Students at Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (IIT-M), have received 182 pre-placement offers this year, 12 more than last year (170) despite Covid-19 pandemic. The phase I of campus placements is scheduled to begin online on Tuesday.

Companies looking to hire from the institute has also gone up from 244 last year to 252 companies registering this year. The companies have registered for 467 job profiles, around the same as last year.

“The trend gives us reason be to optimistic,” said C S Shankar Ram, professor and advisor (training and placement), IIT-M. He said placements will not be affected by the pandemic and that students would obtain the best possible job offers in phase-1 placements.

The institute has scheduled two sessions on day 1 of the recruitment drive and top companies with competitive offers will get the first pick.

“We are following the same process we have had in the previous years to slot companies for virtual hiring too. The only change would be that candidates will attend the interviews online instead of in-person,” Shankar Ram added.

Most of the usual recruiters have registered for the hiring while a few new recruiters were also in the line-up.

The institute’s virtual internship drive this year started off on a great note with 17 companies participating and making 140 internship offers on Day 1. In 2019, 147 internship offers were made on Day 1.

Highlighting the importance of internships on campus placements, N V Ravi Kumar, advisor (internships) at IIT-Madras, said, “Internships provide an excellent opportunity for students to understand the working culture and expectations of the companies that they train with and for the companies to realize the potential of our students during that short period.”

The companies that floated the most pre-placement offers are Texas Instruments (12 offers), Microsoft (12), Qualcomm (10 offers), Goldman Sachs (9 offers) and American Express (9 offers).