After showing the big picture, startups have suddenly gone slow on hiring. Here’s why

Some time back startups were aggressively hiring best talent and were emerging as top recruiters during the placement season, but now the scenario is totally different.

As the investors are getting apprehensive about pumping money in startups and asking for business models, this is affecting the hiring plans and placements.

After a high placement season from November to January, startups are not showing up at premier engineering and management schools or are offering lesser salaries.

This time, Snapdeal and Ola were not present for placements.

"Student interest in joining startups is high and the number of offers from these companies made up around 50% of the total offers this year - the highest in three years," TV Devi Prasad, head of placements at the International Institute of Information Technology in Hyderabad told ET, adding "However, some companies have gone back on their commitments."

Such scenes can be seen at Indian School of Business in Hyderabad as Stayzilla, a stay aggregator, delayed the joining of 39 students it had hired to July-August, from April-May, and also reduced the annual package to Rs 20 lakh, excluding stock options.

Still, there are startups like Grofers, Paytm who have not gone back on their promises on placements hiring.

"We visited more than 80 engineering and management campuses this year across India to offer various profiles at Grofers in design, marketing, operations, sales and technology. We have hired people as and when the need arrived. The minimum salary offered was 6 lakhs per annum, while the highest was 20 lakhs," a spokesperson for Grofers said.

"We have hired from campus placements in all tier 1institutes across India this year," said Amit Sinha, vice-president at Paytm.

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