Happy days back again for IT professionals ?

With the rising demand for IT globally and greater customer confidence, IT professionals are a much sought after lot. According to a survey by The Times of Indian, increments in the sector would average in the 12 per cent to 15 per cent range with people in specialised areas, like the product space, are expected to get up to 20 per cent or more.

Salaries and stipends on offer to freshers are up 10 per cent to 15 per cent as compared to last year and hires from premier educational institutions have seen increases of 15 per cent to 20 per cent this year.

According to recruiters top tech firms in the country such as TCS, Wipro, Infosys, HCL and Cognizant -- are considering a 10 per cent to 15 per cent average hike this year.

The appraisal process at Wipro has just got under way and in an email to employees, the management said the process would be completed by May. Increments are expected to be announced in June-July and would be effective 1 June.

According to sources in the company the increments would be in the range of 12-15 per cent as against 8-12 per cent last year.

According to industry insiders, people with 3-8 years of experience are in particularly high demand as rapid growth of business had left little time for companies to train freshers to deal with these orders.