— Aishwarya VS
Another academic year has come to an end, and so has all the fretting, yearning and exhilaration of the placements. Despite the numerous unimaginable challenges imposed by the pandemic, the placement team has successfully pulled off their mission. Congratulations are in order for they have strived to bring the best opportunities for our students as well as managed to put a great start by getting our students placed right from day 1, which is a first in four years.
A total of 28 profiles in the institute placement process were opened for the students, of which 19 profiles were suitable (non-software/non-core engineering roles), and a total of 14 firms showed interest in recruiting the MA students. The offers made included 13 offers from 11 companies across department and institute placements, this being the second-highest number of offers received by MA students in any year. The most reputed recruiting giants, including Dalberg, Pristine Retail, McKinsey Knowledge Centre, Deshpande Foundation, Takshashila institute and Hindu STEP, made offers for the Institute and Department placements. Of the 14 firms that registered for department placements, 7 firms recruited, which is the highest number of firms to have hired from the department so far. Of the 31 registrants, a total of 9 students got placed in the department placements, with the highest CTC being 12.5 LPA which is also the highest ever to be offered in the history of department placements.
These great accomplishments have been made possible with a number of amazing new initiatives introduced by the HS placement team to facilitate the placement processes, such as the Bluebook, which was compiled to provide an overview of each sector along with specific job profiles recruited from the department in the previous years. Other initiatives of the team included shifting the contacting process to LinkedIn, Consult case prep sessions, Fundae sessions and the Alumni Mentorship program, which is commendable, especially for the efforts put in by the team in mapping the interested students with the Alumni – without whose help and guidance the placement process would not have yielded such excellent results. Their supportive advice, encouragement and involvement in ensuring varied opportunities to our students in such perilous times have certainly been an invaluable factor in executing these initiatives. Students, faculty and other department teams have played an equally important role in helping with the placement drive to provide the best for the final year students.
The only initiative which was planned but unexecuted was the placement crash course on aspects such as business statistics. This had to be abandoned following the troubles of the semester and faculty unavailability. The uncertainties posed by the pandemic including the hiring freeze by many firms had also created tensions regarding the placement timeline. Although by December, with the rapid recovery in the job market, firms started showing interest in the placements, this suffered a further setback due to the second wave of the pandemic. In addition to this, a few firms had been hesitant to hire from the department stating the lack of HS alumni in the company. Other difficulties included the struggle to enforce department rules through the online mode, delayed recruitment processes and a lack of recovery of few sectors such as publishing – resulting in fewer offers for English Studies students.
However, despite these challenges, there has been no shortfall in the preparations for the placements, not to mention the zeal with which our placement core has carried off these initiatives during his tenure. The detailed placement report (which has been the source for this write up) presented by him on behalf of the placement team has been indeed much helpful in understanding the steps involved, the processes and preparation behind the placements and has certainly educated someone as oblivious as myself to the laudable efforts of the team. The report comprising placement statistics and information concerning the procedures for placements can serve as a promptuary for upcoming batches.
Cheers and congrats to the entire team! No acknowledgement or applause can be enough for the consistent, collective effort put in by the team, staff and alumni in equipping the students to face the different phases of the placement process. Thanks for the topping work. Love and luck to the upcoming Placement team.
Design Shatabdi Deori
Article 19 