Uncertainty in the job scene in major economies such as the US and the UK has prompted many students from Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) to spurn overseas offers as the latest round of placement drive gets under way in these premier institutes. Availability of better job profiles within the country and complexities in getting job visas in advanced economies have made many to look for jobs in the domestic market, a faculty member in charge of placement in one of the IITs said.

What students look for

“More than anything else, students nowadays are looking at the profile of the job, possibility of growth and an opportunity to get into core functions of a firm while gauging offers made to them,” said Amit Acharyya, Acting Faculty-in-charge of Placements, IIT-Hyderabad.

“Students are doing their bit of evaluation of international offers. They do purchasing power parity calculations in addition to other factors. This has been the case with IIT-Delhi students for some time in the past,” said Anishya Madan, Industry Liaison Offer (Training and Placements), IIT-Delhi.

Visible trends

Some of the visible trends of the current hiring drive, which began on December 1, are a rise in the number of companies visiting campuses, the offer of better work profiles, and increased stress on hiring students for jobs in the artificial intelligence domain. “This time companies such as Microsoft, which used to hire only for software engineering jobs, are also offering roles in data science, data analytics, artificial intelligence, etc, as there is growing scope in these areas,” said Manu Santhanam, Advisor (Placements), IIT-Madras.

Campus offers

IIT-Madras has so far reported a total of 680 offers, while students of IIT-Roorkee and IIT-Delhi got 569 and 500 offer,s respectively. Students of IIT-Hyderabad got 133 offers, including 17 international placements , so far. Intel gave the maximum number of domestic offers to students in IIT-Delhi, while in IIT-Madras it was Microsoft, Intel and Micron that came up with most number of Indian offers. Other major companies that came to the IIT-Madras campus are Google, Apple, Airbus and McKinsey.

PSU recruiters

Among the public sector organisations, Indian Oil Corporation’s R&D Centre, Solar Energy Corporation of India, and Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) have made offers in IIT-Delhi. ISRO and ONGC have recruited four and three candidates, respectively, at IIT-Madras, which is expecting more government companies by mid-January. An IIT-Hyderabad official said state-owned firms are scheduled to visit the campus in the coming days.

According to Santhanam, over 1,300 students are registered for placement across different streams of study at IIT-Madras this year. There are more than 490 profiles from nearly 326 companies that plan to visit the campus in the first phase of placements that lasts until December 8.

Alekhya Reddy from Computer Science and Engineering Department, who got an international offer, said it was an exhilarating experience to attend the interviews of software giants, answering the back-to-back nerve-wracking coding questions. “I am experiencing a sense of satisfaction that all my hard work has paid off on getting selected for Microsoft, Redmond Campus in the US.”

Advaith Sridhar from Electrical Engineering Department, who got placed in Flipkart, said, “Placements have been a whirlwind process for me. Five months of work culminating in one day can be intensely stressful but the placement arrangements smoothened the way for us.”

Micron Technology and Intel Technology India, with job offers of 26 each, were the top recruiters on the third day of campus placement at IIT-Madras. This was followed by Microsoft (25), Citibank (22) and Qualcomm (21), a press release from the institute said.

The institute saw a 30 per cent jump in offers this year at the end of Day 3, with 133 companies making 680 offers, taking the total, including pre-placement offers, to 816.

Analytics, consulting, and finance sectors accounted for 33 per cent of all job offers so far. The core and R&D sectors account for 37 per cent and the IT sector for 29 per cent. This reflects a big jump in the hiring of computer science majors.

“The participation of core sector companies has gone up significantly this year compared to the last couple of years. They are hiring in double digits,” Syam Nair, chairman of student placement office at IIT-Kanpur, told BusinessLine .

The institute received confirmed offers for 450 students at the end of Day 4 of placement while the number of total offers would be much higher due to some getting multiple letters. Intel, Exxon Mobile, Bajaj Auto, GE, Taiwan Semi Conductors, are among the core companies hiring from IITs.

(With inputs from TE Raja Simhan in Chennai and Rashmi Pratap in Mumbai)

comment COMMENT NOW