Placements at any corporate are not solely based on the ranking of an institution or the academic performance of a student. Academics seem to play a smaller role in the process of campus recruitments compared to the skills a candidate is expected to possess.
There is a common crib among recruiters at IITs that although students are bright, when it comes to academics, many of them are inadequate in soft skills.
Every institute should concentrate on special sessions to hone students’ soft skills including communication, teamwork, and leadership. This will make them ready to face the interviews.
Today, core companies want a student to be good in problem-solving skills than his/her academic record.
“Start small, and grow big” — If nothing else works and you are getting an internship opportunity in a field that is not of your choice, you should take it. The amount of practical learning and the network you would build, would eventually come handy in the pursuit of your true passion.
100% placements — myth or reality?
In this era of rapidly evolving technologies, students tend to believe in the concept of more companies equalling more opportunities. This may be true in some cases but as one looks deeper into the placement scenarios in various colleges, one gets to understand that there is a void that has to be filled from the students’ side too, to grab the existing opportunities out in the saturated job economy. What is this void?
Having relevant skills set to fit the company requirements. This goes to say that there is a huge gap in the market between job-hungry candidates and companies. So many graduates still spend their time and money on outdated technology and the corresponding syllabi in college curricula. The solution here is to not depend entirely on the course that students follow in college, and instead, work and update themselves on trending technologies, frameworks and languages used in the industries today.
The goal is to be industry-ready and not just job-ready. Therefore, 100% placements are possible only when this gap is taken care of from both ends.
One job policy
To rein in the possibility of more students getting placed, all institutions should adhere to the ‘One Job Policy’, which essentially means that a student who is placed in a company should not be allowed to appear again for placements unless the next company is categorised under tier-1 or tier-2 (dream and core respectively) with comparably higher salary packages. This ensures that every student gets an equal opportunity to attend placements and graduate with at least one job offer in hand.
The writer is the placement officer at the National Institute of Engineering (NIE) Mysore.
