IIT internship placements defy Covid-19 impact with international offers

From international offers to stipends matching almost last year’s, the ongoing internship hiring process at the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITS) hint at better placements ahead, despite the Covid-19 pandemic.

For instance, IIT Delhi, which recently concluded the first phase of the internship hiring process for the academic year 2020-21 with over 300 offers, saw international training offers from Hong Kong, South Korea and the US. So far, over 150 organisations have registered for the current internship hiring season, the final phase of which will commence in January 2021.

The selection processes for the exercise were conducted seamlessly in an online mode using multiple e-resources from registrations, students’ orientations and training, company presentations, company pre-processes like tests, group discussions and selection interviews. The process was held for second-year and third-year undergraduate students of the four-year Btech programmes and for the fourth year of the five-year dual degree programme, who are eligible to apply for the internship.

The number of selections has been quite impressive for the undergraduate students of the institute who have opted for internship for Summer 2021, said Anishya O Madan, ILO & head, Office of Career Services (OCS), IIT Delhi. “We hope that the robust intern hiring numbers at the start of the season are an indication of hiring numbers in final placement as well," he added.

Similarly, IIT Madras has seen an increase in the number of international offers, although domestic offers dominated. The number of internship offers extended were almost equal to the previous year, pointing to healthy placement trends. The average stipend has also been more or less the same as what was offered last year.

"If you look at locations, there has been an increase in the number of international offers, although the majority of them are still domestic offers. The roles are more on the software side or those that are more suited for the work-fromhome environment," said student heads -- Kunal Gupta, Sourabh Thakur and Omkar Thombre -- of the institute internship team at IIT Madras. To date, IIT Madras has seen over 60 recruiters offering over 90 internship profiles, making 316 offers overall.

According to IIT Madras, while a majority of the companies prefer on-site internships, it is too soon to decide firmly on the location of the internships, given that these are supposed to happen next year, around May-july.

IIT Guwahati, meanwhile, has been able to place 181 students so far, as compared to a total of 264 students last year. Around 600 students have registered for internship hiring on the campus.

The first phase of internship hiring process at IIT Guwahati, which began in the first week of September, is likely to be over by October-end. The second phase is set to resume in January 2021. So far, around 50 recruiters have registered for the internship placement process, with 33 companies having already participated. Last year, 63 companies had participated.

According to Abhishek Kumar, head-centre for Career Development (CCD) at IIT Guwahati, the current internship hiring trends hint at a good final placement season to be held for the 2020-21 session later this year.

In terms of profile, students at IIT Guwahati have bagged offers for roles likes software development engineer, research intern, graduate trainee engineer, lead IT associate, analyst, quant research, data science, hardware engineer, server technology, application engineer, systems engineer and quantitative strategist, product engineer, analog as well as machine learning and artificial intelligence, among others.

"All these are currently Indian offers. We are positive of achieving a good number like last year," Kumar added.

On the back of a successful first phase of internship hiring process, Madan of IIT Delhi also said that the entire OCS team was gearing up for the upcoming placement season. "We look forward to welcoming recruiters on the campus in a virtual mode to facilitate them in hiring top IIT Delhi talents for their companies," she added.

At IIT Madras, too, the visiting companies are more or less satisfied with the process and the planning for it.

"Everyone is new to a virtual process on this big a scale and there were a few areas where things could have been better. However, the team has been so far successful in conducting the process without any major lapses," the institute internship team heads at IIT Madras stated. “We expect a lot more companies to turn up for the recruitment once the effects of the pandemic ease up both on the economic and the social front.”

So far, 942 students at IIT Madras have registered for the process. Being conducted virtually, the internship placement process at IIT Madras, which started in August this year, is a rolling one and will go on till April next year.