*A fast-growing Indian outsourcing company admits only 1 percent of applicants. Here’s how it trains 15, 000 recruits a year.
By Julie Schlosser, FORTUNE writer-reporter
*NEW YORK(FORTUNE Magazine) - It’s just before nine on an overcast morning, and Yesha Bhatt, a 21-year-old engineer from Mumbai, joins a river of black hair flowing from her dormitory to the main classroom building on campus. Jake Hu, a 21- year-old from Jiangxi province in China, slips into the procession after hurriedly downing a dosa. Others - 4, 000 "freshers, " as they’re called - talk on their mobile phones and gossip with friends as they make their way to class.
This could be any college campus in America, complete with a Domino’s Pizza, a store that sells school T-shirts, and a library that’s open 24/7. But it’s not. We’re in Mysore, India, and this is Infosys U., formally known as the Global Education Center, one of the world’s largest corporate training facilities.
Infosys Technologies, India’s second-largest software service firm, is growing fast - revenues increased 7, 951 percent over the past decade, to$1.6 billion in 2005 - and last year it expanded its workforce by about 15, 000. That’s an average of 40 new employees a day, and it is here, to Mysore, that many of them come to learn the Infosys Way.
These are India’s chosen. Securing a position at Infosys is more competitive than gaining admission to Harvard. Last year the company had more than 1.3 million applicants for full-time positions and hired only 1 percent of them.(Harvard College, by comparison, accepted 9 percent of applicants.) While many global firms are preoccupied with downsizing, pension cutting, and benefit slashing, Infosys and several of its Indian competitors face a rare and welcome challenge: boundless growth.
But recruiting, hiring, and training at a pace that can satisfy this insatiable appetite for talent requires more than simply showing new employees to their desks.
"There aren’t many companies growing like this, " says Infosys CEO Nandan Nilekani, who helped found the company 25 years ago. "Companies haven’t been investing enough in people. Rather than train them, they let them go. Our people are our capital. The more we invest in them, the more they can be effective."
Boot camp for smart people
*But this is not summer camp. Before even being considered for a job at Infosys, each applicant must pass an exam made up of math equations and logic puzzles that many fail. After the interview, after the job offer, comes the real test: eight hours a day at Mysore studying lines of Java code, attending team-building workshops, and learning to differentiate the do’s of global workplace etiquette from the don’ts. In order to graduate, every fresher has to pass two three-hour comprehensive exams.
Sometimes the students break down, says Ravindra Muthya, head of education and research. But only 1 percent to 2 percent drop out. "For us, this is very expensive, " he says. "We can’t lose them."
Which raises the question: In a country like India, where daily newspapers run math equations for entertainment and the talent pool of engineers is said to be as expansive as the Ganges River, why must Infosys spend$5, 000 per fresher for training?
"There is still an abyss between the academy and the industry, " says Abhishek Shandilya, 23, a mechanical engineer who graduated from college in Bangalore last year.
Infosys executives agree, saying that India’s higher-education system - often unpredictable and in some disciplines outdated - is preventing its new recruits from being placed immediately on client projects.
"I do not mean that we do not learn things in colleges, " says Shandilya, "but the knowledge we attain there is very raw."
Many freshers, like Shandilya, come with little or no practical work experience. Infosys doesn’t mind. In fact, the company prefers hiring a mechanical engineer who lacks computer skills but shows a high aptitude for "learnability"(Infosys-speak for being a quick study) over a computer scientist who can’t solve problems beyond his technical training.