With the early placement season picking up in institutes across the country, several important and interesting trends have come to the fore. Let us take a look at some of the campus hiring and college placement trends that have been identified in the past few months:

Summer Placements bring good news for IIMs

Multiple reports have confirmed that hiring activity for summer placement internships, in absolute numbers and salary growth, has shown a healthy upward movement this year in IIMs. IIM Indore reported the average stipend growth by 20%, while IIM Ahmadabad witnessed over 50 firms recruiting students in three clusters, and IIM Bangalore saw a 100% placement. Furthermore, IIM Lucknow, IIM Kozhikode and IIM Calcutta all saw a 100% record summer placement within four days.

Finance Sector is getting its sheen back at IIMs

According to a recent news report, if the early campus hiring trends at IIMs are anything to go by, companies from the financial sector are back on a hiring spree and are taking in more recruits than they have in the last few years. Representatives from IIM Bangalore, IIM Visakhapatnam, IIM Calcutta, IIM Indore, and IIM Kozhikode, all confirmed in the report that the total summer internships offer from the financial sector and BFSI companies have grown in double-digits compared to last year. 

Start-Ups back at IITs

In 2016, over 30 start-ups were blacklisted from recruiting students, owing to their track record of withdrawing offers after placements. However, after students showed interest in working with some of the organisations, and newer IITs realising that they need more companies to come in for campus placements, the ban was withdrawn this year. Another report says that start-ups like “Paytm, Pepperfry, Exotel, Go-Jek, and Razorpay are the top ones to pick young talent. These startups are recruiting more than 10,000 graduates this year. Most of these startups are hiring the candidates for technical roles.”

Private Engineering Colleges struggle

According to this report, private engineering colleges are increasingly finding it tougher to get their students placed. While compensation packages from premier IIT institutions have been topped consecutively for the last few years, the same remain nearly stagnant for private institutes. The report attributes the requirement of specific skills from candidates, and employers are looking for innovation and new-age skills, which aren’t the thrust in academic spheres. “Hiring experts and placement offices said recruiters were increasingly seeking skilled candidates and were reducing mass recruitment, especially from private engineering colleges. The effects are visible in the average compensation packages being offered, especially by the infotech industry.”

Niche Tech Roles get Higher Salary 

A news report states that organisations are willing to offer up to 60% higher salaries, as compared to the previous year, for niche IT roles in the fields of Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Data Science and Robotics etc. The report includes testaments from premier engineering colleges in the country to confirm that start-ups and big corporations, both, are wooing students in new-age skills and domains. 

The above trends, collectively and in isolation, reflect the global campus hiring activity, which is witnessing healthy growth and recruitment. Furthermore, a rise in salaries and the search for enhanced skills are other points of similarities. Despite fears of job losses and stagnating hiring activity, campus placement in India seems to be registering a healthy growth, if the early trends are indicative of the entire placement season.