Companies to be in full attendance at IITs, IIMs, but hiring may drop due to COVID-19

The placement season for 2020-21 is set to begin across engineering and management institutes across India, and it is likely to bring good news to campuses.

Moneycontrol spoke to placement officials at engineering and management institutes, including those at Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) and Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs). The consensus is that no major company is withdrawing from the placement process even as the interviews will go online.

The final placement season is an important indicator of how the employment scenario in the country will be. Since the Coronavirus outbreak and nationwide lockdown in March 2020, the employment market has looked gloomy.

Close to 10 million jobs have been lost and about 15,000 offers were rescinded across campuses since companies were unsure about the future outlook amidst COVID-19.

However, placement officials are of the view that the worst is over at campuses and that the hiring season will see good job offers.

“All major companies, including those in the consulting, financial services and IT sector, which hire in large numbers, have reiterated their participation in the upcoming placements,” said an IIM placement official.

Similarly, the head of student placement at a large Tamil Nadu-based engineering college, said that though there were fears that IT companies will stay away this year, there has been a change in sentiments.

“IT companies, including the top 10 firms, will visit large campuses for the placement process,” he said. However, he said that there are initial indicators that the number of offers could be marginally lower.

The campus placements will begin by the end of November and continue till mid-March across institutes. In early 2020, close to 50,000 students from across institutes did not receive any employment offer since placements were cancelled to avoid the virus spread.

Will the job offers be similar?

The placement season has companies divided into cohorts depending on the job role, student preferences and sectors.

Students give up to three companies as their preference for the placement process, and, accordingly, he/she is allowed to sit for these interviews. Usually, students who are among the top performers at these institutes get two to three job offers, post which the candidates can choose where to join.

This year (2020 and early 2021), the expectation is that the total number of job offers will lower by 10-12 percent, overall. This means that multiple job offers will be a rarity.

Placement officials also told Moneycontrol that startups and e-commerce companies have indicated that the number of offers will be 20 percent higher than the previous years.

“There is a slight concern about the large consulting and conglomerates reducing the number of jobs on offer. However, we are hoping that this will be covered by the higher number of job offers from the digital commerce and startups,” said the placement coordinator at a Mumbai-based engineering institute.

IIMs and mid-size management institutes, however, are exercising caution when it comes to startups. The past track of these ventures and future vision will be looked at before they are invited to campuses.