, said an official of the Ramadevi Women’s College. Mindmart, a manpower service provider that provides contractual jobs in the government sector, has also shown interest in recruiting students from the college. “We are now fixing a schedule for the visit of several other companies to our campus for placement drive,” the authorities said. Similarly, 44 students from BJB (Autonomous) College have been offered jobs by Infosys. While 39 students of the college have been selected for the company’s BPO unit, the technology wing has selected seven students. “A total of 102 students had appeared for the recruitment test. Of those selected, about 80 per cent are girls,” placement officer of BJB (Autonomous) College Kailash Chandra Dash said. IT major Genpact would conduct its own placement test on March 17, he said. Students who were recruited for the technology wing of Infosys have been offered a package of about Rs 18,000 per month while those selected for the BPO sector have been offered pay packages of around Rs 12,000 per month. Besides Infosys, IBM-Daksh and Wipro have also been visiting the colleges for placement drives. “It is an encouraging development that such big companies are now keen to hire general science, arts and commerce graduates. We have introduced special spoken English and communication skills classes to prepare our students to perform better in such tests,” said BJB principal Susama Tripathy.