Chennai: Indian Institute of Technology Madras recorded an increase of 32 percent in internship offers received on day 1 of campus internship drive for students of the 2022-23 batch. The drive was held in two sessions on August 6 and 13. For the first time, the internship drive was conducted in hybrid mode with both in-person and online interviews. This enabled a student to participate in the internship drive from Canada.
On day 1 of the internship drive, 15 International internship offers were received from seven companies while the institute registered a 48 percent increase in the number of students who secured an internship. Also, there was 28 percent increase in the number of companies that visited IIT Madras for internship.
Highlighting the importance of internships, Prof P. Murugavel, Advisor (Internship), IIT Madras, said, "A professional internship is an integral part of students’ careers where they get an opportunity to apply and fine-tune the skills they have learned. With companies shifting to an internship-based hiring model, it is also important for students to secure Pre-Placement Offers (PPOs) through the internship program.”
Prof Murugavel said that this year, the internship interviews are being conducted in a hybrid mode as opposed to the fully virtual process last year. The international internship offers came for profiles in the US, UK, Hong Kong, Singapore, and The Netherlands. Of the total 37 companies that participated in Day One sessions of the Internship Drive, 13 companies conducted the interviews in physical mode while another 24 conducted interviews completely online.
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Students could also attend the process remotely with one student attending from Canada. The top recruiters in terms of internship offers include Texas Instruments (40 offers), American Express (20 offers), Boston Consulting Group (17), and Goldman Sachs (16 Offers). Highlighting the efforts of IIT Madras student team in coordinating the internship drive, T B Ramkamal, Student Academic Affairs Secretary said,
“It was a unique challenge to host the hybrid internship drive with companies coming in both virtually and on campus. The unwavering support offered by the institute administration and the guidance provided by our faculty advisor helped the team see the process through this year, resulting in a meteoric rise in the number of offers made and subsequently the students placed on Day 1.”
Nikhil Pai, Student Internship Head, IIT Madras, said, “The Internship Team planned in advance to target specific sectors and bring in new companies to bridge the supply-demand between companies and students. This resulted in an increase in the number of students getting internships. A special focus was placed on international firms in order to get better exposure to students.”
Sharing their experience of getting internships, Abdullah Mohammed, an IIT Madras student who secured an international internship offer at Tower Research Capital LLC during the Internship Drive, said, “The internship drive this year presented a much wider range of opportunities for aspirants. With sectors such as quantitative finance and scientific computing gaining traction among students in recent times, the internship team did a fantastic job of on-boarding more firms this year to satiate the needs of the student community.”
Mevit Mathew, another IIT Madras student who secured an internship offer at Bain and Company, said, “Having never been exposed to a hybrid mode of recruitment, the induction of the students into the process felt seamless. The process was made more accessible and inclusive by the institute than ever, owing to the new policies drafted this year and practices followed.”
