Jamshedpur, Dec. 23: Shahid Hassan is excited. After completing graduation this year with honours in chemistry, the former Karim City College student has bagged a plum offer from Wipro’s call centre.

“I am very excited to say the least. Many of my friends who have an engineering background are still looking for jobs,” said Shahid Hassan, who was offered a package of Rs 2.7 lakh per annum in his first job.

Ekta Kumari is no less excited. The final-year student of botany from Jamshedpur Women’s College got offers from Wipro in Calcutta and IBM in Gurgaon. She chose Wipro as it was closer to her hometown, Jamshedpur. But Ekta cannot complain, as she would be getting a monthly remuneration of Rs 13,000, including incentives and perks. “Never did I think that I would get a job so soon, that too straight while in college,” said Ekta, who has plans to study further alongside her job.

Such stories have started emerging from city colleges, with BPO outfits recruiting fresh graduates and making campus placements a regular feature. Till 2005, college students would go to Ranchi to attend centralised campus interviews. But 2007 changed that with recruiters from leading companies travelling to colleges in Jamshedpur to pick the best brains. “It is a very encouraging trend. With no professional degrees, I must say the students are getting a good deal,” said A.K. Sinha, the placement co-ordinator at Jamshedpur Co-operative College. The college has placed 24 students with IBM Daksh after they conducted campus selections on December 11. ICICI and Usha Martin are also making an entry here.

At Jamshedpur Worker’s College, three students have been placed in Wipro. IBM Daksh selected two and HSBC Bank offered a package to one. In the next two months, the college authorities are expecting more names from the IT sector.

The placement season starts around October and goes on till February. Companies select their final list of chosen students by June. Selected candidates are excited as their salaries are among the best in the industry. They also have an option to pursue higher studies, either through correspondence or in collaboration with companies.

However, getting a job is not that easy, especially in a call centre. Gouri Suresh, in-charge of the placement cell at Jamshedpur Women’s College, said: “Dialect and accent pose a major problem to many as most come from a Hindi-medium background.” The eligibility criterion has also become more stringent. “Wipro Technologies has told us to shortlist only first-class students with a science background,” said Suresh.

But with companies such as HSBC, Dell Computers, Accenture, HDFC, ICICI and Infosys set to come for recruitment, students have reasons to smile.