MUMBAI: Placement 2017 has been about IT companies indulging in bulk hiring. On most campuses, tech firms have emerged as the largest shoppers for talent. Each company has identified its favourite college and picked up a large number of graduates-a throwback to the IT boom era. Is this the start of the Big IT Bang again?
IIT Kanpur witnessed the biggest wave as Intel picked a full-class size of 59 candidates. It came with two profiles -hardware and software- and picked up computer science graduates for coding and electrical engineering students for hardware openings.
"I am seeing a growth in core and IT field+ . The bulk recruiters are very cautious. When they are getting good slots and meeting our nine-pointers with an internship experience abroad and carrying a resume with an idea, they cannot stop themselves from recruiting them," said IIT Roorkee placement head N P Padhy.
Some of the companies, say placement heads, had plans to pick up fewer students but ended up taking many more. "They came with a plan to pick up five or six, but ended up taking 23," he added. But bulk recruitment was still largely seen in the top brands, reflecting the fact that the big wave may have just started.
At IIT Bombay, Samsung picked 30 students from campus placements and 15 others were offered pre-placement offers. Candidates will be placed in the Korea, Noida, Delhi and Bangalore offices. Last year, the company hired 22 students.
"Compare last year's placement with that of this year and in every way, it is 25 per cent better. Companies are picking up more students, the pay is better and so are the profiles," said a placement team member from IIT Kharagpur. The spike is evident across campuses that crossed the 500 mark in terms of students placed by Day 5. And bulk recruitment has only helped prop up the numbers.
IIT Guwahati placement dean Kaustubh Mohanty said the trend is a result of the government's policy and encouragement provided to the core engineering sector. "The hiring is more this time and we are delighted about it. Moreover, the core companies are preferring MTech students for hiring," added Mohanty. Many companies that visited IITs said the top 5 per cent of the graduates were improving each year. "Some of the students in fact wowed the recruiters when they spoke of the research they had done and already had come up with ideas for products that they could develop if hired," added Padhy.