Come the placement season and students in colleges are made to think and behave like how professionals would do beyond the college walls. Donning formals, they look like newly minted engineers / graduates, with all their well-rehearsed answers ready. Yes, it is the time of campus placements and almost all are set to crack the different rounds of selection.
From multi-nationals, IT and product companies to non-tech and start-ups, the variety leaves the student spoilt for choice. The focus is on preparing oneself and putting his / her best foot forward.
Many colleges start this preparation early on. It might begin with classes in communication skills to specific domain training. Colleges also engage professionals from certain industries to train their students. There is the regular skill-set training that includes appearing for interviews, participating in group discussions, besides equipping oneself with the domain knowledge to clear the written examination.
After several elimination rounds, the most eligible ones make it to the personal interview and GD (group discussion) that decides the fate of the student. There are certain companies that give offer letters outright, while there are others that have a training period and also a module after the completion of the course. At the end of the training, the trainees have to clear a test. The ones that pass this test are appointed, while others are either rejected or given grace time to prepare themselves to sit for another test.
While this is the tried and tested format for conventional campus placements, the pre-placement format is also catching up. Pre-placement offers are made by companies that students go for internship. These offers are like a reward given by the companies to students for their excellent performance during internship.
For example, Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT-M) recorded 114 pre-placement offers this year as against the 73 last year. This surge accounts for a 56 per cent increase this year.
According to Professor Manu Santhanam, Advisor, Training and Placement, IIT-M, one of the principal reasons is an increase in the number of internships in companies that are large recruiters, such as the American software company Microsoft, the telecommunications equipment firm Qualcomm and the multinational financial services firm Goldman Sachs.
Nearly 60 per cent of the offers went to students from computer science and electrical engineering.
Nori Archana, a B.Tech. civil engineering student who will graduate in 2018, has a pre-placement offer from Goldman Sachs. Talking about the offer she says: “The number of pre-placement offers has increased tremendously this year as compared to the previous one, which is a good sign for both companies and students. We can clearly infer from this that companies are drifting to a pre-placement sort of recruitment from conventional campus placements.”
Experts say that pre-placement offers are a win-win situation for both the companies and students. Companies do not have to spend time on the whole process of visiting colleges, short-listing, testing, selecting and eliminating candidates. The internship, which is anywhere from a month to two, provides an extended time for the company to observe the student and make a first-hand assessment of his or her capabilities. This seems to be a better method rather than the test-interview-group discussion format.
On the other hand, for the students, it is a classic case of bird in the hand. Since most internships happen during summer, pre-placement offers are made following this and mostly till the end of October. So those who receive pre-placement offers do not have to wait with bated breath for the November-January period, which is the placement season in colleges. They will have jobs in hand even before the season kicks-off.
Most companies prefer to make pre-placement offers to IIT students. These offers are yet to become as popular among other engineering institutions.
Some students say that there are institutions that do not allow those who have pre-placement offers to attend the campus placements. While some students voluntarily avoid the placement process, there are others who like to try their hand here too.
With pre-placement offers increasing in leaps and bounds in the IITs, it is only time before companies adapt the same trend in other engineering institutions.