Economy looking up, IITs see a surge in pre-placement offers

Placements at Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) are expected go back to pre-Covid (or 2019) levels, suggests data from the country’s premier chain of engineering schools. In 2020, pre-placement offers (PPOs) at IITs were affected by the Covid-19 lockdown and a slowdown in the economy, but most IITs this year are witnessing a surge in PPOs

Placements at Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) are expected go back to pre-Covid (or 2019) levels, suggests data from the country’s premier chain of engineering schools. In 2020, pre-placement offers (PPOs) at IITs were affected by the Covid-19 lockdown and a slowdown in the economy, but most IITs this year are witnessing a surge in PPOs. “It is a welcome trend,” said Prof Vinay Sharma, professor in-charge of placement and internship at IIT Roorkee.

Most of the older IITs, including Bombay, Delhi, Madras, Kharagpur, Roorkee, and Guwahati have managed 75-80% placement success rate of those who registered for placement. In 2020, pre-placement offers (PPOs) at IITs were affected by the Covid-19 lockdown. (Satish Bate/HT Photo)

IIT Delhi – ranked 45 in the benchmark Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) Asia University Rankings for 2022 – has received 179 PPOs so far, with more expected until the end of November when the deadline for PPOs ends. In 2020, IIT Delhi had received 150 PPOs at the start of the placement season, while in 2019, the number was 170.

The first phase of campus placements at all the IITs (there are 23 across India) will begin on December 1. PPOs are jobs that companies offer to students directly, without or before participating in the campus placement session. Each year, the IITs admit students for 16,200 available seats at the entry level, but the number of students opting for placements every year differs from one IIT to another.

Most of the older IITs, including Bombay, Delhi, Madras, Kharagpur, Roorkee, and Guwahati have managed 75-80% placement success rate of those who registered for placements. In some cases, IITs from Bombay, Delhi and Madras have reported nearly 85% success rate during placements. Those who don’t get placed through the placement process can wait for the second session of placements that begins in January onwards, or apply for jobs on their own. IITs have been refusing to share salary package information for some time.

Like IIT Delhi, IIT Madras (2022 QS rank 54) recently announced a good start to the placement season with 227 PPOs this year compared to 186 and 171 in 2020 and 2019 respectively. Officials attributed this increase to better summer internship programmes achieved by their students in the current year.

“The internship process provides a good opportunity for companies to evaluate our students over an extended period. It also helps our students to learn more about the company, the roles they may be offered and potential career prospects,” said Prof C S Shankar Ram, advisor (training and placement), IIT Madras.

IIT-Bombay (2022 QS rank 42 – the highest for any Indian institute) did not share PPO data with HT.

A statement released by IIT Madras said core engineering as well as research and development (R&D) sectors accounted for most of the PPOs. “Major recruiters this year include Qualcomm (a $23.5 billion US IT major) which has 18 PPOs, followed by other technology and financial giants such as Microsoft with 14 PPOs, and Honeywell, Texas Instruments and Goldman Sachs offering 13, 12 and 10 jobs respectively,” added Prof Shankar Ram.

“The pandemic pushed several sectors to opt for digitisation for routine work and while the economy was hit initially, this year more and more companies in the IT, Technology, Robotics and other core engineering sectors are looking forward to hiring in big numbers to meet the demand and supply gap,” said Rituparna Chakraborty, co-founder, EVP at TeamLease Services, a people supply chain company.

PPOs at IIT Roorkee (Uttarakhand) and IIT Mandi (Himachal Pradesh) also went up compared to last year, with more expected until the end of this month. Prof Sharma of IIT Roorkee said the institute has received 214 PPOs so far, and is awaiting confirmation on more before December 1. Last year, the institute had recorded 154 PPOs in all, while in 2019, the number was 146.

“Companies offering PPOs include Amazon, American Express, Cisco, Google, JPMorgan Chase, Microsoft, Oracle, among others. A large number of public sector units (PSUs) have also shown interest in hiring this year and we are expecting many to show up during the placements session in December,” said Prof Sharma.

Officials at IIT Mandi said the current batch has already attracted 49 PPOs and the numbers are bound to increase over the next two weeks. In 2020, this number stood at 39, whereas in 2019, the institute had recorded 34 PPOs.

IIT Jodhpur students have received 30 PPOs so far plus four off-campus job offers, compared to 19 PPOs registered in 2019. “The number of companies registering for the placement season has doubled, which is a good sign,” said Dr Anuj Pal Kapoor, faculty in-charge, career development cell, IIT Jodhpur. “From 25 companies registered for placements in December 2020, we already have 50 companies registering this year.”

For a second year in a row, placement interviews, group discussions and tests will be conducted online across IITs. The first phase of placements is scheduled to begin on December 1 and will last for seven or 15 days, depending on the number of students registered for placements in the respective institutes and the companies registered to offer jobs.

“From 404 companies registered for the placement season last year, we have 548 companies registered so far for the placement season starting December 1, 2021. Most companies showing interest in hiring this year belong to engineering and technology, information technology, software development, data science/analytics and R&D,” added Prof C S Shankar Ram, from IIT Madras.