The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) placements witnessed a pronounced change from the established pattern this year as the good five days that went into the placements of IIT-Bombay failed to catch up with IIT Madras which recorded the largest number of students placed from the Madras campus.
IIT-Kanpur had the most successful day one with the largest number of offers made on its campus.
Manu Santhanam, advisor, training and placement, IIT-Madras explained the placement shift this year and said that there is not a major preference for Bombay anymore. Also, many companies are picking talent for their R&D profiles. companies have spread across the country.
The first day at IIT-Madras saw 35 more offers than last year, 195 in total; even international offers went up from 10 to 22 this year. By the close of phase 1, a total of 763 offers were made. Add the pre-placement offers, which stood at 114 this year, and a total of 877 students have been placed compared to 745 students last year.
Again, compared to 2016, when IIT-Bombay saw the worst Day 1 figures in 5 years, this year looked more promising as its 55 international offers in the first five days was the icing on the cake. However, it was quickly overtaken by IIT-Roorkee that had over 540 candidates placed by the close of Day 5.
Describing their placements as "one of the best" a total of 843 offers were handed out to students in the first phase of placements, considerably in large numbers in IIT-Kharagpur and IIT-Roorkee. There was a larger participation of companies this time. Interestingly, the IITs have not had too many start-ups this year, according to a placement committee member. He also told that the numbers are larger than last year, yet smaller as compared to 2015.