Slowdown? IT companies may hire more from IITs

A muted economy notwithstanding, the first flush of pre-placement offers (PPOs) at six oldest IITssuggests that companies might be hiring more this year. Marquee employers such as Microsoft,Hindustan Unilever, Reliance Industries, Goldman Sachs, Adobe and Schlumberger have rolled out over 170 PPOs to the class of 2013, with strong indications that the final tally at these six IITs may beat last year's records. Officials from the six IITs ET spoke to said about 260 students from their institutes received PPOs last year. 

Pre-placement offers usually start trickling in from July-August and can go on till October-November for top engineering colleges. The final placement starts after that, from December, and may go on till June the following year. 

IIT-Kharagpur, the oldest among the IITs, has around 50 offers in hand compared to the 60 last year. Companies such as Schlumberger Asia, Microsoft, Transocean, Tata Steel, Qualcomm, Ittiam Systems, HUL, Goldman Sachs, Cisco, Texas Instruments and RIL have made their pick from 800 students of IIT-Kharagpur, said SK Barai, professor-in-charge (training & placements) at the institute. It expects a 10% increase in PPOs this year. 

"Firms are pre-empting an improvement in the markets, and for that, they need to have resources ready," said an IIT placement professor, who did not wish to be identified. "They are hiring from IITs so they do not miss out on the talent pool." 

Officials in IIT-Roorkee's placement cell say the slump is not apparent, having crossed last year's tally of 33 PPOs. 

Increase in salaries on offer
IIT-Roorkee has received 34 PPOs till now and more will come in till November. There has been some increase in the salaries being offered by companies as opposed to last year, officials from the placement department said. Shell, Texas Instruments, Deloitte, Schlumberger and Goldman Sachs have made offers at this IIT. 

IIT-Bombay has received 25 PPOs and more are expected over the next 2-3 months. The institute bagged 50-plus offers last year. 

"We are receiving a good response from potential recruiters, but it's too early to say the situation is better than last year," said a cautious Avijit Chatterjee, professor-in-charge of placements for IIT-Bombay. PPOs are made to final-year students from undergraduate and postgraduate degrees at the IITs from streams such as mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, computer science and applied materials. 

Companies such as Shell, Reliance Industries and Microsoft have made multiple offers to students of IIT-Madras. The institute's 525 students have received 18 PPOs, which include offers from Credit Suisse, Mahindra &Mahindra and Adobe. "We expect the numbers to be the same as last year," said an official from the placement department of IIT-Madras. 

Salary levels have not been muted and anywhere between Rs 8-18 lakh is being offered to those who made a mark during their internships. PPOs are given to students based on their performance during internships and once accepted, a student is generally out of the placement procedure. There may be some exceptions though. 

While the PPO phenomenon is far more common at the IIMs, it's now making its presence at the IITs. 

IIT-Guwahati's placement-in-charge Natesan Srinivasan says companies have become more aggressive in recruiting top talent from colleges they visit. From July onwards, the institute has received 20 PPOs and last year's record of 30 such offers is within touching distance. Companies that have offered jobs are S&P Capital IQ, Tata Steel, Schlumberger, Microsoft, Goldman Sachs and M&M.