– By Soham Shaw
Is the IIT PoR Pyramid Scheme falling apart?
Lately, Insti Student bodies seem a bit off. The positions that were hyped are losing their charm. Competency is questionable at all levels of hierarchy with rising cases of failures. Yet, the hype for applying PoRs at entry level by freshers is probably going up. It is time to question how the pyramid scheme is breaking down with the upsurge of performativeness.
How it began
Insti, a product of post-colonial India, began with a goal to build India’s technological self-reliance by training elite engineers and scientists for industrial and economic growth. The initial days consisted of a few hostels, departments, professors and a lot of passion. “Insti life” revolved around academics and genuine passion to learn and build, along with sports, cultural pursuits and camaraderie.
Gradually, students started to get involved in events like Saarang and Shaastra. After the 2008 financial crisis, placement teams were formalised. With the increase in the number of students and departments, the need for student representation also increased. Clubs were officially recognized and were allotted a budget. This gave the students an opportunity to grow beyond the academic syllabus. The pursuit of sport and culture were given incentives to encourage passion and excellence. The ecosystem was subtly encouraging a talent, a drive to learn beyond the curriculum, without any foreseen financial value.
The management cult among students was taking a strong shape by the economic liberalization. The growing industries needed management experts, which was typically fulfilled by the IIMs. The trained ‘engineers’ realized they could use their skills beyond engineering and started entering this field. An alumni network of engineers at management roles gained prominence and HRs wondered if they could directly hire undergrads for these roles.
Thus, classic management companies hired directly from IITs, and the talent being nurtured here was precisely what they wanted. PoRs which once began as a side quest, were materialised to an extent where they soon became the center of attention. Students purely interested in academics are less likely to be attracted by these roles. The CVs were shortlisted by professionals who were themselves part of this culture during their undergrad. This moment marked the convergence of late capitalism and an ecosystem that had developed independently out of pure passion.
With time, a pipeline of PoRs and placements surfaced along with elitism and preference for certain clubs. Companies hyped their roles to attract the best talent. Seniors used this as a pitch for brainwashing juniors to join their clubs. And a pyramid scheme was soon carved out of this.
PoRs are now projected such that they directly relate to jobs. It depicts a gateway to a corporate life. This narrative is used to justify the toxicity and pressure by gaslighting students into believing ‘they are doing something worthwhile and that this is a measure of their competency.’
As the Goodhart’s law says,
“When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.”
Students are solely driven by the résumé narrative to shape their college experience. They take up the work not from passion, but to aim for a job out of it. Late capitalism has commodified our institutional life and the post-colonial Indian institute once committed to solving national problems, now begs for résumé points.
AI projects are made with the intention of fitting in with the AI cult, and not out of the passion to learn data modelling. LinkedIn posts are made to build a professional profile, completely forgetting the importance of learning or sharing something valuable. This leads to a Prisoner’s dilemma.
In a market where everyone is chasing résumé points, opting out only means others appear to have stronger (yet hollower) résumés, forcing participation in the race regardless of intent. Even the disinterested are peer-pressured, leading to a downfall in the quality of output. Once they get in and the résumé goal is achieved, there is practically no incentive for them to put in the effort anymore.
There is a hierarchy among PoRs as well. Every PoR has to pitch in their résumé relevance to get applications. An elitism has emerged which portrays certain clubs as top tier while others as mere fillers. New batches are brainwashed into joining this cycle, as they progress up the hierarchy, they brainwash their juniors and the pyramid scheme continues fueled by the mass belief that the system makes sense. Another pitch for PoR is the fun and memories that used to come along with it. This has been glorified so much that students apply seeking memories and not the work, hoping the memories will spawn out of thin air.
Students often see PoRs as a parallel for DSA and prepare for roles which barely even campus hire. In addition, sports and cultural activities are pursued for résumé peaks. There is a rising trend where students take dual degrees not to learn the subject, but to apply to PoRs or sit for interns again. This poses a threat to the hirers as well. By Goodhart’s law, PoRs are losing their credibility as a good measure. This implies they will probably change the résumé criteria as companies start to realize it’s not working anymore.
Conclusion
Please note that the above writing is a very pessimistic take on the PoR culture. It only shows one side of the story. There are still significant positives left in the system, with many building memories and careers. However this is a moment to reflect on where we are headed. The possibility of trend reversal is negligibly low as late capitalism draws us more and more into the chain. The neoliberal world has conditioned us to believe that an entity holds value only when it carries measurable financial worth. This is the commodification of value itself. However, commodification does not emerge in isolation; it is sustained and normalized through corporate culture, which rewards quantifiable outcomes, résumé accumulation, and performative productivity.
When such a culture seeps into institutional life, it reshapes priorities and incentives. This raises an urgent question: do we truly want to replicate corporate culture at Insti?
Look where the quest for résumé peaks has brought us. How ironic it is that what was once an escape from stress, a pursuit driven by passion, has now become a corporate labor-producing machine and a source of stress itself.
Edited by: Ann Mary | Design by: Vivechna Kain
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