Job offers pour in before placement season starts

Three years ago, at NIT-Surathkal, 20 students got pre placement offers, or jobs. This year, as the placement season gets under way in Karnataka's engineering colleges, the number has shot up to 100 at the college.
At MS Ramaiah Institute of Technology (MSRIT), 114 students received offers from companies before the placement sessions started this year, up from 42 in 2012.A preplacement offer is one where a student is offered a job while doing an internship, and gets a stipend from the company .
Lakshman Nandagiri, professor in-charge of training and placement at National Institute of Technology, Surathkal, said students get stipends ranging from Rs 15,000 to Rs 40,000 during the summer internship.
Placement officers say the pre-placement-offer trend started in 2011-12 in Karnataka and has been catching on as companies prefer to recruit students who have interned with them to avoid training them again before hiring them.
Savitha Konna M, head of placement of training at MSRIT, said students gain practical knowledge during internship and both students and the companies understand each other better.Based on students' performance during internship, companies make pre-placement offers, she said.
D Ranganath, dean, placements and training at RVCE, said in 2013 only five companies made pre-placement of fers to 11 students, a number that has gone up to 17 making offers to 45 students this year.
KS Sridhar, dean (placements), PES University , said four companies made offers to 20 students in 2011, while it is 20 this year. At Sri Jayachamarajendra College of Engineering, Mysuru, five to 10 students have been getting offers since 2012.
Pradeep Manjunath , placement officer, said at the PG level, the offers increased 40% in two years.
Pramod Prabhudev, head, career development centre, PES Institute of Technology and Management, Shivamogga, said, “This trend is good for colleges in tier-II cities.“
TIMES VIEW
Getting a job before one finishes one's final exams must be absolutely exhilarating for students, many of whom are from families who take loans to put children through college. Clearly, companies have been benefitting from `reserving' smart students before others come to campus for placements. The rising numbers -from single digits about five years ago to about a 100 -indicate that companies are willing to pay to ensure that bright students will join them. All parties concerned -students, companies and colleges -seem to be winners when it comes to preplacement offers.