They say once you get into an Indian Institute of Technology, half your life is made. After all, who wouldn’t want to employ a student from one of the world’s best engineering institutes?Much to their dismay, Batch 2003 of IIT Powai, outside Mumbai, has learnt the answer to that one.With campus placement officially closing in two weeks, nearly 50 per cent of the students are still jobless. There’s more: a handful of students from last year remain unemployed.Understandably, the otherwise calm, soothingly sylvan campus of IIT Powai now has a palpable tinge of tension. Anxious students are waiting to know the results of their latest round of interview or GD (group discussion).‘‘The situation is scary and disappointing but after the bad job scenario last year, we were expecting this,’’ says a sombre Prashant Mali, an electrical engineering student.Last year’s recession hit IIT Powai hard, with only 53 pc campus placements. While many of the remaining students went abroad for higher studies, a larger number was left behind to fend for themselves. Even today, some are desperately seeking jobs, while working on projects within IIT.‘‘In boom times, companies used to pick up students at the drop of a hat. But now there are several rounds of interviews and group discussions,’’ says N.S. Rathi, assistant placement officer at IIT Powai. To ensure that all the students get jobs, IIT has changed its placement policy. Once a student gets an offer, he is allowed to try for only two more companies. This is likely to be converted to a one-student-one-job policy from next year, adds Rathi. The deans of all IITs are meeting on May 9 to pass a resolution to this effect.Two years ago, when there was 95 pc placement and nearly everyone had two jobs in hand, hardly any students stayed back for teaching or research assistantship. But from last year’s batch, there have been two-three TAs or RAs per department.Ajay Poddar (name changed), a chemical engineering student of the 2002 batch, has ‘‘unofficially’’ been assisting a professor for almost a year while job-hunting all the while. The job void hasn’t spared top-rankers either. M. Tech student Dinkar Vasudevan is smart, well-spoken and stood third in the electrical engineering department. Though companies are expected to trickle in till April-May, Vasudevan and his batchmates have started exploring other options — finding a job on their own or further studies. Those looking for out-of-campus jobs but aren’t enthusiastic because it reduces their bargaining power.Prospects for one-third of the students who applied for higher studies abroad also appear grim. In the last two years, funding for masters programmes in the US and UK has been curtailed considerably.
