MUMBAI : Nikhil Pai, a chemical engineer at IIT Madras, will not be sitting for placements along with the rest of his batch and will instead be working at a new company that has just been incubated.
“I want to work at a startup that has 10-15 people, is interested in social innovation, and I’m talking to a couple of those companies,” said the 23-year-old from the batch of 2023.
“They are still too young to come to campus and their salaries are nowhere near what I would have gotten from the placement, but I need to take this step if I want to have my own start-up in the future,” he added.
Pai is among a growing number of Indian Institute of Technologies (IIT) graduates who have opted out of the placement process to sit for civil service exams or incubate their own start-ups.
The placement teams are surprised as this comes amid fears of a global recession.
“At first, my family was worried, but I didn’t take this step in a hurry. I decided at the end of my second year that I want to be a part of business development and learn where the income comes from early on,” Pai said.
Some of his classmates also opted out of the placement process to pursue higher education or have their own business.
“Ten students have opted for the institute’s deferred placement facility. The deferred placement facility is available for those students who wish to set up a start-up after their graduation,” said IIT Delhi.
“Students who choose the deferred placement option can make use of the placement services once within 2 years of this option, that is, until 2024-25 for the current set,” the university said in its report of placement, from December 15.
The placement season at IITs began on December 1, with many companies, especially High Frequency Trading (HFT) firms, offering salaries above $1 crore per year.
In some of the newer IITs, students opting for deferred placement have increased compared to the 2022 batch.
“A student can opt for deferred placement mainly for higher studies, UPSC exams, and entrepreneurship. The number of students who opted for deferred placement last year was 11 and the same for this year is 20,” said Lalit Pandey, Director of Center for Career Development, IIT Guwahati.
At IIT Mandi, two students have opted for deferred placement compared to none before.
Placement offices said they check before accepting the proposal for a deferred placement.
“Students send their proposals and we check the feasibility of the idea. Normally it is a startup that they want to incubate and then we give them the option of having it on campus. During the recession, students are told about the risks their ideas may face,” said a senior placement officer from one of the oldest IITs.
Interestingly, the recessionary clouds have not deterred start-ups and e-commerce companies from heading straight for IIT campuses, offering salaries of up to $15 lakh- $35 lakhs.
In the race to recruit for their expanding teams, they competed against national high-frequency trading and consulting firms.
IIT placements will continue until April-May.
See all the news and education updates on Live Mint. Download The Mint News app for daily market updates and live business news.
more less
