IITs bar over 20 companies from placement drive for cancelling job offers

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As the placement season opened at leading Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) on Monday, more than 20 companies were barred from taking part this year. These firms had withdrawn job offers made to students in the last academic year, some as late as June or July, right around the joining dates, Times of India reported.

 

Officials said these sudden cancellations caused major stress for students, the news report said. Many IITs do not allow students with confirmed offers to appear for further interviews. So when offers were revoked at the last minute, students were left with little time or opportunity to secure alternative roles.

 

IITs across the country jointly agreed to blacklist these companies for the current placement cycle. Placement cells had still attempted to help affected students despite the delay.

 

List finalised after multiple IITs report withdrawals

 

The list of banned firms was drawn up after multiple IITs reported offer cancellations from the same companies. Several of these firms operate in the data analytics and software sectors.

 

While these companies are barred from campus recruitment this year, they may still hire students through off-campus channels.

 

An IIT professor involved in the placement process said placement coordinators from 15 IITs recently cross-checked the names. “We looked at their past records too. Some of these companies had a history of revoking offers and six to seven IITs had already banned them from participation,” the professor said, as quoted by The Times of India.

 

He added that some companies also reduced salary offers after issuing appointment letters.

 

This year, IITs are also trying to bring in more start-ups supported under the Centre’s Viksit Bharat programme. Officials said this move aims to broaden opportunities for students.

 

“The job market is slow, but we are trying to reach out to many more companies and encourage start-ups incubated on prominent campuses to reach the best targets,” the professor said. He added that the placement season has started on a positive note.   

 

Strong hiring on Day 1

 

On the first day of placements, IITs saw heavy recruiter participation as companies offered a wide range of high-salary roles.

 

By 1 pm, IIT Roorkee had reportedly secured eight international offers and 428 domestic offers in its first slot (1.1), with more expected to be added.

 

Prominent recruiters included Amazon, American Express, NVIDIA, Qualcomm, DE Shaw, Databricks, Eternal (Zomato), Flipkart and Google. Proprietary and algorithmic trading firms such as Da Vinci Derivatives, NK Securities Research, Rubrik and Squarepoint Capital also made significant offers.

 

Students opt for Day 1 interviews over PPOs

 

Despite a 10-20 per cent rise in pre-placement offers (PPOs) this year, many students chose to participate in Day 1 interviews instead.

 

At IIT-BHU, 1,701 students, including 1,100 BTech, 550 MTech and IDD students, and 40 PhD candidates, are participating in placements this year. This comes even though the institute received 280 PPOs ahead of the process.