Flipkart, Snapdeal might give IIM, IIT placements a miss

Normally regular recruiters Google, Flipkart, Snapdeal, Zomato and Hopscotch might not be visiting Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) and Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) campuses during final placements this year.

According to IITs and IIMs, Google has opted out of select institutes to instead recruit through its own process. The other e-commerce players have either not registered or not confirmed their participation for final placements.

Citing both a tough market scenario in e-commerce and the previous year’s experience, the institutes say some of these major players might not come.

In the recently concluded summer placements at premier B-schools, such absence was prominent. “Some of the larger recruiters from the previous year from e-commerce like Flipkart, Snapdeal and Hopscotch did not come for summer placements.

However, FMCG (fast moving consumer goods) and other standard recruiters hired in larger numbers and students got their choice of internships. The trend might continue into the finals,” said Sapna Agarwal, head of career development services at IIM Bangalore.

Prominent among these will be Flipkart, which earlier this year had deferred joining dates from May-June to December for students it had hired during campus placements last year, due to an organisational rejig.  

The move had sparked outrage among the IITs and IIMs, which then pledged to scrutinise companies that attend campus placements, especially start-ups and seek joining date commitments from e-commerce recruiters. 

Flipkart had been undergoing an organisational rejig amidst its struggle with global rivals Amazon and Alibaba, which have become aggressive in India.

While placement sources at IIM Indore said Flipkart and Snapdeal hadn’t yet confirmed their participation, those at IIT Madras (IIT-M) said the former hadn’t registered for final placements, though the IITs begin these on December 1. 

At IIT-M, Google is also unlikely to participate — the search engine giant will be recruiting from select IITs, apart from its internal process.