India's biggest technology employers are making engineering graduates wait longer to start work, delaying onboarding, withdrawing some offers and increasingly relying on internship-to-hire models as business demand remains uneven.

Over the past month, at least four global technology firms—including Accenture Plc, Tata Consultancy Services Ltd (TCS), Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp. and Oracle Corp.—have either delayed onboarding selected freshers or withdrawn job offers and cancelled roles, according to candidates, placement officials and company communications reviewed by Mint.

The shift suggests a tougher hiring environment for the country's 1.5 million engineering graduates (according to a November 2025 Forbes report), with companies becoming more cautious about committing to permanent hiring amid uneven client demand and broader macroeconomic uncertainty, even as advances in automation tools raise broader questions about the future of entry-level technology jobs.

Emails sent to Accenture and Oracle on Monday went unanswered till press time.

Waiting to join

At least two of the companies—TCS and Cognizant—have delayed onboarding some selected candidates, citing business requirements.

“We understand your eagerness to join TCS and begin your professional journey with us. Please note that the issuance of joining letter is aligned with our current business requirements and project demands,” read an email from TCS's onboarding team sent last month to selected candidates and reviewed by Mint.

“This keeps us in the lurch because we don't know when we will get the job and when we will start earning,” said a candidate who cleared the company's hiring process three months ago, but is yet to receive an offer letter.

“We continue to onboard trainees as per our plan,” said TCS in an emailed response to Mint's queries, and denied that there had been delays in onboarding selected candidates.

TCS recruits graduates through three fresher hiring tracks, with annual salaries ranging from ₹4 lakh to ₹14 lakh.

New Jersey-headquartered Cognizant has also delayed onboarding for some freshers, according to candidates and emails reviewed by Mint.

“We received our letter of intent in November (2025) and are still awaiting our offer letters. What is saddening is that some of my classmates who cleared their internship months later got their offer letters whereas we haven't,” said a graduate selected under Cognizant's GenC programme.

Responding to one candidate's query, Cognizant cited business requirements as one of the factors determining joining letters. “Your Date of Joining (DOJ) will be finalized based on business requirements and is subject to the successful completion of the Background Verification (BGV) process,” read an email from Cognizant's GenC talent acquisition team reviewed by Mint.

A Cognizant spokesperson added that its onboarding plan is rolled out in line with project readiness and deployment needs.

TCS has not publicly disclosed hiring targets for the year. Cognizant, meanwhile, has said it plans to hire more freshers than the 20,000 it recruited last year.

The cautious approach to fresh hiring comes even as both companies are restructuring their workforces. TCS completed the exit of about 12,000 employees by March, while Cognizant is in the process of reducing its workforce by at least 4,000 employees.

Offers pulled

While TCS and Cognizant delayed onboarding for certain candidates, Accenture and Oracle withdrew some offers and cancelled roles that employees were getting hired for.

“I was told in May that I had cleared the final interview at Accenture only to be told a month later that the role I had interviewed for did not exist,” said a candidate, requesting anonymity.

The company attributed the move to recent developments without elaborating.

“Thanks for your interest in the role of Custom Software Engineer at Accenture. However, we regret to inform you that due to certain recent developments, we are no longer recruiting for this role, ” read an email from Accenture's HR team earlier this month.

Nashville-based Oracle has also withdrawn offers made to students from some of India's top engineering colleges.

According to placement officers, the company reportedly rescinded offers to about 30 students across two Bengaluru engineering colleges. Placement heads described it as a case arising from "unavoidable circumstances" and the "first such instance" in a decade.

The students had completed five-month internships and were expected to receive full-time offers with annual salaries ranging from ₹9 lakh to ₹18 lakh.

This comes three months after Oracle underwent one of its largest reported layoff rounds, letting go of about 14,000 employees, or roughly a fifth of its workforce.

Most of the affected candidates had expected to join by May. Their joining dates have since been deferred or, in some cases, their offers withdrawn.

A changing campus

Placement officials say delayed onboarding has become increasingly common over the past few years, prompting students to look beyond traditional IT services companies.

“We are seeing an increase in delayed onboarding in the last couple of years because of business turbulence. Some IT services firms state they will not be able to onboard after conducting interviews because of an uncertain business pipeline,” said a placement officer at Ramaiah Institute of Technology, Bengaluru, on condition of anonymity.

“Many students don't prefer to join IT services firms because of two main reasons. First is low pay, and second is onboarding delay, which has been increasing over the last few years,” said Ranganath D, placement head at RV College of Engineering.

KS Sridhar, placement head at PES University, said companies are increasingly hiring through internships before making permanent offers.

“Companies have started adopting a wait-and-watch approach by hiring students as interns, observe their performance and offer performance-based full-time employment,” he said.

India's biggest technology employers are making engineering graduates wait longer to start work, delaying onboarding, withdrawing some offers and increasingly relying on internship-to-hire models as business demand remains uneven.

Over the past month, at least four global technology firms—including Accenture Plc, Tata Consultancy Services Ltd (TCS), Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp. and Oracle Corp.—have either delayed onboarding selected freshers or withdrawn job offers and cancelled roles, according to candidates, placement officials and company communications reviewed by Mint.

The shift suggests a tougher hiring environment for the country's 1.5 million engineering graduates (according to a November 2025 Forbes report), with companies becoming more cautious about committing to permanent hiring amid uneven client demand and broader macroeconomic uncertainty, even as advances in automation tools raise broader questions about the future of entry-level technology jobs.

Emails sent to Accenture and Oracle on Monday went unanswered till press time.

Waiting to join

At least two of the companies—TCS and Cognizant—have delayed onboarding some selected candidates, citing business requirements.

“We understand your eagerness to join TCS and begin your professional journey with us. Please note that the issuance of joining letter is aligned with our current business requirements and project demands,” read an email from TCS's onboarding team sent last month to selected candidates and reviewed by Mint.

“This keeps us in the lurch because we don't know when we will get the job and when we will start earning,” said a candidate who cleared the company's hiring process three months ago, but is yet to receive an offer letter.

“We continue to onboard trainees as per our plan,” said TCS in an emailed response to Mint's queries, and denied that there had been delays in onboarding selected candidates.

TCS recruits graduates through three fresher hiring tracks, with annual salaries ranging from ₹4 lakh to ₹14 lakh.

New Jersey-headquartered Cognizant has also delayed onboarding for some freshers, according to candidates and emails reviewed by Mint.

“We received our letter of intent in November (2025) and are still awaiting our offer letters. What is saddening is that some of my classmates who cleared their internship months later got their offer letters whereas we haven't,” said a graduate selected under Cognizant's GenC programme.

Responding to one candidate's query, Cognizant cited business requirements as one of the factors determining joining letters. “Your Date of Joining (DOJ) will be finalized based on business requirements and is subject to the successful completion of the Background Verification (BGV) process,” read an email from Cognizant's GenC talent acquisition team reviewed by Mint.

A Cognizant spokesperson added that its onboarding plan is rolled out in line with project readiness and deployment needs.

TCS has not publicly disclosed hiring targets for the year. Cognizant, meanwhile, has said it plans to hire more freshers than the 20,000 it recruited last year.

The cautious approach to fresh hiring comes even as both companies are restructuring their workforces. TCS completed the exit of about 12,000 employees by March, while Cognizant is in the process of reducing its workforce by at least 4,000 employees.

Offers pulled

While TCS and Cognizant delayed onboarding for certain candidates, Accenture and Oracle withdrew some offers and cancelled roles that employees were getting hired for.

“I was told in May that I had cleared the final interview at Accenture only to be told a month later that the role I had interviewed for did not exist,” said a candidate, requesting anonymity.

The company attributed the move to recent developments without elaborating.

“Thanks for your interest in the role of Custom Software Engineer at Accenture. However, we regret to inform you that due to certain recent developments, we are no longer recruiting for this role, ” read an email from Accenture's HR team earlier this month.

Nashville-based Oracle has also withdrawn offers made to students from some of India's top engineering colleges.

According to placement officers, the company reportedly rescinded offers to about 30 students across two Bengaluru engineering colleges. Placement heads described it as a case arising from "unavoidable circumstances" and the "first such instance" in a decade.

The students had completed five-month internships and were expected to receive full-time offers with annual salaries ranging from ₹9 lakh to ₹18 lakh.

This comes three months after Oracle underwent one of its largest reported layoff rounds, letting go of about 14,000 employees, or roughly a fifth of its workforce.

Most of the affected candidates had expected to join by May. Their joining dates have since been deferred or, in some cases, their offers withdrawn.

A changing campus

Placement officials say delayed onboarding has become increasingly common over the past few years, prompting students to look beyond traditional IT services companies.

“We are seeing an increase in delayed onboarding in the last couple of years because of business turbulence. Some IT services firms state they will not be able to onboard after conducting interviews because of an uncertain business pipeline,” said a placement officer at Ramaiah Institute of Technology, Bengaluru, on condition of anonymity.

“Many students don't prefer to join IT services firms because of two main reasons. First is low pay, and second is onboarding delay, which has been increasing over the last few years,” said Ranganath D, placement head at RV College of Engineering.

KS Sridhar, placement head at PES University, said companies are increasingly hiring through internships before making permanent offers.

“Companies have started adopting a wait-and-watch approach by hiring students as interns, observe their performance and offer performance-based full-time employment,” he said.