IITs to see a 15% drop as IT firms review hiring plans

It is true that India is now part of the Global economy and when the developed country faces the recession alarm bells then the emerging countries will also fall into the same category. The Great Recession continues to loom large in people’s minds, and millennials who are entering the working world, they have to be extra careful. A recession essentially means that the economy, instead of growing, gets smaller. There are consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth and defines a recession as “a significant decline in economic activity spread across the economy.

Now, India’s premier institution, Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) is yet to begin the final placement process for the engineering students in the next three months, they are also feeling heat of the recession as the technology companies make upto 70% of job offers at IITs. There is fear of Information Technology (IT) firms hiring fewer engineering graduates as companies review hiring plans and there could be a 15 percent drop in job offers from IT companies and may be more.

According to sources, in 2019, the companies (especially large IT firms) have unofficially communicated that, while they will hire from the campuses, there will be a reduction in the number of job offers. "There is a sense of caution among the technology sector firms. We have been told that several smaller companies will give campus hiring a miss," said the placement head at one of the older IITs.

There are 23 IITs across the country. Even among the top IITs, a 100 percent placement is not a reality. For example, at IIT Bombay, a total of 84.47 percent students were placed in the 2018-19 placement process. There is also a difference in the IIT placements depending on the department. Computer Science is a stream with the maximum number of students getting placed while those like civil engineering or earth sciences have lower placement statistics.

IIT sources have told Moneycontrol that, on the other hand, there is a 15-20 percent rise in the number of pre-placement offers (PPOs) compared to the previous years. PPOs are full-time job offers given to students who intern in a particular company and where the company is satisfied with their performance during that period.

If IT firms reduce the number of job offers, there could be a higher quantum of students who are left without any job at the end of the course. IIT placement officials said that IT firms had stated high cost constraints as a factor to reduce the number of job offers.

A few IITs have also begun making students take aptitude tests before the placement process. These result scores are shared with potential employers who can take a hiring decision based on these scores. Hence, if the number of job offers is reduced, only those scoring high scores in their examination and these aptitude tests will be considered.