Off campus drives for 2025 and 2026 graduates

People use the phrase for three different things, and each has its own rules, so it helps to know which one you are looking at.

National hiring tests. The largest IT services firms hire freshers in big batches through their own registration windows and online tests: TCS through its National Qualifier Test (NQT), Cognizant through GenC, Wipro through Elite NTH, Accenture through its India campus portal for roles like Associate Software Engineer. One notice can cover thousands of seats, and the dates move every cycle. We don't publish them, because a date copied from last year's notice is worse than no date.

Pool campus drives. One host college runs the tests and interviews, and students from several nearby colleges attend. These go through placement cells, so if you have already graduated, ask your college's placement office whether alumni can take part.

Direct openings. A single role on the company's careers site: graduate trainee, New Associate, apprentice, junior analyst. Nobody calls these a drive, they open all year, and they are what the list above shows. In the 30 days to November 7 the most active posters of these in our feed were Kotak, Accenture, Tata Capital and Amazon (the full ranking is in our companies hiring freshers report).

Every notice sets its own pass-out years, and they vary more than the blog lists suggest. Some take only the current final-year batch, some take the previous one or two batches as well, and plenty of direct openings never mention a batch. Look for pass-out year, batch or year of passing in the posting. If the posting is silent on batch, read the experience line instead: a role that asks for 0 to 1 years is open to a 2024 graduate and a 2026 graduate alike, unless it says otherwise.

Cut-offs work the same way. Many IT services notices ask for a minimum percentage or CGPA across 10th, 12th and your degree, plus no active backlogs. FACE Prep's 2026 write-up of Accenture's process, for example, lists 60% or an equivalent CGPA throughout. Other employers set no academic bar at all: several operations roles we read on November 7, at Accenture and at Amazon, asked only for a graduate degree in any stream. Never assume a cut-off from a different company's notice.

In the 30 days to November 7, only about one posting in five was under a week old, and about 60% had been up for more than two weeks. Old doesn't mean closed. Large employers often keep one requisition open while they fill several seats. But a role that has been live for a month may already have a shortlist, so apply to the newest ones first and treat the older ones as a second pass.

Postings also arrive mostly on weekdays. This month Friday was the busiest day in our feed and Sunday the quietest, so if you only check once a week, make it Friday evening.

On the company's own site or its official hiring portal, and by email from the company's own domain. Telegram groups, WhatsApp forwards and blog posts can tip you off, but they are not where you apply. These are the places to check for employers freshers ask about most.

For Accenture in particular, read our Accenture jobs for freshers guide: its fresher roles hide among hundreds of experienced postings, and the title alone won't tell you which is which.

Fake drives borrow the look of real ones: a company name, a logo, a "you are shortlisted" message, a deadline tonight. The giveaway is nearly always money or rush. Genuine employers say plainly that they don't charge. Wipro's fraud notice says it "does not charge any fee at any stage of the recruitment process". Kotak's careers page says the bank "does not ask for any money from potential recruits". Accenture's India notice says "we do not charge a fee at any stage of our recruitment process".