Campus selection at the IITs is one of the most talked-about recruitment drives across the nation. This year, the campaign at IIT-B kicked off on December 1 and witnessed crème de la crème of the corporate world. However, the number of start-ups flocking IIT-B reduced significantly as compared to last year. The reason: Unavailability of slot in the first 3-4 days of the campus selection drive!

After implementing it on an experimental basis last year, IIT-B finally adopted this policy in the 2015 placement drive: Booking the slot for start-ups on later days and allowing core companies to pick students in the initial days. This policy was devised with a view that students who made it to the core companies would not apply to start-ups, allowing the remaining students also to get a placement. Giants like Google, Oracle, and Microsoft were provided slots in the first 2 days. This step was executed on account of the recent news of lay-offs by start-ups. The credibility of companies had been scrutinised before allotting slots to interview students. Start-ups witness more business fluctuations, like layoffs and increased workload, than established organisations. The decision enabled IITs to keep start-ups away from recruiting more students by merely offering a hefty package and rendering a gloomy career for them in the long run.

This arrangement did not go quite well with companies which wanted exposure to more students but only managed to occupy slots on later days. Amongst these were companies like Zomato, Ola Cabs and realty portal Housing.com. Few start-ups even ended up withdrawing from this year’s recruitment drive. Taskbob, an Android-based software for home services, withdrew from the campus selection after being offered a slot on the eighth day of the process.

Atul Shukla, the placement manager at IIT-B, says, “It is very important for us to ensure that our students are hired by companies which not only offer handsome salaries but also job security to their employees. With this arrangement, we managed to strike a balance amongst all stakeholders of the institute”. The authorities have made it quite clear that if an organisation has been in news for untoward reasons, it will have to compromise on its desired slot.

“We appreciate this step of the institute. The slots are scheduled according to the preferences of the students and recruiters’ relations in the past with the institute,” says Abhishek Tiwari, an Mtech student at IIT-B. “If a student fails to secure a job in the first phase, the placement cell makes efforts to ensure that he gets it in the second phase of campus placements,” he added. “Out of the 1300 students who appeared for the campus placements in 2015, more than a thousand students got a job. However, the institute is making efforts to ensure that the remaining students do not walk out disappointed,” said a member of the placement team at IIT-B who did not want to be named.

Premier institutes like the IITs are living up to their reputation of providing a secured career to the students. After all, the achievements of these students have played an equally important role in giving IITs their identity.