Pre-placement offers spike across IITs

With the annual placement season less than a month away, the premier Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) are looking forward to better prospects this year, especially as most of them have witnessed an increase in the number of pre-placement offers (PPOs) as compared to last year.

The first phase of placement at the IITs takes place in the first two weeks of December every year.

At IIT-Bombay (IIT-B), 142 PPOs were offered in 2017, of which, 100 were accepted. This year, as of October-end, 162 students have already been offered jobs, while another few offers are in the pipeline.

“Students are approached with jobs until placement officially begins on campus. Students decide to either accept the offers or wait for something better through the official placements. It is their choice,” said an official from the IIT-B placement cell.

While students from IIT-Madras (IIT-M) received 114 PPOs in 2017, more than 130 students have already got job offers this year.

“The good number of PPOs is hopefully indicative of a strong placement season. The steady increase over the years in PPOs also points to the value placed by recruiters on the internship program,” said professor Manu Santhanam, advisor, training and placement Cell, IIT-M.

Most PPOs this year have been from sectors such as research and development, analytics, consulting and finance and fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG).

“Many companies tend to wait till the campus interviews to share their final offer. However, over the last few years, PPOs are a rising trend, and the number of students accepting PPOs has also increased,” said an official from the IIT-Delhi (IIT-D) placement cell. She also said, like every year, many offers have also come from the information technology (IT) sector as well.

Last year, IIT-D had received 180 PPOs, of which, 91 offers were accepted. This year, the institute has already received 151 offers and many more are still in the pipeline. “Over the next month, these figures will change, and the final count will definitely be higher as compared to 2017,” added the IIT-D placement official.

First Published: Nov 04, 2018 12:01 IST