Happy hours for IITians: Pre-placement offers Rs 1 crore compensation

It has never happened before. Pre-placement offers (PPOs) at the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) have increased by almost 50%. Even before the actual placement kick starts by the end of this year, most students have a job in hand.

From 35 to 50, that’s precisely what IIT Madras had received in terms of PPOs. IIT Bombay has so far received 123 PPOs, exceeding the 110 it got all of last year. IIT Kanpur has received 90, which is 24 more than the tally by last September. IIT Kharagpur has seen a spurt of almost 55% in PPOs to 142 until now from 92 last year. Several investment banking and financial services companies are making a comeback to IIT campuses after a gap of two years or so. These include JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley and Barclays at Madras and Kharagpur. Other are making their debut, like Credit Suisse and Capital One at IIT Bombay. Ecommerce companies and startups remain the largest recruiters.

PPOs are a key source of talent for Amazon India. "At Amazon we believe that interns are our future leaders," Raj Raghavan, director of human resources to ld The Economic Times. "More than 50% of our campus hiring comes through pre-placement offers and would continue to be one of the key areas of identifying and hiring talent."

Over the last two years, the conversion of IIT interns to PPOs has seen an increase at Amazon. More than 60% of its IIT hiring now takes place through the PPO route. This year's top recruiters at the IITs through PPOs include Samsung India, Adobe, Microsoft, Reliance Industries, Tata Steel, Flipkart and Strand Life Sciences.

Samsung India's IIT interns rose around 60% from last year. Most have got PPOs and are sto join. "We believe that internships give both the interns and the organisation an opportunity to interact with each other over an extended period of time," said a Samsung India spokesperson. "This makes it easier for students to decide once they have an offer, as well as assimilate into the organisation faster once they join."

Companies visiting campuses to offer PPOs for the first time include Texas Instruments and JSW Group, American Express and Axsiom at IIT-BHU (Banaras Hindu University); Bentley Systems India, Fuzzy Logix, Innoplexus Consulting Services, Quetzal Online, Glow Homes Technologies and Zimply at IIT Roorkee; and JP Morgan at IIT Bombay, besides the Credit Suisse and Capital One cited earlier. Apart from these, there are the companies begun by old students.