The silver lining

For students across Delhi University colleges, the central placement cell has come as a boon in the time of recession, reports Swaha Sahoo.

For students across Delhi University colleges, the central placement cell has come as a boon in the time of recession. In its first session, the cell saw as many as 200 students being placed and another 400 students being short-listed by various companies.

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“When I heard that Wipro was coming to the central placement cell, I applied. In these times, I was not sure if it would come to our college,” said Abhishek Behl, a Computer Science student at College of Business Studies.

Companies like Infosys, Google, MacKinsey, GE Capital, ICICI and HDFC are already visiting colleges of Delhi University.

However, students of colleges like Moti Lal Nehru, Shivaji College, Dyal Singh and Ram Lal Anand, which do not have an active placement cell, have registered in large numbers with the central cell.

“The placement cell in my college is not active. Moreover, companies don't want to come to far-flung colleges. Meanwhile, good students lose out on job opportunities,” said Nitin Kalra, a BCom (H) student at Satyawati College (morning).

“There were a lot of options for science students this time,” he said.

Indeed, students pursuing Physics, Zoology, BSc Physical Sciences and Electronics were much in demand by companies such as Wipro, Eli Lilly, and Ranbaxy.

“I am very happy with my profile and package at Eli Lilly. Apart from Rs 15,000 as starting salary for trainee territory manager, they have also offered Rs 5,000 as incentives every month,” said Neha Khandelwal, a student of BSc (H) Zoology at Hans Raj College.

Seema M Parihar, head of the central placement cell, admitted that the university was choosy in inviting companies on campus.

“This is the first year and the response was good. We have 4,000 students and 10 companies registered with us. We were cautious as far as companies were concerned because we wanted to encourage good profiles with decent packages,” said Parihar.

Moreover, students needed to look for companies that match their caliber, said P.C. Jain, principal, Sri Ram College of Commerce.

“There are certain companies which will not pay beyond Rs 3 lakh per annum. And we also have students of medium caliber. So if a student’s expectations matches with the company’s offer, then it is the best situation,” said Jain.