IITs, the premier education institutions of our country have reported a major decline in the number of placements and international job opportunities with the end recruitment season for session 2020-21.
While few renowned IITs like Mumbai and guwahati recorded 100 percent placements, Several other IITs have experienced very poor recruitment statistics which is clearly due to the ongoing pandemic.
Also this year, Less then 200 students out of all IITs grabbed the international placements of overseas jobs. This numbers are significantly very less as compared to previous years.
The pandemic not only decrease the number of job offers but also decreased the values of compensation packages. It has made the companies to shrink the offered salary packages to candidates.
The pandemic has caused financial unstability in the international companies which restricts the recruiters to offer a considerable amount during campus placement in institutes.
At IIT Bombay, the number of international placements dropped to 58, which was 159 in the previous season. This has also reduced the annual compensation package as compared to that in 2019 and 2020.
Other major institutes which reported decline in the rate of international placement are IIT Delhi, IIT Roorkee and IIT kanpur. While IIT Gandhinagar has not achieved even a single international placement after 2019.
The placement officer at IIT Bombay said that the major issue during placement events during the pandemic is the physical absence of students at campus. Also It is quite difficult to reach students at remote locations.
The officer added that the number of companies which arrived during campus placements was similar to that of last year. however, very few of them made recruitments.
The interviewers representing companies prefer one-to-one interaction with the candidate rather them assessing them via virtual meeting. This has decreased the interest of recruiters during placement drive.
Mr. BV Ravi Shankar, the training and placement officer at IIT Kanpur, said that the institutes are trying to minimise the negative effect of pandemic on the process of campus placements.