The placement season for this semester has seen a drop in the number of students sitting in the odd semester, down to 220 from 270 last year. With nearly half of those sitting being from the Computer Science stream, there has been a drop in the number of core placements. The average packages varied widely across the different sectors with the IT and ET sectors in the lead. The English Press Club spoke to Mr. Vipul Singhal, the Assistant Placement Manager of the Placement Unit (PU), to find out about this semester’s placement season and the PU’s policies regarding contacting companies.

The PU’s process for selecting companies to call for placements is based on a number of factors. One is the “legacy” of the company, which includes its previous relations with BITS and feedback from alumni who work there. Experiences with Human Resources (HR) officials, company profile, work culture, and the Cost to Company (CTC) also play an important role. Once the PU has decided to contact a company, it reaches out to their HR department. Both student and non-student members of PU are involved in this process.

Companies are segregated into Days based on their profiles. Day 0 is reserved for international profiles, and the lack thereof means that there will be no Day 0. For Day 1 and beyond, companies are sorted according to their CTCs and history, and slots from the top are filled in for each day. Stable and established companies are given preference over newer firms and start-ups.

The PU also takes feedback to improve future placement opportunities. A portal for the same has yet to be formalised, but verbal discussions with the student members help establish opinions and communicate information back and forth. The PU has recently started an official Facebook page to share important placement-related information, and it plans to use the page more frequently.

This semester’s placement season has improved in terms of IT and ET jobs. The highest CTC on campus is Microsoft’s 43.31 lakhs in the IT sector; which has an average of 27.01 lakh. The CTC of a company includes the base figure, stock options, and the joining, retention, and relocation bonuses.

The IT and ET sectors are in the process of shifting from the campus placement model to the internship Pre-Placement Offer (PPO) model, wherein companies directly offer PPOs after a student’s internship period. Companies such as Nutanix, AppDynamics, Microsoft, and Uber offered high CTCs for IT. Micron, Signalchip, and Texas Instruments did the same for ET.

The increased number of non-core jobs comes with a drop in the core sector. The highest packages in the Mechanical and Chemical sectors were 8.75 and 10.72 lakhs respectively, with respective averages of 7.24 and 10.02 lakhs. This drop was attributed to misconceptions about there being few jobs in the sector, with the reality being that there are ample core opportunities for those willing to sit for them. Companies such as Bajaj Auto, ExxonMobil, and Cairn India offer substantial CTCs in these sectors.

There has also been a reduction in the number of Finance sector job opportunities due to poor feedback from companies. BITS being an engineering college, students sitting for these jobs are often not at par with industry requirements and lack the skills required for their job profiles. With the companies preferring to recruit directly from finance colleges, the number of opportunities is also experiencing a decline. In the non-core analytics, product management, and operations sector, ICICI Bank offered 16 lakhs with the sector average being 13.34 lakhs. Oliver Wyman offered 17 lakhs in the consulting sector, with the average being 12.18 lakhs.

The drop in placements has been attributed to the lack of specialisation among students. In the Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, and Data Science sectors, companies are increasingly looking for specific skill sets and specialised profiles. Furthermore, knowing about the company in question and asking questions is extremely important to establish the student’s interest and ability. While CGPA cutoffs do apply, companies tend to focus more on their aptitude test results. High CTC expectations on the part of students are also detrimental to their interviews, with the PU having received feedback from multiple companies on this front. Instead, students are advised to lower their expectations for joining packages, since there is great scope for growth once employed.