Wipro is one of the leading IT companies in the world that works with many academic institutions to provide job placements and internship opportunities for students. They have a strong graduate hiring program called the Wipro Campus Recruitment Program through which they actively recruit and hire students from top engineering and management colleges across the globe.
As part of their campus recruitment process, Wipro organizes various engagement activities with students right from their first year of study. They conduct multiple training sessions, workshops, seminars, hackathons and competitions at campuses to guide students on new technologies, skill development and impart practical industry exposure. The capstone project is an important milestone for final year students where they work on live industry projects to solve real business problems.
Wipro closely works with college placement cells and faculties to understand the nature and scope of capstone projects being undertaken by students. Their talent acquisition team proactively reaches out to identify projects of interest and relevance to their business domains. They evaluate the project briefs and scope of work to assess the technical skills, functional expertise and problem solving abilities required by students. If a project perfectly matches their hiring needs, a Wipro mentor is assigned to provide guidance to the student team.
The Wipro mentor plays a vital role in handholding students during the entire capstone project life cycle. They clearly define the project objectives, expected outcomes and quality benchmarks in consultation with the college faculty. Regular coaching sessions are conducted to ensure projects are progression as per the timelines and design specifications. Tool trainings, documentation support, code reviews, testing methodologies etc. are provided by mentors to enhance the learning experience. Towards the end, a thorough project demonstration and evaluation is done internally by Wipro to gauge the student performance.
Based on the overall assessment of students through their capstone work, meaningful interactions and demonstration of the right aptitude, attitude and technical skills, Wipro shortlists top performers who are a good fit for their jobs. Selected candidates are provided pre-placement offers well in advance of their graduation. They are onboarded for further training through Wipro’s flagship leadership development programs like the Wipro Leadership Program and Campus to Corporate before actual job responsibilities.
This early hiring and pre-placement offer gives students enough time to complete their academics smoothly without job pressure. It also allows Wipro to groom fresh talents as per their processes and culture even before joining formally. For other non-PPO selected students, campus placement drives are organized where multiple job profiles across different business units are offered. Group discussions, technical tests, HR interviews etc. are conducted to offer roles to deserving candidates.
Even after campus placements, Wipro continues to engage with alumni through various networking programs, trainings and recruitment initiatives. They have separate alumni hiring teams who actively reach out to identify potential candidates for mid-level and senior jobs. Referrals from existing employees or academic institution faculty members are also considered. Regular campus ambassadors are appointed who promote Wipro opportunities on campuses.
With all these multi-pronged and long-term student engagement strategies, Wipro has been quite successful over the years in attracting the best talents from top campuses nationally and globally. The capstone project collaboration acts as an important filter for them to identify the right fresh graduate fits based on demonstrated capabilities rather than just academic qualifications. It establishes an early employer-employee rapport helping Wipro to hire the crème de la crème of each graduating batch. This ultimately strengthens their talent pipeline and contributes to building a future-ready skilled workforce.
Andrew Stroud