American IT company Cognizant is facing criticism for offering a relatively low annual salary of Rs 2.52 lakh to fresh graduates. The job posting was for mass hiring of the 2024 graduating batch off-campus. While many have criticized the IT giant for the low salary, tech entrepreneur Vatsal Sanghvi defended the offer. Sanghvi argued that the quality of fresh graduates is “poor,” and even paying Rs 20,000 a month to them is “too much.”
He listed several reasons for his opinion, stating that most freshers “lack professional communication and behavior skills” and “cannot code effectively.”
Sanghvi suggested that the salary offered by the company is essentially a “training stipend” and advised those unhappy with the pay to seek opportunities elsewhere.
The entrepreneur from Bengaluru went on to say that there are “plenty of opportunities to grow” if one works on improving their skills.
He said, “But you know what? We want free money as a nation, and the people sitting in fancy offices have an opinion on everything without having the slightest clue about the reality on the ground.”
Sanghvi’s post on X (formerly Twitter) was met with backlash from Internet users. One user commented, “It’s labeled as a training stipend and clearly listed as CTC. They don’t train you in your area of expertise but assign you to different technologies based on project needs. The focus seems to be solely on profit.”
A fourth user commented, “You act like they’re giving away jobs for free. There will be interviews, and they will only hire candidates who pass them. The real issue is the salary. This pay was the same when I started as a fresher in 2006. People are pointing out that it hasn’t kept up with inflation.”
Another user added, “I challenge you to live on Rs 20,000 in Bengaluru for three months and then speak. There’s something called the dignity of labor and minimum wages, but it seems like none of that applies here.”