Placement season a mixed bag for colleges

The ongoing placement season was a mixed bag for city colleges. While in some colleges, the annual packages failed to match last year’s, several colleges did much

The ongoing placement season was a mixed bag for city colleges. While in some colleges, the annual packages failed to match last year’s, several colleges did much better than the previous year.

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A third-year commerce student at Matunga’s RA Podar College was offered an annual salary of ₹13 lakh this year as against last year’s highest salary of ₹13.9 lakh. “Our students have been offered jobs in sectors such as marketing, finance, sales and human resources. We have also received job offers for research roles this year,” said a spokesperson for the placement cell of the institute, adding that around 20% of the registered students were offered jobs in the first phase of placements. The second phase is scheduled to take place this month.

Last year, a student at Vile Parle’s NM College of Commerce and Economics was offered a job with a Hyderabad-based consultancy firm with an annual package of ₹19.5 lakh. This year, the highest package offered stood at ₹12.5 lakh per annum. “Hiring by start-ups is on an upward trend. Many alumni from college return to hire for their own start-ups. NM is one of the few colleges which encourages entrepreneur development and puts concerted efforts towards it,” said Nainesh Koli, placement officer for SVKM’s NM College. He added that placements will go on till May this year, and the institute hopes to attract more offers over the next couple of months.

Most colleges affiliated to the University of Mumbai started their placement process in July-August 2019 and will continue the interviews until the end of February or March. Over the years, most colleges have seen that students are keen to gain work experience after graduation, before they apply for post-graduate courses. “Students are competitive and constantly raise the bar for employers as well. Due to this, companies are increasing the difficulty of job interviews and are enriching and enlarging their profiles to suit the generation and their aspirations,” said Haseena Sayed, placement faculty head, Jai Hind College, Churchgate.

Start-ups might have faced trouble in terms of campus placements over the past few years, but this year, many city colleges saw an increase in jobs being offered by start-up ventures. “Start-ups have shown more interest in internship and they try to offer pre-placement offers (PPOs) to students who proved themselves during their internship,” said Navin Punjabi, director of placements at HR College, Churchgate, where the highest package offered to a student this year stands at ₹11 lakh per annum.

He added that companies, too, are coming up with newer methods to vet students for jobs. “Some of the companies have shown a partnering approach to groom talent while they are on campus, for instance by offering a scholarship programme, Case Study Competitions and Business Plan competitions, to name a few,” added Punjabi.