 "IITs expect good placement this year")
Amid lay-offs by start-ups and paucity of H1B Visas, the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) will begin placements on Tuesday. The 13 IITs plan to place around 10,000 students beginning December 1 in the first phase of placements at IITs. The second phase is spread through a few months beginning January.
The IITs expect a robust placement season this year and placement officials expect an average increase of 5-10 per cent in salaries this year.
Although start-ups continue to vie for Day-Zero slots, blue-chip companies including Google, Microsoft, Facebook and Oracle have been the top pick. Information technology (IT), consulting and core manufacturing, along with finance sectors will also participate in placements.
Among start-ups, Housing.com, TinyOwl and Zomato, which till last year were among the largest recruiters on IIT campuses, will not be participating in this year's placement. This August, IITs had decided that before inviting start-ups for campus placements, they would review their balance sheets for the past three years, study their annual reports and seek independent feedback from experts and the Indian Institute of Management alumni employed by these start-ups. However, with most start-ups having been floated by their own students, IITs say the due diligence this year might not be as stringent as in previous years.
"We will allow a basic background check regarding start-ups, we cannot decline placements if they do not furnish their annual reports or balance sheets. Many start-ups are founded by our own students. We cannot deny them permission to be on campus," said a placement cell official at IIT-Bombay.
IITs said while the number of firms participating in placements this year is more than last year, the same might not translate into more number of profiles.
"Gradually, firms are coming with very specific profiles in mind for placements at IITs. Hence, given that they are coming to recruit students for specific roles, the numbers are anticipated to be more or less same as last year," said an institute source at IIT-Guwahati.
However, at IIT-Madras, both the number of firms and profiles have increased compared to last year. Against 239 firms offering 319 profiles last year, IIT-Madras has so far this year seen confirmation from 293 companies for 418 profiles.
IITs this year have also decided not to reveal salary figures. The All IITs Placement Committee recently took an informal decision not to reveal the details of compensation packages offered by recruiters during final placements. IITs say in some exceptional cases, salaries offered are high and revealing such figures tends to put unnecessary pressure on other students.
"Students and parents alike start developing unnecessary expectations from offers during placements. At times, this also impacts students' performance during placement interviews. Hence, IITs have decided it is safer to reveal the average salary packages offered in a particular year at the end of the placement process," said a source at IIT-Guwahati. IIT-Bombay, too, refused to divulge salary details.
IITs divide salaries into two parts - the guaranteed or fixed component and the variable component. They say they consider only the fixed component in their placement records.
V Babu, advisor, training and placement at IIT-Madras, said: "The overall placement scenario looks very encouraging. We hope to surpass last year's figures. There appears to be a 5-10 per cent increase in the average packages depending on the sector."
