Starting today, the race at The Indian Institute of Technology-Madras (IIT-M) begins for the best placement offers.
The campus placement for the students passing out in 2013 will start, with nearly 200 companies visiting the campus in the next few days, and will go on till February.
B. Nagarajan, deputy registrar, training, placement & public relations, IIT-Madras said, nearly 100 new companies have confirmed their visit for placement this year. Companies like Rolls-Royce Operations India Pvt. Ltd., Mercedes - Benz Research & Development India Pvt. Ltd., Toshiba Corporation, MyLikes Inc., Walmart Global Technology Services, iGATE, Procter & Gamble Hygiene and Health Care Ltd., Bajaj Auto, Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages Pvt. Ltd., MRF Ltd., are some of the companies visiting the campus for the first time.
The interview process will be conducted in two sessions for the first two days and from Tuesday it would be conducted in one session, he added.
The companies that will conduct interviews for the students on the first day are Boston Consulting Group, Deutsche Bank Group; Goldman Sachs, ITC Ltd, McKinsey, Google India; Sony (Japan), Shell Technology Centre, Tower Research, Facebook Morgan Stanley, Microsoft Corp, IBM Research Ltd, Credit Suisse, Directi, Essex Lake Group, Samsung, Rocket Fuel, Procter & Gamble.
The placement committee has spaced out the process to ensure there is no pressure on the students.
Samsung, offering the highest salary this year, has postings in foreign as well as Indian locations. The other highest payers include Rocketfuel, Directi and Tower Research among others. “Most companies such as Paypal, Google, Microsoft, LinkedIn and Facebook are offering foreign postings that might interest many students,” a student said.
Among the most awaited are companies such as Walt Disney and Electronic Arts that will recruit students interested in gaming. “We have Walmart too, officially among the recruiters,” said another B. Tech student.
From August till November the students were exposed to the profiles of their recruiters over many sessions. “Companies advertise their offers in innovative ways. The way Directi sold their Dubai offer to us was remarkably interesting,” said a student. After that, began the tests and other recruitment procedures of the companies, including coding tests and group discussions.
The tests have been gruelling — 90 minutes of a written aptitude test and then 90 minutes of coding or designing, say students.
For instance students from the computer science stream who had applied to all the companies had to take written tests continuously for ten hours. “You can’t call it pressure because there is so much to choose from and we want to avail that. Those who are shortlisted, choose to focus on their interviews,” said another B. Tech student.
“But the most interesting tests were of Facebook and Rocket Fuel because they had puzzles with simple solutions to be cracked in a matter of seconds. It is also interesting to see Indian companies such as Directi willing to pay so much,” he added.
While most students feel computer science and electrical engineering will again attract the best placements, there is also a certain anxiety among them. “We have interacted with the companies and urged them to recruit postgraduate students in areas such as computer security and aerospace. It is a good thing that most companies have responded well. But if the season will be as good as it was last year, can be answered only after January after all the offers are made,” said another student.
