IIT placements: After a dull Phase 1, focus turns to getting more recruiters

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

With companies across sectors — led by technology products and services — slashing hiring numbers, IITs are exploring all avenues to ensure that as many students as possible graduate with a job. Meanwhile, some students who are yet to get placed have been applying to off-campus jobs since last month, to have a backup in hand should on-campus offers not come through, students at top IITs told ET.

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The institutes, which had already expanded their recruiter list, are now reaching out to even more companies through alumni, venture capitalists and social networking platforms like LinkedIn. Startups and public sector organisations are among those being tapped, placement officials said.

“Our target for the second phase is to reach out to as many companies as we can … we are not limiting ourselves with numbers,” said Rajib Maity, chairperson of the Career Development Centre at IIT-Kharagpur. “We are already in touch with companies to understand their set of requirements and whether they can find a match among our students.”


IIT-BHU has chalked out its own gameplan for Phase-II of placements. “We are planning to increase the spectrum of companies by plunging into the PSU and startup sector to maximise the number of offers,” said Sushant K Shrivastava, coordinator of its training and placement cell.

Some of the old IITs told ET that they would be tapping companies already engaged with them for research and development work.

“Startups