Kamal Ghorui
Hyderabad: At a time when mass recruiters are staying away from campus placements, global capability centres (GCCs) and startups have become beacons of hope for freshers. Not only are they actively sourcing talent from premier institutes but are also eyeing local colleges.According to college placement cells, the number of GCCs participating in campus recruitments increased by nearly 300% in the 2025-2026 academic year, with these firms offering an average annual salary of Rs 11 lakh to Rs 15 lakh — significantly higher than what mass recruiters typically pay. Their packages range from Rs 3.5 lakh to Rs 7 lakh.
“In fact, it was GCCs that helped overturn the recessionary impact being felt on college campuses,” said K Kishore, director of the training and placement cell at Vasavi College of Engineering (VCE) that saw at least 45 students being placed with GCCs this year. He said the college has already hosted five to seven such companies in 2026, as opposed to none until last year. Each has recruited six to seven students with decent packages averaging around Rs 10 LPA. “The rapid rise in GCCs, both in Hyderabad and elsewhere in the country, is aiding this uptick in placements,” Kishore added.Hyderabad has seen between 35 and 50 GCCs opening offices in the city in the past 12 months with both large corporates and mid-sized companies looking to cash in on the city’s strong infrastructure and talent pool.Among the GCCs seen making rounds of colleges in Hyderabad are Evernorth Health Services, Optum Global, Align Technologies, Honeywell, Barclays, HSBC, Deloitte, Google, Oracle, Bank of America, KPMG, and JP Morgan, among others.Students and training and placement officers (TPOs) say that while some are visiting individual campuses directly, others are conducting pool drives for select colleges. But the requirement is much the same: students with strong problem-solving skills and interdisciplinary knowledge.Rami Reddy G, chief student placement coordinator, Chaitanya Bharathi Institute of Technology (CBIT) said the college had five GCCs walk in 2025, which has touched almost 20 this year. The highest package offered so far: Rs 56 lakh per annum to a student from computer science engineering.Students say the most welcome change brought in by these companies is opening up a wider range of roles across branches and extending opportunities to candidates, even with low GPAs.“I landed the job primarily because of my project,” said K Sai Nayak, a final-year computer science engineering student who got picked by Bank of America. “I created an app by integrating AI to help students with exam preparation. I was asked several questions on it to understand my problem-solving skills,” he added.Another final-year student, Mohammad Ismaeel, who bagged an offer from Align Technology, said along with questions on standard APIs (application programming interfaces) and programming languages like Python, he was also asked about data engineering and data processing concepts.“They tested to see if I had in-depth knowledge about the topics I had mentioned in my resume. Having worked on multiple projects, I could answer the questions better because of practical exposure,” he added.Many of these GCCs are initially offering internships or apprentice roles with decent packages, said placement officers stating how this reflects long-term hiring confidence rather than short-term recruitment needs, as most of these offers are eventually converted into full-time roles.
