MUMBAI: Every year, students from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) look forward to the placement season – December and post-February – with an eye on big-ticket jobs. However, in IIT-Bombay this year, 712 of around 2,000 students registered for the 2024 placements – about 36% – are yet to secure jobs. The placement season will officially end by May.
This was revealed in data on IIT placements shared by the institute’s alumnus and founder of Global IIT Alumni Support Group Dheeraj Singh, who has also been mentoring students over two years.
This year, when 35.8% students remained without placement, saw an increase of 2.8 percentage points over the corresponding figure last session.
Of the 2,209 registered students in IIT Bombay in 2023, 1,485 were placed, which means 32.8% remained unplaced last session as well, raising concerns over the relatively low number of students recruited via campus placements.
An officials from IIT-Bombay’s placement cell said it was a struggle “to invite companies to the campus compared to last year due to the global economic meltdown”.
“Most companies were unable to accept salary packages pre-decided by the institute. It took many rounds of negotiations before they agreed to come over,” he said. A large chunk of the 380 companies that arrived to shop for talent were from the domestic market. Traditionally, international players are known to outnumber Indian companies.
“For the first time, registered students from the computer science and engineering branch, which are most in demand, have not seen 100% placement among those registered,” the officer added.
According to data shared by Singh, which is available with the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF), 1,485 students were placed, of 2,209 registered.
“The institute is focused on big packages to maintain the high mark of average salary packages. However, it is not focusing on the salary bagged by an average student – this has created a system where despite getting offer letters, most students reject them later and choose other ways to seek employment,” said a professor from the institute.
Pointing to the focus on “propaganda of placements”, the professor underscored an error created by the placement cell this academic year. When only 22 IIT-Bombay students received more than ₹1 crore in Phase-I of placements held in December, the institute announced that 85 candidates were offered over ₹1 crore. Later, it issued a note correcting the oversight.
“A majority of students are expressing concern about rising stress levels, especially post-pandemic, regarding job placements. They are declining campus offers that are not on a par with offers received by students from private colleges for similar positions,” the professor elaborated.
Singh pointed to the need to create a support system for unplaced students who have high levels of anxiety and stress staring at the bleak job scenario. He said, the institute “hardly has any placement support for approximately 700-750 students left unplaced in phase two”. “This is a disheartening state of affairs in IIT-Bombay, which is ranked the third engineering college in India (as per NIRF). The administration should inform unplaced students how they are going to help them find a job,” said Singh.
A final-year student, who was part of the placement drive, spoke about the anxiety he experienced during the interview. “I prepared hard but was unable to tackle real-time pressure and failed to get a job. Some company representatives informed us they cut down hirings by 50% compared to last year,” said the student.
Despite several attempts by HT to get a response on the matter, IIT-Bombay officials remained unavailable for a comment.