IIT placement season starts on December 1; will tech layoffs affect it?

NEW DELHI: Students are regarding the placement season at Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) with a mix of apprehension and hope. The IIT placement exercise is set to start on December 1, in the midst of layoffs from major technology companies across the world.

This uncertainty comes right after IITs reported record placements for the last year. According to recently-released data, 1,431 IIT Bombay students accepted offers – the highest ever – in the 2021-22 session. IIT Kanpur students received 1,300 offers and most IITs and even some tier-two colleges reported multiple international offers. This year too began with a promising start with students from across IITs receiving large numbers of pre-placement offers; PPOs are internships converted into job offers. As many as 333 students at IIT Madras received PPOs ; these offers rose by 23% at IIT Mandi and at IIT Guwahati, they rose by 21% .

"Overall, due to recession and payment factors, there is a drop in the number of tech giants coming to the campus this time,” said a student from IIT Bombay involved in the placement process. Another student added that while last year’s placements could be the result of the demand pent up during the pandemic, “considering that IITs are a tech-focussed institute, global layoffs and recession will impact placements”. Last year, maximum students received offers in engineering and technology sector including aerospace, artificial intelligence, automation, electric vehicles and others. Followed by information technology or software jobs and a few others.

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From this year onwards, IIT Bombay and IIT Madras are charging recruiters Rs 10,000 each to participate in campus placements.

IIT Placements 2022: Different ways

Companies have different ways of hiring from IITs, said students. “A lot is decided during the first 10 days of the season. Further, the offers depend on the hiring plans of the companies. Some companies recruit from only a few campuses and some recruit from all. Hence, it is very dynamic," said a student from IIT Kanpur. He added that while companies are still coming and registering for the season, nothing can be said before the placement season starts.

Anishya Obhrai Madan, head of career services , IIT Delhi, said: “For us, it's the overall season that counts and not the first few days. While our job is to make it as good as it can be. We don’t compare between years and for us, every year is a new year and we do our best to help students get placed in their desired companies.”

IIT Madras, Kanpur, Bombay and Kharagpur officials did not respond to emails or calls. If they do, this copy will be updated with their inputs.

Core engineering

While some tech companies have frozen hiring or have refrained from participating in campus placements, firms from core engineering domains such as metallurgy, civil engineering, mechanical engineering and others seem to have more openings than previous years, said students.

"With more companies offering roles in core engineering jobs, it helps to maintain the overall number of jobs even if a few multinationals or tech giants don't come," added a student from IIT Bombay.

He explained: “Traditionally, in campuses like IIT Bombay, more software companies come than the number of students sitting for them. So, even if we have lesser companies coming in this domain, it will be balanced with the demand from the students.”

Students from IIT Madras and Delhi reported similar trends. “We have more diverse profiles this year than last year. Looking at the sheer number of roles, we are expecting more offers this year than last year,” said a student from IIT Madras. He informed that more startups and medium-scale companies are coming to hire more than the tech giants.

Further, a student from IIT Kanpur confirmed an increase in new companies but added that dynamics are changing everyday considering placement season is around the corner.

Madan added, “The registrations are good overall with all kinds of job roles coming in.”