Facebook interviews IIT students via Skype for placements

Updated on: Friday, December 03, 2010

Campus placements across the seven older Indian Institutes of Technology got off to a colourful start on Wednesday. The highlight of this placement season was at the IIT Madras, where for the first time hiring went high-tech with the popular social networking site Facebook conducting interviews for short-listed students via Skype, the Internet voice protocol service.

"The interview for some of the 13 short-listed students will be conducted on Thursday too because of the time gap between the US and here. The HR managers are interviewing candidates sitting in the US," said professor N Ramesh Babu, advisor (training and placement), IIT Madras. Facebook has offered an astonishing compensation package (exact amount withheld) for the job positions which are based in the US.

Babu is both excited as well as caught in a dilemma of sorts as 250 recruiters comprising a good mix of old and new economy companies are already lined up in close slots till end-January 2011. "We are in a position where say after 20 days you may not have enough students for recruitment. We have not been able to give dates for some companies. Most companies which hire here, will also be going to the other IITs," he told The Times of India. As of now, 1066 students have registered for the campus placements and the option of a Dream Job' under which students get to choose the best of offers, is no longer there.

In the first phase of the campus placements which are scheduled to end on December 27 and the subsequent phase next month, as many as 8 to 10 companies have been allotted slots on each day. On the opening day, Google continued its hiring process beyond 10 pm.

The other recruiters included international names such as Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, IBM Research, Morgan Stanley, ITC and McKinsey.

Last year, during the corresponding period only around 120 companies had registered for the placements at the IIT Madras, though by the end of the season the number had touched 250. This season, however, the placement office continues to receive requests for better slots from companies. The Indian Navy and Air Force too will be hiring IITians.

Meanwhile, even some private campuses in and around Chennai are witnessing a windfall during this placement season. At the SRM deemed university in Kattankulathur, the Information Technology major Tata Consultancy Services has offered placements to a whopping 1091 students. "This is the largest single campus recruitment for the TCS. Even Wipro has hired 406 students from all streams of engineering from our institution," said S Ganapathy, dean (placements), SRM deemed university.

Facebook interviews IIT students via Skype for placements

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