IIT placements: Where did the jobs go?

The IITs attribute the trend to multiple reasons including the rise in the number of the premier institutes to now 23, reports Vinay Umarji/Business Standard.

An increased number of the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) coupled with revised recruitment plans by recruiters has led to the number of offers come down by 10% at placements, even as the number of companies at campuses is slightly up this year.

At IIT-Kharagpur, as against 280 companies last year, this year the institute has seen over 300 companies register for placements, several of which have already visited the campus.

Similarly, IIT-Guwahati too has seen the number of recruiters rise from 150 last year to 200 this year.

Despite this rise, the number of offers per recruiter has come down by anywhere between 10&% and 20% at different IITs, barring a few.

The IITs attribute the trend to multiple reasons including rise in the number of the premier institutes to now 23, thereby leaving too many campuses for recruiters to visit, apart from revisions in recruitment plans by firms.

"Barring a few, most of the recruiters have reduced the number of offers. The average fall at IIT-Guwahati is around 20 per cent. Mostly this is because the manpower requirement at companies has undergone a change and they seem to have revised their recruitment plans," said K Mohanty, placement chairperson at IIT-Guwahati.

For instance, WorksApp has made six offers this year at IIT-Guwahati as against 12.

Till Tuesday, IIT-Kharagpur saw recruiters making 450 offers for the first five days as against about 500 offers last year for the said period.

"The number of IITs has gone up to 23 now. Most of the major recruiters are now also going to newer IITs. At the same time, the general economic condition in the market is not so rosy. All these reasons have collectively led to fall in number of offers it seems," said Debasish Deb, Chairman, Career Development Centre, IIT-Kharagpur, which has seen a fall of 10% in the number of offers.

The institute has also not seen much rise in its pre-placement offers which stood at 180 as against 185 last year.

Other IITs too have either seen a decline or maintained a status quo in the number of offers.

For instance, at IIT-Kanpur, the first three days saw 315 offers being made, which according to Syam Nair, chairman-students placement office, which was "more or less same as last year."

Declining to term it as a trend, Nair said some of the companies may have reduced the number of offers due to revision in their hiring trends based changes in requirements.

However, IIT-Roorkee has so far beaten the trend.

According to N P Padhy, Professor-in-Charge, IIT-Roorkee, "While we cannot say that the placements this season has so far beaten our expectations, we are not disappointed either. Unlike some of the other IITs, we have not seen a decline in number of offers. It has been slightly better than last year."

Around 100 companies have so far made close to 450 offers, which compared to last year was marginally higher.

Padhy is of the view that the trend reversal could be attributed to IIT-Roorkee seeking a decent mix of different sectors, especially in the core sector.

"We didn't focus too heavily on the IT sectors and therefore, our non-computer science disciplines have also seen decent placements," said Padhy.

In terms of average packages, there has been some rise, say the IITs.

This, not just on the back of the IT and analytics sector, but also PSUs. "The PSUs have raised the average packages to a decent extent, if not significantly," Deb added.

Earlier, the second day of final placements IITs saw the IT, analytics and consulting sectors taking over, even as the overall number of offers trickled down marginally as compared to last year.

As early as day two, the IITs had seen a number of offers as well as international packages falling marginally by 5% to 7% on the second day.