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Handholding is the way of modern human life, and though many argue this is only in India, clearly this is a global problem. And it extends to our education system right up until campus placements as well. Millions of years ago, when we humans were still cavemen, pretty sure there was no handholding when we went out to hunt for the first time and were faced with dangers of mammoth proportions, and quite literally mammoths themselves. And yet, we humans survived. Evidence: We are here today, sitting in the college placement office, waiting for the next company to come and swoop us away right into their corporate office.
State of Campus Placements
Campus placements have been on a downswing for a few years now, ever since big IT started its layoffs, but the impact of the deficiency in campus hiring was felt in the year 2023-2024, when 7000 IIT graduates remained unplaced. Now take this stat with a pinch of salt, because IIT graduates are known to be very demanding and will not just opt for any ‘average Joe’ job coming their way. Yet, 7000 is a big number, and it brings into popular perception again the opinion that there is a clear gap between what companies expect and what candidates want.
World Beyond IIT
And how is it beyond the IITs? According to the Deccan Herald, only 7% of Indian colleges today achieve campus placement, which means if you do not study in a top college, there is a high possibility you will not get placed on campus. And the report also cites skill gaps and the inability to discover the right talent as reasons for why there is a huge gap. While 91% of students believe that the college curricula enable sufficient preparedness for the job, 66% of campus recruiters and 42% of university partners feel that the skill gap and lack of preparedness, respectively, are affecting the chances of students getting placed.
5 Ways to Improve Campus Placements
We can play the blame game all day long, but it is important to find a solution. And it is highly likely that the present situation is not going to change for the better anytime soon. University partners and recruiters need to find a way out, and we believe that this will define the campus placements of the future. And they can do quite a lot, to be honest. Let us look at 5 things they can do to make sure that campus placements are more successful.
1. Help Students Prepare a Better CV
A CV is the first impression you make on the recruiter. As much as we can say this is more relevant for university partners than recruiters, what if you happen to lose a great candidate only because they didn’t have a great CV and everything else just checked out perfectly? So, you need to help students tailor a better CV or at least stress the importance of a great CV in your job description itself. And what’s the good thing today? Colleges generally have campus recruitment coordinators who take care of CV editing on behalf of the student.
2. Provide Language Training if Needed
You cannot instruct someone without a language, and since English is a language frequently used at the workplace in India, you must train students in English, and this must not happen at the last moment. There must be drives organized on campus that encourage students to learn English, so they can at least communicate to the recruiters how good they really can be. And there must be an ongoing training in English for everyone on campus, so that they can gain proficiency in it and be ready for the placements when they happen.
3. Provide Industrial Skills Training
Now, this is specifically for IT, so provide work-oriented training. And here’s how you do it. Discuss with companies their requirements a year before the placements, so you can jot down the skills they want and then train students in them. To do this, you can organize students into camps based on their interests and then train them in it. If someone is more interested in cybersecurity than DevOps, train them in that more. The training can happen at a convenient time after college or before college.
4. Have Mock Tests and Interviews
Before Robin Hood became the legendary archer he was, he was a simple bowman perfecting his skills with the bow and arrow for a very long time, and he must have subjected himself to several trial runs that tested him and his companions. Training is important, but while such training happens, you can also conduct tests and interviews to ensure that the students are ready for any challenge they may face during the campus placement. These mock tests and interviews will contain both IT concepts, but also be a testof behavioral responses and general attitude towards work too. To succeed, students need to be taught the importance of work and how to organize it well.
5. Give the Alumni Network a Try
The alumni network is on standby whenever you need help, especially in the top 100 or so colleges. They are active and will respond if the campus placement committee raises an issue or needs their support. But the campus placement team, university partners, and recruiters need to be more proactive in the way they approach the alumni network, approaching them not just when the students have failed at campus placement but also to refer them to companies that are suitable for them. Esteemed alumni members can be invited on campus to interact directly with students, so that they can also make the right recommendations and recommend the students to the right people.
Campus Placements Will Not End
Though there would be naysayers who think that campus placements will be a thing of the past, we don’t see this happening. There is no way one can dismiss a bedside lamp as an unwanted luxury. The same is true for campus placements, too. But university partners, recruiter,s and students too need to cooperate and work together to make them successful. It’s a long game, but it has too many immediate consequences to be ignored. We hope 2025 is a much better year for campus placements!
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Amit Saproo
Amit Saproo is the Head of Operations at ALP Consulting with nearly 17 years of experience in Executive Search, RPO, Leadership, and IT & Engineering recruitment. He leads nationwide recruitment programs across Technology, BFSI, and R&D domains, driving strategic hiring solutions for diverse client needs. Amit excels in building and managing high-performance teams that deliver scalable, end-to-end recruitment and consulting services.
