Until last year, fewer start-ups were found in the placement sheet of IITs because students complained that while these companies were offering lucrative jobs, they were failing to convert the offer letter into a joining date. However, the trend is changing this year, and many now believe that the start-up ecosystem in India is a viable alternative this time with well-kept promises.
“It is common for young start-ups to delay the joining letter as their financial health is dependent on fundraising, which is dynamic and unpredictable. One cannot explicitly blame them for such mishaps as this is how things work in markets. However, IITs prioritise the interests of the students and want to ensure that such instances are avoided, leading to sterner policies for company enrollment in campus placements,” Prof Lakshmi Narayan Ramasubramanian, assistant professor at IIT Delhi told indianexpress.com.
“Students prefer being a part of start-ups now because of more opportunities, and faster growth rate,” said Prof Balasubramanian Malayappan.
With the changing market, start-ups are being welcomed in many IITs like IIT Jodhpur, Goa, Mandi, Guwahati, and more. One reason behind this is to increase the number of opportunities made available to students, especially since the engineering domain has observed a few bad years of placements. “Even if start-ups used to attend the placement drives, students used to back off. Therefore, this time, we discussed with the students about whether their priority is getting an offer or getting a higher CTC. Through this discussion, students understood that getting a good offer is more important and thus start-ups are now being welcomed,” said Kala Venkata Uday, associate professor at IIT Mandi.
Addressing the same problem last year, BITS Pilani had hosted a ‘starts-up connect’ where several companies across the world visited the campus and interacted with students for the placement process. “Till last year, many start-ups wanted to hire from our institutes but students were not keen. However, this time, due to the global economic slowdown, we think some students might be interested in joining these new companies. So, we are helping those students connect with them,” said V Ramgopal Rao, group vice chancellor for BITS Pilani.
Students now are more inclined towards joining a start-up, instead of legacy companies, which is also because of the lack of opportunities in some of the sectors. Arihant Singhi, a 23-year-old IIT Guwahati graduate from Mechanical Engineering, chose to opt for a start-up over a legacy company as it provided him with the right kind of opportunities in robotics. “I did an internship with this start-up in 2022, and then the project was so interesting that I continued working with them unofficially — whenever I had time — even after my internship ended. I was planning to pursue a masters degree from the US, and was also accepted at New York University, but my older sister (an engineer) and my uncle (who has been an angel investor at some start-ups) advised me to continue with the start-up and live my dream and pursue a masters degree later. I have never regretted my decision since then,” he said.
However, there are a few students such as Sasank Marthand from IIT Madras who says he would prefer a legacy company over a start-up as he “would give priority to financial stability over the risk associated with startup, unless the concept of startup has high potential and is filling a market gap instead of entering an already established space.”
With this in mind, experts are still advising students to be careful while finalising their decision with these early stage start-ups, especially those who are in dire need of finances to help their families. That being said, professors are encouraging students to opt for start-ups rather than legacy companies as they believe that these companies are fantastic training grounds that can equip an employee for all kinds of challenges and anxieties. “People who experience such highs and lows are associated with developing a keen sense of anticipation and anxiety management and become leaders in future. Therefore, students whose families are financially independent, should certainly enrol in start-ups and gain this experience. As recently mentioned by Deepinder Goyal, founder of Zomato company, this experience could be more rewarding than a two year degree in a management school,” said Prof Lakshmi Narayan Ramasubramanian.
Another reason behind promotion of start-ups at IITs is that “India needs more such companies, especially core related start-ups. We talk about internalisation but that will not be possible without these emerging companies. For example, for ‘Make in India’, we will need those resources and experts within India, which is possible through start-ups,” said Prof Sajan Kapil. However, he also believes that the IIT placement cells should concentrate on big, established, legacy companies and start-ups should seek out students or students should seek out start-ups on their own.
Sanchit Jhunjhunwala, a 26-year-old co-founder of Translead Medtech (a part of M2D2 Laboratory), secured a job at Hindustan Petroleum as part of IIT Guwahati placements in 2020. However, he left the job a year after working at HP and joined a start-up on their pay roll — and later became the co-founder there. “I left because I was always driven towards working at a start-up, I even worked towards building new companies during my Mechanical Engineering days at IIT Guwahati. Some of my colleagues at Hindustan Petroleum sat me down and asked if everything was okay because I was leaving a PSU to join a start-up, but the heart wants what it wants,” Sanchit recalled.
Some professors have also advocated start-ups by pointing out that many students, too, do not end up joining the organisation after accepting the offer. “It’s a two-way road, as sometimes even students do not join the company at the last minute. We do not hold it against the candidates, but we ensure that we are able to help our students if they do not receive a joining letter. In such situations, our alumni community also pull up their socks and come to help the students,” said Prof Balasubramanian Malayappan.
Last year, BITS Pilani had made headlines after the institute publicly admitted to reaching out to their alumni network seeking help for the placement process. Last year, V Ramgopal Rao told indianexpress.com that the institute reached out to nearly 3000 alumni who are currently CEOs in their companies.
The alum network is seen as a huge strength for engineering and management colleges, especially at IITs. Sanchit, too, agreed with the idea of BITS Pilani as he also plans to hire IITians in the future for his start-up, Translead Medtech. “It is not that IITians are superior than the rest, but they are surely talented. As an IITian, I have seen that the skills we gain outside the classroom through student-run clubs or through our interactions with the alum network are very useful and help us in gaining some of the main life skills,” he explained.
(This is a part of 5-part series on IIT placements by indianexpress.com. The first part explained why pre-placement offers (PPO) are gaining popularity, and the second part explained the IIT placement process. Third part talks about the forecast of the 2024-25 placement process. The fourth part is from the students’ perspective on how to prepare for placements, and the last part is about start-ups making their way back to IITs. You can find all IIT Placement related stories here)
"Students prefer being a part of start-ups now because of more opportunities, and faster growth rate," said Prof Balasubramanian Malayappan. (Image: Representative) 
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