Rajesh (name changed), a fresher, was to join Mahindra Satyam on August 10. But he was told that his date of joining has been deferred. His is not an isolated case. Scores of freshers, who were selected on campus and received offer letters, were told to join later.

Though there is no word officially on fresh dates of joining, it is indicated that they would be absorbed in the third quarter. These freshers were to join in July, August and September. At a loss what to do, freshers have started making questions and sending emails to the Human Resources Department, seeking to know the likely joining dates.

“Will this recession cast any affect on our jobs? Anybody got new joining date? When will be the date of joining for September 7 batch Sir? I am, along with the entire August 10 batch, awaiting new joining dates. Kindly, let us know that by what date we will be receiving our joining letter and what may be the tentative date for our joining?” -- These are some of the many questions pouring in on Facebook and Orkut trying to know whether others have got information on this.

After a gap of nearly two years during which it was trying to recoup from the massive financial fraud, the company went back to campuses to hire fresh talent. It had selected 5,000 students from campuses early this year. Besides, it said it would take 12,000 more from the lateral (experienced) segment.

“It is not that we have stopped all of them from joining. We did absorb some of them in the first quarter. A good number of 2,200 net additions in the first quarter are freshers. Our plan is to take them all in a staggered way,” a company executive told Business Line .

Incidentally, the company has deferred salary hikes too to October from April. “There are several reasons for deferring joining dates. Some of them have not completed their eight semesters,” a company official said.

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