Effects of Covid-19 are being felt even in the most sought after Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs).
It is coming to light that three out of 10 students in IITs haven’t been accepted in any of the companies.
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“This is an unprecedented situation”, said Kantesh Balani who is the chairman of the Student Placement Cell at IIT Kanpur.
Many of the IITs are reaching out to their alumni members who either have their own business start-ups or are in senior positions across many MNCs. Different institutes are adopting different methods to handle the situation.
IITs in Roorkee, Kanpur, Madras are encouraging online placements while many institutions have deferred placements till July.
The situation at IIT Madras is that out of 1,331 students, 924 have jobs. While in IIT Bombay about 30% still don’t have jobs.
At IIT Roorkee, companies are requesting to take interviews through online mode, said a spokesperson. No company at Roorkee has revoked any offer but few might consider delaying the date of joining.
The situation at IIT Gandhinagar is that about 25% of the undergraduate students have not even received the first offer and the number is even higher for postgraduate students.
The institute said it is in touch with many recruiters and is planning to conduct online interviews for students.
“Till now, there is no withdrawal of offers for IIT Guwahati,” said its head for Centre for Career Development.
Only Gartner has revoked offers while others are trying to change the roles and accommodate the graduates.
Earlier, the head of an IIM had said: “The placement rules were designed with the idea that every student must get an equal opportunity to secure a job. However, with the uncertainty due to Coronavirus and talks of a slowdown, we are open to making changes in consultation with other IIMs.”
Some companies like Schlumberger are reassigning the students a different role within the company instead of the one they were hired for.
Although many companies are adopting the online route for placements, the job scenario continues to remain grim as the world goes through a massive economic slowdown due to the novel coronavirus.