IndianOil and GAIL buck downturn to add IK jobs
New Delhi   24-Nov-2008
While new jobs would be hard to find in the automotive and airline sectors due to the current slowdown, companies in the hydrocarbon sector such as IndianOil and gas utility GAIL India Ltd are robustly pushing ahead with their hiring plans. IndianOil director (human resources) V.C. Aggarwal said IndianOil plans to recruit as many as 750 fresh executives. "Over 500 of these will be engineers and the rest will be chartered accountants with a smaller number of managerial cadre candidates for marketing and sales as well," he added. "Being a tech-driven industry, engineers form the main manpower requirement of IndianOil," he pointed out. IndianOil is looking for graduates in chemical, mechanical and electrical streams. Similarly, GAIL intends to go beyond the 300 fresh executives that it currently absorbs, as it is an expanding organisation and has to nil slots that arise due to normal attrition such as retirement, said a board member. Aggarwal said the IndianOil team would be visiting IIT campuses and regional engineering colleges such as the Delhi College of Engineering, Punjab Engineering College and BHU to pick up fresh candidates. IndianOil has piled up an over Rs 7,000-crore loss for the second quarter of the current financial year, chiefly due to the government not allowing oil companies to raise the retail prices of petrol, diesel, LPG and kerosenee despite soaring prices of crude. The government is expected to compensate the oil companies so that they can show healthy balance sheets and continue with their expansion plans. Aggarwal said the expansion plans at the Panipat refinery, where a new hydrocracker unit is being set up, are on track. Further expansion of the Mathura refinery is also being planned. Naturally, these require more manpower. The oil giant does not think worthwhile to recruit IIM graduates as they are too arrogant and have a know-all attitude, which prevents them from learning the essentials of the job, a senior IndianOil official said. Aggarwal confirmed that IndianOil would not visit any IIM campuses even though the salary expectations of the graduates have come down sharply due to the economic slowdown. He said, " IndianOil has its own management institute where the company's executives are imparted training specific to the requirement of the oil sector." "We invite faculty members from IIMs to teach the latest management techniques to our executives. Professors from IIMs at Ahmedabad, Kolkata and Bengaluru visit the IndianOil management institute," he added. GAIL needs over 300 executives every year as it expands its pipeline network and steps up its investment in the city gas distribution business. Chairman U.D. Choubey said GAIL has a Rs 3,500 crore annual capex plan and would be expanding the capacity of its petrochem complex at Pata to eight lakh tonnes from five lakh tonnes now. The board has approved the plan and work would start soon.