What it does: National Institute of Information Technology (NIIT Limited) provides training management in information technology to corporations, institutions, and individuals. NIIT Technologies, a separately listed company, provides consultancy services to the IT & ITES enterprises.
Best known for: Most of the Fortune 500 companies employ the services of NIIT for employee training and to assess their IT investments.
Staff stats: NIIT Limited employs over 2000 employees across India. NIIT Technologies employs over 10,000 individuals across the world.
The good bits: Competitive pay, learning opportunities, and a young, energetic workforce. A chance to work with clients from a diverse set of industries.
The not so good bits: Stressful work environment which demands employees stick to stringent deadlines. Work-life balance can be poor.
Hiring grads from: Engineering (Software, IT, Electronics); Management (General and Administrative); Sales & Marketing (including Advertising); Finance; Law & Legal Studies; Human Resources; Design; Education.
Started by two engineering graduates of IIT Delhi, Rajendra S. Pawar and Vijay K. Thadani, NIIT was one of the first in IT education in India. In 1981, the Information Technology industry in India was just emerging, and NIIT became crucial in this atmosphere. Within six years of forming, NIIT had nine centres imparting IT training in India. Around the same time, NIIT also entered the software market under the brand “Insoft” and also started providing consultancy services to companies to make the most use of their IT investments. This enabled them to partner with Microsoft to provide training for their products in 1995, and then open their first overseas office in 1996. Since then, NIIT has partnered with companies like Oracle and Autodesk to provide training to individuals to use their products.
NIIT Ltd. now owns a 24% stake in NIIT Technologies, a separately listed company, which provides IT solutions to corporations across the world since 2006. It was only in 2009 that NIIT finally also expanded into the mainstream education system, opening their first university in Neemrana, Rajasthan, offering undergraduate and graduate degree courses. NIIT also set up various subsidiaries providing testing & assessment services to IT companies and also partnered with the Indian Institutes of Management to start 3 certificate degree programmes. Today, the business of NIIT is spread across three major lines:
Corporate Learning Group: Provides services to optimise learning delivery and management.
Schools Learning Group: Provides learning tools and technologies to government and private schools.
Skills and Career Group: Provides services to improve employability skills among learners.
The process is highly competitive and difficult to crack. Job vacancies are meticulously listed on the NIIT website, where you can search by location and job profiles. Most employees are able to secure jobs by applying online.NIIT Technologies mostly hires from campus drives that they conduct across India during every placement season.
There are a large number of candidates who apply for NIIT jobs every year. Candidates can expect to hear back about the application within one to two weeks at worst, and generally, the turnaround time is even quicker. The entire process is designed to be completed within two to three days, though it might take longer depending on the availability of senior executives for the interview rounds. For the first round, applicants are required to clear an aptitude test consisting of questions measuring their proficiency in quantitative skills, verbal ability & logical reasoning. If the candidate passes this test, the next would be a psychometric test, possibly a FIRO-B assessment. There could be four to five interviews following this, and all the interviews are exacting. Some of the interviews might be conducted telephonically or over video call depending on the location of the candidate.
The interviews are conducted under moderate stress, particularly designed because working at NIIT can be stressful as well. The first couple of interviews would be technical interviews, and candidates should come well-prepared with basics from their course of study. For software engineering students, questions from data and algorithmic structures are commonly asked, in addition to Java and database programming. Applicants may be required to write code on paper, demonstrating an ability to write accurately without intervention. Interviews with business heads and the COO would be next, depending on the job profile the candidate has applied for. These are short interviews and can be high stress. A final HR interview will seal the deal in ensuring that the candidate is the right fit for the culture of the company and if the candidate can work efficiently in a team.
The candidate cannot be underprepared with their subject since this might form a negative impression on the interviewer. There is very little scope for guesswork during the interviews. The results of the interviews are communicated to the candidate on the same day itself. Candidates are, therefore, also advised to keep an open mind, and remain flexible about the demands of the job, and show as much during the interview.
NIIT, like most other technology solutions corporations, boasts of mostly young, fresh-faced employees. This makes it an appealing company for young people to work for, while not having to deal with the instability that comes with working at a small startup. NIIT works with partners in various domains like banking, education, governance, retail, among many others, so employees can expect to get a versatile industrial experience.
Reputation precedes NIIT in the job market, which is why alumni go on to work at other leading technology enterprises like Accenture, Cognizant, HCL Technologies, or even make a move to NIIT Technologies for a career in consultancy. Management alumni can make a shift to most companies considering that they would have dealt with high profile clients, almost all of whom feature in the Fortune 500 list. NIIT also has policies such as a Mobility Facilitation Center, and Internal Job Postings, allowing employees to shift from one business vertical to one of the many others. Employees also get the opportunity to work onsite, even if they are not at a senior position, cultivating an atmosphere of accountability and responsibility.
NIIT pays according to the industry standard or higher for entry-level graduates, depending on the academic background of the employee. Engineers can earn anywhere between ₹5,50,000 to ₹14,00,000, the higher end of the salary generally for the role of technology specialists. Management roles pay lucrative salaries, with junior managers starting at ₹10,00,000 which can go as high as ₹30,00,000 as they climb the ladder. Consultants can also earn up to ₹15,00,000 depending on the industry they deal with. Other than this, the company also provides employee schemes for its monetary growth, insurance plans, and transport facilities.
The culture at NIIT encourages employees to develop a love for solving challenging issues, help in each other’s growth, and to excel. Like most modern corporations, NIIT can be a stressful place to work where there is very little scope for making mistakes or subpar work. The company does make it up by rewarding work with stress-busting events around employee birthdays and anniversaries, along with national festivities and cultural events. The annual day at NIIT is the high point during the year; an event specially tailored to appreciate the efforts of all the NIITians work for the company. Good performance tends to be rewarded, and hard-working employees are given enough autonomy to be able to self-discipline by working from home or kept under minimal supervision.
Progressive benefits like a ‘special dating allowance’ and ‘happy nappy day’ suggest that the company is willing to give employees benefits that they find the most useful. Other than this, leadership programmes designed for employees to establish their growth while working, so that they can hone their skills, take up more serious responsibilities and grow their career into other domains. Most of the client-facing managers at NIIT are women, which shows that they are serious about maintaining diversity in their workforce. This is proved also with the availability for créches at the office, and competitive maternity & paternity leave.
From the start, NIIT has been committed to bringing technology training to those who most need it to become part of a well-compensated workforce. The NIIT Foundation handles the CSR activities of the corporation, focusing on skilling and employability at the grassroots level. Digital literacy is one of the aspects of social development they work on, setting up projects like “Education on wheels” where digital skills are taught to rural persons right within their local communities. In this way, they are bringing in last-mile connectivity which has been a challenge in a populous country like India. Partnering with the Vodafone Foundation, NIIT has also been responsible for launching the ‘Jaadu Ginni ka’ project which provides financial literacy training to women in rural and semi-urban locations and has affected more than 10,00,000 beneficiaries.
NIIT offers a fast-paced work environment and a friendly organisation which is said to value employee satisfaction. While employees will find themselves battling strict deadlines and goals, they are also made aware of their own growth when chasing such challenges. The company prepares them for working in other such enterprises as well, while also ensuring that employees are content enough to take on more responsibilities and exhibit a sense of accountability for their tasks. While a work-life balance might be difficult to achieve, fresh graduates may find abundant opportunities to perform well at the start of their career.