IBM Hands 700 ‘Fresher’ Indian Engineers Pink Slips

[gateley]

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK — IBM’s full-throttle drive to hire thousands of tech workers across India has hit a major speed bump.

Some 700 first-year engineers, or “freshers,” have received pink slips after they apparently failed to measure up to Big Blue’s standards, The Economic Times of India reported Saturday.

Although IBM declined to comment on the specifics of the firings – just how many and for what reasons – the newspaper reported that the freshers “were asked to go based on their performance in aptitude tests.”

The firings could prove to be a setback for IBM’s aggressive recruitment of Indian technology talent. Big Blue even has a specific Web site set up for “fresher” recruits in India, where the company employs more than 47,000 people. Many of those have been hired over the past couple of years as IBM publically boasted about its plans to make India a major hub of its international operations.

India also has been the destination for thousands of jobs in offshoring positions from the United States and Europe. Reasons include lower salaries and cheaper costs of doing business. Offshoring is an especially touchy subject around the Triangle where IBM employs more than 11,000 people - so far its largest employee campus.

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more.... http://www.wral.com/business/local_tech_wire/news/story/2387954/

[supernova]

1. Wish I could say I was surprised

by IBM's behavior, but I'm not.

:-(

edit: The fact is, IBM and other companies will do what they damn well please for all sorts of "reasons" and they don't have to tell you about any of it. And they can even make up a false one.

[nebula]

2. We have the Bush policy to thank

rewarding US companies for offshoring work, while penalizing them for hiring their own people at home.