Core firms lose sheen at IIT-B placements

MUMBAI: As the placement season at Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IIT-B) entered final week, the core engineering and technology companies seem to have taken a dip.

With a couple of days remaining in the first phase of placements at the premier technological institute, around 210 companies have made close to 950 job offers, including 93 preplacement offers (PPOS). Last year, 1,000 offers were made at the end of first phase.

Despite the assertion by placement officials, the core engineering and technology sector appears to have lost some of its sheen. “There was a conscious effort on our part to bring more core engineering companies this year, so that the diverse group of students will have an opportunity to be recruited by companies of their choice,” said Atul Shukla, a member of placement team.

While the sector continues to attract bulk of the students, the number of job offers by core companies has dipped significantly. According to sources, around 50 engineering companies have participated in the placements, recruiting over 175 (21%) candidates. Comparatively, a total of 88 engineering and technology companies had recruited 381 students in the first and second phase of placements in 2014-15

Software companies such as IBM, Microsoft, Google and Accenture were the second larg est recruiters in the first two weeks of placement season Collectively, around 35 IT firms made offers to a little over 140 students.

The banking, financial serv ice and insurance (BFSI) sec tor has witnessed some growth According to sources, around 27 BFSI companies have visited IIT-B during the first 13 days of campus placements, offer ing jobs to around 120 students By comparison, 20 finance com panies had participated in the placements and had recruited 106 students during the entire placement season.

Analytics companies, which had a strong showing last year put up a relatively poor show Around 20 analytics companies have so far recruited around 85 candidates, as compared to 155 candidates recruited by 47 of these companies in 2014.

On the other hand, e-com merce companies and start-ups have also made their presence felt. As of Sunday, more than 20 start-ups and e-commerce firms have held job interviews and selected around 80 candidates

R&D and consulting com panies have so far made offers to around 55 and 92 students respectively.