Start-ups bail out IITians facing placement blues

On the back of a global meltdown, big-ticket firms may not be flocking at the premier Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) campuses. IITians, however, have not lost all hope. Many are looking at start-ups for their first jobs.

At the IIT-Bombay, for instance, the Entrepreneurship Cell (e-cell) — in association with National Entrepreneurship Network (NEN) — is holding a campus recruitment programme for start-ups, which has seen over 200 students enrolling so far.

This first-ever start-up campus recruitment programme at the institute has had 10 companies, such as MAIA Intelligence, RedBus, Seventymm Services and Zeus Numerix, registering for recruitment.

Placements at the IITs begin in December and go on till February next year. “With every passing year more and more students are evaluating start-ups. This year, it could grow even faster as the overall situation has had no major impact on start-up hiring,” said Sushanto Mitra, CEO, Society for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (SINE), IIT-Bombay.

At IIT-Delhi, too, the response to start-ups is impressive. The institute so far has seen around seven start-ups registering for placements with them against two last year.

The start-ups pay Rs 5,00,000 to Rs 6,00,000 a year. “Salary is an important criterion for the IITians. But there are always students who want to pursue different things,” said Dhruv Samir Shah, manager, e-cell, IIT-Bombay.

Many find that the work profile is as good as one offered by large and established companies, and sometimes even better as students say they get complete freedom to think creatively and it allows a sense of accomplishment.

“Right now it’s not about a dream job but about dream for a job. Start-ups not only provide you with a job and a decent salary but also allow you to function on the front-end which is not available while working with large firms,” said Amarjeet from the Entrepreneurship Development Cell, IIT-Delhi. Amarjeet is joining a start-up in management consulting.

IIT-Bombay is looking at firms representing sectors such as gaming, medical devices, media and entertainment, transportation, health/pharma, financial services, chemical marketing, sports, advertising and marketing and IT consulting.

Meanwhile, sources at IIT-Bombay confirmed that SINE has received a fresh infusion of funds, including some help from IIT Bombay. This brings the SINE corpus to over Rs 10 crore.