Many countries have been hit adversely with the pandemic of COVID19, and the placement season in IIMs and IITs have been affected badly as major MNCs are revoking job and internship offers at these major institutes.

Taking into consideration the lockdown scenario and international borders getting sealed, many multinationals have decided to revisit their hiring plans and procedures in IIMs and IITs.

Gartner, which is a leading global research and advisory company, has revoked job offers in several Indian Institutes of Management. IIM Calcutta and IIM Ahmedabad have confirmed cases of Gartner revoking final placement offer as well as internships.

Some IIM Bangalore students took to LinkedIn and said that their final placements and internships were revoked by the US-based firm, but IIM Bangalore claimed that it was in touch with the company and is devising other plans and opportunities for the affected students.

“On the other hand, the institute is trying to contact them to find an agreeable outcome,” the IIM Calcutta official said. As per Amit Karna, who is the chairperson of placements at IIM Ahmedabad,: “Gartner has revoked offers made at the final placements. It had hired three students. No other firm has revoked final offers. The institute is finding new opportunities for affected students by reaching out to our alumni network, existing and new recruiters.”

U Dinesh Kumar who is the chairperson of the career development services at IIM Bangalore, quoted “All firms have told us they are going to stand by their commitments. Offers have only been postponed. The companies are trying to work out plans once there is clarity on the lockdown after April 15. Mostly, financial sector firms have postponed offers, as they haven’t been able to begin internships due to logistics and data safety issues.”

Due to travel restrictions, some Gulf-based firms had withdrawn their summer placement offers but have devised other opportunities for the affected students as agreed by Kumar. Instead of denying and postponing the summer internships, some virtual assignments have been allotted to the summer interns by a fast-moving consumer good multinational.

Calculating the probabilities of the pandemic becoming mild in June or July, the final joining of the management trainees will be done post lockdown.

As per an official from IIM Calcutta, “Some of our prominent regular recruiters have come forward to hire additional interns. The placement team is arranging new internships for those who lost their opportunities.”

“While none of the full-time offers had been revoked, certain medium-sized organizations and start-ups had pulled out summer internship offers, said an IIM Shillong’s placement committee official. “We are dealing with an unprecedented situation, and the placement season has also been affected. We feel that the greater impact of the pandemic will be felt next year because there could be cases of reduced hiring across sectors to cover up the losses incurred,” the official said.

IITs, on the other hand, are similarly affected, IITs including Delhi, Kanpur, and Madras, have at least one case of a recruiter revoking job offers. In response, the All IITS’ Placement Committee (AIPC) has requested the international recruiters not to revoke the job offers.

Other IITs have not been so much affected by the situation, IIT Roorkee’s placement and training cell are in constant touch with the companies. There have not been any such cases yet. We have been proactively interacting with the companies, and they are cooperating.” said Vinay Sharma, a professor in charge of the placement cell at IIT Roorkee.

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