IIT Deferred Placements – the new trend at engineering colleges

IIT Deferred Placements – the new trend at engineering colleges

Moving on the lines of the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs), the concept of deferred placement is fast picking up trend at the Indian Institutes of technology (IITs). Started just two years back, the IITs are now encouraging students to develop their ideas and follow their passion. The proof of the pudding lies in the fact that this year in IIT Bombay as many as 13 students applied for deferred placement which is a huge gain from last year wherein only one student applied for deferral of placement.

However, this new option isn’t only being offered at IIT Bombay, other IITs such as IIT Madras as well as IIT Kanpur are considering the introduction of deferred placement at their campuses from this year onwards. On the other hand, IIT Guwahati’s placement cell which received just 3-4 applications for deferred placement last year is expecting around eight students to apply for deferral of placement this year.

So what exactly is deferred placement?

The initial idea of offering deferral of placement was to provide students with an option to postpone their placement by a year or two in pursuit of an entrepreneurial activity. However, here entrepreneurial activity is not limited to start ups, it includes other features as well.

Mohak Mehta, IIT Bombay's placement manager shares, “If you do not allow deferred placements students would not be able to try their hands at what they want to do. Typically, earlier what used to happen was students were afraid of trying out these things because they felt they would miss their opportunity of sitting in placements and later on they would find it difficult to get a job off-campus”.

Deferred placement: The process

At the IITs, students have to submit an application addressed to their respective placement cell heads. The selected students can work on their ideas, establish their startups, go and research whatever they are interested in and then figure out if their idea is worth a full-time job or not.

Mohak explains this by saying, “If someone applies for deferral in 2014, that person would graduate in 2015. Between 2015 and 2016 we give them one year to try out their venture after which they can come back and sit in the campus placement for the year 2016-2017, in case they feel they are not happy doing what they are doing”. He further adds, “So, deferred placement is a Plan B for them, it is a safety net. It is important so that students do not give up their interest or something they are passionate about just because they won’t get a chance to sit for placements later or get a job off-campus”.

Types of deferred placement

Broadly there are three types of deferral of placement:

1. Entrepreneurship: typically involves working on establishing a start-up
2. Social: working for a social cause
3. Research: involves conducting research work

This year, IIT Bombay got 15 applications for deferrals out of which the institute is giving deferrals to 11 of the applicants. Out of these 11, four student projects fall under the entrepreneurship category of deferral of placement, whereas social and research categories have five and two approvals each.

Officials at the placement cell of IIT Madras shared that 15-20 students of the institute are interested in startups but the authorities are still going through their applications to decide if they will be allowed deferred placement or not.

Selection Process

Officials in the placement cell at IITs share that there are no objective criteria for selection. There are subjective criteria on the basis of which a student’s application is selected for deferred placement. Authorities also shared that in order to get the go-ahead for deferred placement; students should make their applications strong enough and convincing enough.

Abhijit Patil, a mechanical engineering student of IIT Bombay shared how he got selected for deferred placement.

To understand this better, student representative at IIT Bombay’s placement, Mohak Mehta explains this with an example that, “There is a society called SINE which stands for Society for Innovation and Entrepreneurship in IIT Bombay. Many IIT-Bombay startups are incubated over here. There are faculty in-charges there and many students get letter of recommendation from them”. He further shares, “Students who get letter of recommendation from credible people tend to make their case strong because they have to convince the placement cell that they are really passionate about something for which they are applying a deferral and they also have to prove that they have been working in this direction”.

Mohak further shares that one of the students who has been offered deferred placement this year “had been working closely with the biomedics professor at IIT Bombay and he is researching on product innovation. He applied for deferral and got a letter of recommendation from this professor so that makes the deferral kind of credible”.

He further said, “Two years back there was a startup called Housing.com that was initiated by IIT Bombay alumni. It started from IIT Bombay campus and now has an office in Hiranandani. And after a year they came back to our campus and recruited. So, this is the benefit of deferred placement, which gives students a chance to believe that they can also start something of their own and be successful”.

So, as per placement officers at the IITs, deferred placement is a good way to help students pursue things that they truly believe in. In addition to this, such an initiative helps boost the image of the institute as well. Mohak elaborated on the same saying, “At IIT Bombay, we are working in such a way that in the longer run rather than offering jobs we are able to pump jobs in the economy. Our vision is not only to help people get jobs but also to help people create jobs”. Click here to read a student's experience of opting for deferred placement.

So, in the long run through deferral of placement not only will educational institutes guide and help students to work on innovations and follow their dream but also help give the much needed boost to our economy in terms of job generation.