Placements have started at the old IITs on December 1, also known as Day 1, with a good line-up of startups.
The coming days will also see a good number of startups, a large chunk of them first-timers, coming for recruitment, placement officials at IITs told ET.
“We are considering this as a special year as it is hit by the global slowdown. As a strategy, we are giving many new companies, including potential startups, early slots…these are emerging and have immense potential and just not any startups,” Rajib Maity, chairperson, career development centre, IIT Kharagpur told ET.
An early slot means access to the best students at the Indian Institutes of Technology with high CGPA scores.
IITs like Kanpur and BHU are seeing about a 30-40% jump in the number of startups compared to last year, placement sources told ET.
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Agnikul, an aerospace manufacturing startup based at IIT Madras, is visiting IIT Delhi and IIT Madras for post graduate students,Srinath Ravichandran, its chief executive told ET. “We are offering flexible packages according to the skill set of the candidate which may go up to Rs 20 lakh per annum,” he said.
The IITs are doing their part by vetting the startups. “We are inviting those startups, especially in the financial and software domain, that have sound funding and are offering challenging roles as well as competitive salaries,” said Lalit Pandey, head of centre for career development at IIT Guwahati.
With offers per recruiter expected to come down, IITs are looking at startups to make up numbers. Those visiting the IITs include Deliveroo, Skiify, Headout, among others, most of these have Day 1 slots at some IITs.
Puneet Dhiman, CEO of Chaabi, a B2B SaaS platform upskilling India’s blue-collar industry said that it will be making its debut at IITs for recruitment.
“It’s an exciting new chapter for us. We’re on the lookout for skilled AI/ML engineers. Salary packages will be tailored to the capabilities of the candidates,” said Dhiman.
He says he’s been pleasantly surprised by the huge interest from students. “They are actively seeking opportunities with startups that tackle substantial challenges, providing a platform for accelerated learning and a tangible impact on their work. Even those who’ve interned with major brands are expressing a preference for early-stage companies over big brands,” added Dhiman.
In the front row
This year, there is a 30-40% increase in the number of startups at IIT BHU, said Sushant K Shrivastava, coordinator, training and placement cell, IIT BHU. Those on Day 1 include Navi, Deliveroo, Headout and Indus Insights.
Neha Sharma, cofounder and COO of data science and analytics firm Indus Insights said that they are looking at an approximately 20% increase in intake from IITs over last year. It was a Day 1 recruiter at IITs BHU, Kharagpur, Roorkee and Kanpur, and will be visiting IITs Delhi and Madras on Day 2 for data science roles. It is planning to make around 35-40 offers at IITs of around Rs 18 lakh.
“The overall placement scenario this time is more muted but the response for us this year from students has been particularly good. We’ve seen a higher rate of conversions this year – about 95% compared to earlier average of 65%,” said Sharma.
Ecommerce food delivery platform Zomato is also visiting the IITs this year. “We are visiting a number of campuses this year to recruit the best tech talent in India. We will be offering globally competitive salaries for the best talent,” said a company spokesperson.