Mumbai News

With 20% more students interested, IIT-Bombay placements to be challenging – Times of India

MUMBAI: In the middle of the pandemic and a slow economy, the premier IIT-Bombay has to deal with another challenge in the ongoing placement season. The numbers of interested students, which hovered around 1,700 in the past few years, has seen a spike of close to 20% this year. With the institute adding newer programmes, an increased number of seats due to reservations (EWS), and a spill over from last year’s PhD batch, the total number of students registered for placements went up to nearly 2,100 this year, making the process challenging for the institute.

Around 200-300 students usually do not participate in the placement process, despite registering. For instance, of the 1,784 students who registered for the placements in 2019, 1,444 participated. This year too, the participation is likely to drop by 300-odd numbers, but the institute will still have to place a higher number of students compared to the previous years. Of the 2,100 registered this year, so far 1,810 have made payments and are eligible for the process, and the numbers are likely to rise in the second phase. In the last two years, around 80-85% of the students who participated in the process, were placed through the campus placement cell.
A student said that many from the first batch of newer programmes are graduating this year. “The total strength of the batch has also gone up due to the reservations and the PhD students from the earlier batch that got delayed this year, due to the pandemic,” said a representative, adding that many students also sought jobs outside of campus placements, which may have gone down this year. There are no jobs outside, said the student.
While it seems challenging, the students are hopeful. “The companies have become choosy. They are picking fewer numbers after interviews. But the IT/software requirement has gone up and therefore, the institute is hoping to pull it off in the next eight days,” said a student.
Last year, of the 1,444 students who appeared for the placements, 1,207 were placed, of which 159 got international offers. The 2017 and 2018 batches saw placement rate of 73-74%.

Source: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/with-20-more-students-interested-iit-bombay-placements-to-be-challenging/articleshow/79617440.cms