IIT Madras Students’ strong show in Internships results in increase in Pre-Placement Offers yet again

Chennai: Indian Institute of Technology Madras students continued their strong show in Pre-Placement with offers increasing yet again during 2019-20 compared with the preceding Academic Year. As many as 158 students have secured PPOs (as of 22nd Nov 2019) as against 135 during entire 2018-19 Academic Year.

One of the principal reasons for this strong show in PPOs has been the robust internship program, which results in students getting to intern in companies that are large recruiters. Internships are facilitated through an Institute-coordinated process. The constant increase in PPOs is the result of excellent performance of students during the internships.

A total of 1,334 students have registered for placements for the Academic Year 2019-20. The total number of companies registered for Phase I of Placements is 170. They will be recruiting for a total of 322 profiles, including 35 international profiles. As many as 54 startups are also coming for recruitment.

Speaking about the increase in PPOs this year, Prof. Manu Santhanam and Prof. C. S. Shankar Ram, Advisors (Training and Placement), IIT Madras, said, “The trend of increasing PPOs through our internship program continues this year. This hopefully is a harbinger of a strong placement season.”

The Day-1 (11th Aug 2019) of Internship Drive was a great success. 20 companies visited the campus and a record number of Internship offers (147 offers) were made, which was 60 per cent more than what was offered on Day-1 last year.

Highlighting the importance of Internships to Campus Placements in IIT Madras, Prof. Ravi Kumar, Advisor (Internships), IIT Madras, said, “Since the creation of the internship cell in 2014 the number of PPOs has continuously increased. It is obvious that internship provides an opportunity for both the employers and the students to know each, understand the requirements and if companies do feel good about the students who worked as interns, they are likely to be offered PPOs the following year.”

Further Prof Ravi Kumar added, “Hence, the increase in PPOs is a direct consequence of an effective internship program. From this year, we have extended the services of the internship cell to MTech students as well and process has been formalised. The entire internship team did a wonderful job in achieving this.”