The aim of this paper was to identify those factors that contributed to the employability of engineering graduates in the campus recruitment process by various companies and to analyze whether the same factors remained as the contributors to the success of the same students in the initial stages of corporate life in software services industry. On analyzing the performance of engineering graduates during their academic pursuit and subsequent performance in software services companies, it was observed that while performance in various non-technical skills has greater impact in ensuring employability of engineering graduates during the campus recruitment drives, proficiency in programming skills has significant influence in predicting a better job performance in the initial learning process in the Information Technology sector.

The service sector has emerged as the fastest growing sector across the world, especially during the period 1990-2003 when it grew by 6% per annum. This phenomenon was the result of the influx of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and of the decline in the agriculture sector which was predominant amongst all sectors for quite a number of years (Banga, 2005). According to the World Bank (2010), India is a low-middle-income economy based on per capita income. However, during 2000-06, the Indian economy entered a high-growth phase, averaging 7% per annum (Mohan, 2008). This was made possible with the development of Indian service sector that merely contributed about 51% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). One of the reasons for the sudden growth in the services sector in India in the nineties was the liberalization policy in the regulatory framework that gave rise to innovation and higher exports from the services sector (Raman et al., 2010). From this perspective, the contribution of Information Technology sector has been quite significant for the consistent growth of Indian economy. The phenomenal growth of the Information Technology Software and Services (ITSS) and Information Technology Enabled Service (ITES) – Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) sector in India has had a perceptible multiplier effect on the Indian economy as a whole. In addition to the direct positive impact on national income and employment generation, the sector has spawned the mushrooming of several ancillary industries, triggering a rise in direct-tax collections and propelling an increase in consumer spending, thanks to the significantly higher disposable incomes (Singh, 2008, p. 242).

Soft Skills Journal, Attitude Trained for Skills, Engineering Graduates, Employability, Information Technology sector, Gross Domestic Product (GDP), Information Technology Software and Services (ITSS), Information Technology Enabled Service (ITES), Business Process Outsourcing (BPO), Indian Software Services Industry.