IITs gear up for another year of online placements, train students in advance

After wrapping up their placement season for the 2020-21 academic year which was conducted online for the first time due to Covid-19 restrictions, Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) have decided to conduct the upcoming placement season online as well

After wrapping up their placement season for the 2020-21 academic year which was conducted online for the first time due to Covid-19 restrictions, Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) have decided to conduct the upcoming placement season online as well.

HT Image

With the aim of giving a kick-start to the hiring process, most institutes have already started training their students in virtual personal interviews, mock tests and group discussions to ease the current batch of graduating students into the online hiring process.

“We are gearing up for processes as required by the situation. The office of career services (OCS) team can cater to both online and offline selection processes as per the needs of recruiters and guidelines of the institute,” said a spokesperson for the OCS team of IIT-Delhi.

An officer from the placement cell of IIT-Bombay confirmed that the institute will go ahead with virtual placements for the upcoming season as well.

IIT-Patna, which saw a 10.39% rise in the number of job offers in the last placement season, will also continue with the online mode. “This decision has been made taking the current situation and everyone’s well-being into account. Secondly, going online does have its own benefits. It draws in many more firms, owing to the fact that this mode of recruitment proves to be more cost and time-efficient. Statistically speaking, it helps a higher volume of students get placed which can be attributed to the ability to scale up the whole process,” said Kripa Shankar Singh, training and placement officer, IIT-Patna.

Singh said engaging companies with the institute and its students outside the placement scenario helped in strengthening relationships. “Such interactions and engagements improve the statistics of the hiring process,” he said.

Some IITs have already started approaching employers and are experiencing a welcome trend. “The registration process of companies has already started and the number is growing by the day which is very similar to pre-Covid days. It is already looking better than last year,” said Vinay Sharma, professor-in-charge, training and placement, IIT-Roorkee.

Despite a slight drop in number of companies registering for placements in 2020 compared to 2019, IIT-Madras managed to place 821 students from the 2020 graduating batch, compared with 727 the previous year. “We are in the process of incorporating the lessons learnt from the previous year to evolve an improved standard operating procedure in this regard. The placement team will be reaching out to students who need specific assistance, especially with lockdown still affecting many parts of the country,” said CS Shankar Ram, advisor (training and placement), IIT-Madras.

Most IITs have already started reaching out to their students with the aim of ensuring that everyone is ready to ace placement tests as well as interviews in the virtual mode. “We collaborated with various online platforms to train students in the virtual mode. The results have shown that virtual training has been successful in upskilling students,” said Bithiah Grace Jaganathan, faculty coordinator, placement, IIT-Guwahati.

“IIT-Hyderabad has a dedicated career cell, focussing on conducting sessions and workshops for students such as career counselling, soft skills, resume building, technical/coding skills, group discussions, etc. All the sessions and workshops are being conducted virtually for the benefit of students,” said a spokesperson for IIT-Hyderabad.

While conducting placements completely online has had its trouble, some IITs found it easier t compared to others. "In terms of participation in career guidance sessions, it has been easier for the students to connect and attend the sessions. In order to make sure that students have been provided with proper counselling and guidance, the number of speakers has also been increased by the Institute. With the online mode of (placement) sessions, it has become easy for the counsellors, experts and guides to connect and interact with the students and brief them, which was not the case earlier because of the remote location (of the institute)," said Sunny Zafar, advisor, placement cell of IIT Mandi. This institute managed to attract more companies to participate in placement 2020 compared to the previous years.