“This is an unprecedented situation,” said Kantesh Balani, chairman, Students’ Placement Office at IIT Kanpur.
IITs are also reaching out to alumni (most of who are either startup founders or hold senior positions in India Inc) to help students get jobs, including for those whose offers have been revoked.
Most IITs including Madras, Kanpur, Delhi, Roorkee, Guwahati and Bombay that ET reached out to confirmed that so far only Gartner has revoked offers. Some like Schlumberger are readjusting students within the firm for a different role instead of the one it had originally hired for. IITs like Guwahati, Roorkee, Kanpur, Bombay and Madras have either taken placements online or are in the process of taking them online. Some like Guwahati, Kanpur, Madras are looking at holding on-site placement drives in July. But with several firms freezing new hiring, taking the placements process online is not helping much.
At IIT Madras, 924 of the 1,331 students have jobs. Around 30% are yet to be placed at IIT Bombay. At IIT Roorkee, companies have been requesting to interview the students through online mode, said a spokesperson at IIT Roorkee. At Roorkee no offer has been revoked so far but a few companies are considering extending joining dates.
In Touch with Recruiters
IIT Bombay is also extending placements till mid-July.
“Till now, there is no withdrawal of offers for IIT Guwahati,” said its head for Centre for Career Development, adding they may have a special placement drive in July, if required.
At IIT Gandhinagar, around 25% of the undergraduate students are still waiting for their first offer, the number is a little higher for post graduate students. The institute said it is in touch with various recruiters and carrying out virtual interview processes.
