Cognizant picks up 700 Anna varsity students

Time to celebrate: Jubilant Anna University students celebrate their getting job offersfrom Cognizant Technology Solutions, in the presence of Dr P. Mannar Jawahar (right),Vice-Chancellor, Anna University, and Mr R. Ramkumar (second from left), Vice-President, Corporate Communications, Cognizant, at the university premises onTuesday.- Bijoy Ghosh

Hindu

Chennai, Dec. 22

The US-based Cognizant Technology Solutions offered jobs to over seven hundred students of Anna University on Tuesday. Though this was less than the 1,000 offers that Cognizant made last year, Dr P. Mannar Jawahar, Vice Chancellor, Anna University, is happy.“The numbers may be less from Cognizant, but we are still happy considering the downturn in the software industry,” he told Business Line.Cognizant was the first large recruiter this year in the university that includes the College of Engineering, Guindy, Madras Institute of Technology, Chrompet and Alagappa College of Technology.While Tata Consultancy Services, which is also a large recruiter, is visiting the campus on Wednesday, over 55 more companies across various sectors plan to visit in the next few days, he said.

The starting salary offered by Cognizant remained unchanged from last year, at Rs 3 lakh a year. Around 1,640 students took the test, of whom 1,345 were shortlisted and 700 were offered jobs, Dr Jawahar said.Before Cognizant, ‘core and dream' companies such as Caterpillar and Larsen & Toubro that offer a starting salary of over Rs 4 lakh have given job offers to around 300 students, he said.