Placements at India’s top engineering colleges, including at the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), are off to an uncertain start with recruiters taking a cautious approach. Mint explains why the batch of 2025 have reasons to be worried.
How’s it going on the hiring front?
Of the 23 IITs, the first-generation schools—in Kharagpur, Chennai (called Madras), Mumbai (Bombay), Delhi, Roorkee and Kanpur—start the placement season in December. The second and third-generation IITs, along with the National Institutes of Technology (NITs), begin their placements in August-September. Many firms have told the colleges that their hiring numbers are not decided yet. Some have even said that they would prefer to take the pre-placement route—offered to selected students at the end of an internship—and not come to the campus at all for the final placements.
Why are companies being so cautious?
Campus placements for the batch of 2022 and 2023 was over in record time as companies mopped up freshers after two years of the pandemic and a sudden spurt in business and digital demand. But many firms over-hired. Later, some businesses were impacted by the global slowdown. This was a problem for the batch of 2024. There are even more headwinds now—wars are raging in Europe and West Asia; there are inflationary pressures and presidential election in the US. The outcome of the election will determine policies around offshoring. Companies exposed to global markets are being cautious.
Will only the IITs get impacted?
No. Although, the information technology (IT) sector—mass-recruiters—are more positive on their campus numbers this year, startups, manufacturing and banking companies are expected to recruit in measured numbers. Older IITs, and possibly management schools (their placements start in February), need to prepare for a sluggish job market.
How are colleges responding?
Colleges are pursuing firms and aren’t waiting for them to contact the campus. Early recruiters at IIT campuses this year include Samsung, Accenture and Larsen & Toubro. Knowing that the high-paying recruiters may head for the established IITs and the NITs, others colleges are pursuing new firms, while reaching out to their alumni for help. The 2024 season still jars— a significant number of grads from both the older and newer IITs didn’t have offers even by May-June this year, when the placement season ended.
What salaries can students expect?
The average for new IITs can be ₹12-13 lakh; for older ones ₹20-55 lakh. Even with the visible sluggishness, some of the newer colleges are expecting pay packets to increase by 3-4% this year. The demand for certain roles, however, is higher. Project manager roles or those well-versed with artificial intelligence (AI) are expected to have the competitive edge, recruiters believe. High-end trading firms and software firms offered salaries of ₹80 lakh to ₹1.4 crore in 2024 and this year could see a repeat but in fewer numbers.