In a first, Mumbai college gets only start-ups to hire students | Mumbai news - Hindustan Times
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In a first, Mumbai college gets only start-ups to hire students

Hindustan Times | By, Mumbai
Mar 25, 2018 01:47 AM IST

As many as 450 students and graduates from engineering and management colleges across the city, and even outside, participated in the event

In a first, a city college held an on-campus placement session exclusively for startups.

For the past few years, many startups have been struggling to stay afloat due to a slowdown in funding.(Ht PHOTO)
For the past few years, many startups have been struggling to stay afloat due to a slowdown in funding.(Ht PHOTO)

On Saturday, the ‘StartUp Job Internship Fair’18’, organised by Sardar Patel Institute of Technology (SPIT)’s through its Technology Business Incubator (TBI) and the city chapter of Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, an international association of engineering professionals and students, saw 30 early-stage companies offering more than 200 roles, most of them short-term internships. As many as 450 students and graduates from engineering and management colleges across the city, and even outside, participated in the event.

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“ We wanted to meet the recruitment needs of startups. Running a business incubator, we know the pain of startups. They don’t have the resources to hire people according to their requirement,” said Kiran Talele, head academic relations, Sardar Patel Technology Business Incubator . “We also wanted to show these companies our incubator and connect them with the startups incubated in the centre,” he added.

For the past few years, many startups have been struggling to stay afloat due to a slowdown in funding. Several start-ups came under the spotlight for delaying or revoking jobs offered to engineering and management graduates. In 2016, Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) had banned 31 startups from recruiting on their campuses after they revoked job offers made to students, leaving them in lurch. The ban was revoked last year.

However, organisers of the event said that they received an overwhelming response from students as well as recruiters. “Many job seekers appeared for multiple interviews. One of the companies interviewed as many as 53 candidates,” said Talele.

The companies are yet to make any job offers, though.

Piyush Kamdar, founder of Millearth Softech, a two-year-old firm which designs enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems for schools and one of the participants of the placement event, said that his firm plans to hire four or five candidates, including two for full-time jobs. “I participated in the fair, because it saves a lot of time. I have been posting job openings on online portals, but many who apply through them are unsure. At events like these, only those candidates who are really interested approach us,” he said.

Despite the doubts over the sustainability of startups, many students are willing to work here, albeit for a short period of time. “Even though they are not sustainable, startups can teach you a lot. Normal jobs are probably safer and pay higher salaries, but don’t teach as much. And at this point, learning is more important for us,” said Krish Matreja, a third-year student from SPIT, who appeared for an interview on Saturday.

Kamal Karanth, founder, Xpheno, a specialist staffing firm, said that many small startups have collectively created thousands of job openings, which are helping students gain experience, if not long-term employment. “We don’t know what will happen to these companies. Not everyone will survive after a few years. But in the meantime, they recruit 10-20 people and it creates a bid market. Many job seekers are looking for exposure and experience offered by startups ,especially when they see that their peers in big companies are doing nothing extraordinary and are frequently switching jobs,” he said.

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  • ABOUT THE AUTHOR
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    Musab Qazi is a Trainee Correspondent, covering education. He generally writes about higher education policies in Maharashtra and new trends in the education sector.

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