APPLICATION FOR THE POST OF DEPUTY PLACEMENT COORDINATOR

PLACEMENT TEAM, IIT MADRAS, 2020-2021

Vennapareddy Abhigna | ME19B059 | 8106734686 | [email protected] | Sarayu 307A | CGPA-9.18

1. My motivation in applying for the post of Deputy Placement Coordinator:

➢ The field of opportunities this post has in its seed attracts me towards applying for it. Working with
such a responsible and professional team will be my pleasure. This post helps me to build a strong
professional life foundation and gradually build upon it.

➢ This team has the ability to provide me with opportunities that hone my acquired skills and apply
the same for the development of team which means the reputation of our institute collectively.

➢ It helps me to expand my knowledge and diversify my skills like communication, management,

quick decision making, and responsibility and so on.

➢ I would get insights about companies and get exposed to placement process which would benefit
me later as well during my placements season.

➢ I would develop my contacts with seniors and companies who would help me with my placements
and internships in future.

➢ It will plant the ocean of confidence that is much needed for freshers like me which helps to stand
still not only in career but life and helps to get through tough days.

➢ We would be highly convinced to see more number of students getting placed. I wanted to challenge
myself to benefit our team and help to increase placements to the upcoming students.

2. Placement process Timeline:

From perspective of →
Students Placements Team Companies
Month of timeline ↓

▪Students attend ▪Organisation of

placement drive for department placement
fundaes from previously drive. ▪Companies send their
April placed seniors. ▪Selection of PC’s and blue book to our
▪Students will get DPC’s. institute.
placement preparation ▪Circulating student
material. preparation material.
▪Students give mock tests ▪WhatsApp (1 for
to increase their efficiency placement teams, 1 each for
for placement tests. BTech and DD) and google
▪Blue book activity
May-June ▪Many will be engaged groups are made in June to
continues.
with internships. be in touch with everyone
▪Students are added in for updates.
WhatsApp and google ▪Mock tests conducted
 groups for further through google class rooms
announcements and for interested peeps (by
updates about placements. IPR team - Pariksha).
▪Preparing department
brochure and IDDD
Robotics brochure (started
last year) to circulate
curriculum among
companies.
▪Company Blue book-
specific feedback from
students on test, PPT,
interview of their placed
company.
▪Design department web
page.
▪In June, compilation of
companies list is done.
▪PC’s are allotted to
students.
▪Calling companies (first
from June 3 tier | new -by
DPC’s, then from mid-June ▪Companies expect and
▪Bunch of students are 2 tier | recruited before few receive calls from
July
allotted to each PC (My PC). years -by PC’s, at last 1 tier placement team (POC)
| frequently recruiting – by for placements.
placement office during July
and August) for placements
and this calling continues
throughout the semester.
▪General body meeting by
Academic Affairs Secretary ▪Companies fill ERF
about placement process. ▪To avoid bias, paid PG form and register on
▪Student registration in scholars are appointed for the portal that is
placement portal with fees verification of resumes. common to students.
of 2000/- after verifying ▪Improper and rejected ▪Companies like FMCG
his backlogs and all if any. resumes are re-verified by does have to pay the
August ▪Submission of their 5 placement team. deposit of 10,000
resumes with 1 master ▪POC pitches for companies rupees whereas PSU’s
resume before deadline of in wish list and tries to need not pay.
8th august (mid-August). convince them and pitching ▪After resume
▪ Wish list -Students that is from last month verification, proper
choose companies that they continues. resumes are short listed
want to open for their and sent to companies.
branch.
▪From mid-September, ▪Invigilation for tests are ▪Companies give their
students start giving their carried out by placement Pre Placement Talks
tests for companies which team. (PPT) - briefly presents
are preceded by PPT’s and ▪Takes care of company about their company.
students have to attend and fulfils its requirements ▪Companies conduct
September-November that too. They attend GD’s if that are registered in the tests.
organised by company. portal. ▪Selected students may
▪Students fill preferences ▪The list of selected be grouped for GD
for Phase-1 placements students in tests are short (Group Discussion) by
interview. listed to companies. some companies.
▪Students should accept or ▪Shortlist for interview is ▪Shortlisted students
 reject a closed PPO within given to the students to for interviews are sent
10 days from the given date allow them book slots for by company to the
that is around 11th or 12th Phase-1 interview. team.
of September. ▪Slots for companies are ▪ISRO company recruits
▪If a student accepts, he is decided by team core. early during November
deregistered from the end.
placement process.
▪In case of open PPO,
student is allowed to sit for
placements till that
company’s session.
▪Two slots (7am-2pm,
4pm-11pm) per day for the
first 4 days and one slot
each for remaining 3 days.
▪Phase-1 placements
▪To avoid offer overlaps, if
▪Receiving company are conducted by
a student is offered in a
delegates and providing companies for students
slot, he is not allowed to sit
them a room for Phase-1 selected in tests and
for upcoming slots but can
placements in Cauvery GD’s.
get multiple offers in the
hostel. ▪Preparation of 3 lists
same slot.
▪Asking companies for after each slot:
▪Student should either
December short list-offered students, ⋄Short list – offered
accept or reject the offer
wait list-offered in case a students list.
(phase-1 Placements within 24 hours [by next
short listed student rejects ⋄Wait list - offered in
morning 11am (for .1 slot)
season: 1/12 – 7/12) and reject list-rejected case a short listed
or 4pm (for .2 slot)].
students after each slot. student rejects.
▪Student is deregistered ⋄Reject list – rejected
▪Quick possible check on
from this process once he is students list.
resumes submitted through
hired by a company.
walk-in booth and giving ▪During walk-ins, HR
▪Walk-ins generally starts them to HR based on given will hunt for few
from 2.2 or day 3- students cut-off in case of walk-ins. resumes and takes
who failed in any of the interview.
intermediate steps are now
allowed to sit for interview,
they submit resumes in
resume walk-in booth.
▪Companies conduct
Phase-2 on random
January-April
▪Students who are not ▪Organisation of Phase-2 days.
(Phase-2 Placement placed in Phase-1 sit for placements for those who ▪Phase-2 companies
Phase-2 placements. didn’t get placed earlier. are mostly start-ups
season)
who cannot afford to
pay much.
Glossary:

➢ Blue book – Given by company to give feedback on that company’s placement process (test, PPT,
interview) by the students placed in that company.
➢ POC | Point Of Contact – Member of placement team who will be in contact with a company from
institute side. Primary POC – core of department, Secondary POC – PC’s of the department.
➢ PPO | Pre Placement Offer – During summer interns, if the company is satisfied by student’s work,
they can offer him which is known as PPO and can be hired without sitting for placements.
➢ PPT | Pre Placement Talk – Presentation about a company given to students before placements
generally before tests to get a brief idea about that company.
➢ ERF | Employers Registration Form – Companies have to fill this form to get registered in the
placement portal.
 ➢ GD | Group Discussion – These are sometimes organised by few companies to further filter the
students for interview.
➢ PSU | Public Sector Undertaking – These are government owned companies like ONGC, NTPC, BHEL,
etc.
➢ FMCG | Fast-Moving Consumer Goods – These companies have products that are sold quickly and at a
relatively low cost like Hindustan Unilever, Dabar, ITC, etc.

Role of administration:

➢ Organising and conducting mock online tests during summer.

➢ Placement Office sends invitation to companies mainly 1-tier companies during July and August.
➢ Maintains student’s registration into the portal after paying fees of 2000/-.
➢ Maintains company’s registration into the portal by deposit of 10,000/- for FMCG’s.
➢ Booking venue for PPT’s, tests, GD’s.
➢ Providing logistics during tests for company’s analysis.
➢ Organising Cauvery hostel for Placements by deposits from companies.
➢ Receiving company delegated during placements of Phase-1 and Phase-2.
➢ Updating the portal and all kinds of list at the end of each slot.
➢ Manages the process of collecting offer letter from company and then receiving acceptance from
students.

My Summer Timeline:

➢ May –
• Take a bit of training for calling companies as it is new for DPC’s so that we can contact
effectively in impressive manner with companies.
• Search for companies that can hire students from IITM.
• Help and support team for required works like brochure, bluebook, etc.
• Map with seniors like PC as secondary contact to take care of when required. As few PC’s were
not in good relation with seniors as per feedback from students that I collected, mapping DPC’s
also at the same time would help. I will try to build strong bond with them so that they will be
comfortable to contact me for help without thinking of age difference.

➢ June –
• Helping PC’s in calling companies and myself dealing with few companies if possible.
• Intimating and reminding seniors about mock tests frequently.
• Helping with student preparation material to reach everyone via PC or me.

➢ July –
• Pitching for companies and helping team whenever required.
• Actively updating information to seniors.
• Ask seniors to complete building their resume as soon as possible because frequent verification
by friends, or PC, or senior before submitting would help to reduce mistakes.

3. Drawbacks of previous placement season:

➢ During May–June: Less number of students giving mock tests thinking there is lot of time.
• Mock tests can be conducted again or can be dragged near the placement tests. Dragging would
not let them get time to know their mistakes and correct them. So, re-conducting them again
would benefit.

➢ During June and July: While calling 3-tier companies and companies for IDDD Robotics; it was difficult
to get in touch with everyone in planned list through LinkedIn.
 • One of our team members or one account can be made for our team itself and can create a
premium account in LinkedIn with the help of others in team. This would help us a lot to
increase the contacts with different companies in later years also, as the same account can be
used. By contacting from this account first, we can later divert to our personal accounts
separately as the company already knows us.

➢ During August: Resume Verification - Major percentage of about 80% resumes is rejected in the first
call adding the point that list of POR’s of students is delayed. They are sent back to the department and
they should call and rectify them again and again.
• We can conduct more resume building sessions and make sure that guidelines are followed
properly. Can have a verification check from mentors or PC if they wish before 1st call of
verification from PG students to reduce possibilities of mistakes. PC’s can keep on reminding
them to follow guidelines by alert messages. We can try to solve this issue by our team’s
increased responsibility and cooperation from students to get everything done on time (like
providing things such as POR list to PG students on time for successful verification).

➢ During August: Companies delay a lot in filling ERF which would result in late registration into the
portal. This would affect later during slotting of tests.
• We can ask companies frequently to fill the form by sending kind reminder messages so that
process starts as soon as possible which would otherwise become hectic for test slotting.

➢ During September-November: Test Slotting - Initially more test slots are available but less companies,
later companies increase and test slots are difficult to compensate.
• Parallel slotting- Two company’s tests for different branches can be conducted at the same time
in different classroom. This is already being followed.

➢ During September-November: Less number of students turned out for PPT’s and placement drives as
attendance is not mandatory. This would affect our insti name if a company comes to give PPT and sees
fewer students.
• If these are conducted a bit far from exams, then students may turn out actively. And PC’s and
DPC’s can frequently stress on its importance so that students can be motivated to attend.

➢ During September-November: Students are not informed about walk-ins(in December), few tests well
in advance. Their timings and venue are not informed by allotted PC’s before exam due to few reasons.
• PC’s should have a responsible check on related messages frequently as they have seniors’ life in
their hands. Increased responsibility by team mainly during tests can come over this issue.
Feedback and suggestions about MY PC can be taken from students that help us to build on it. If
a test is announced at night that it is going to happen in early morning, at least one of our team
members would have seen it. So, they can contact at least one of the other team members and
they can inform to some other and this can go on for immediate forward of message to seniors.
This all works well with coordination and responsibility.

➢ During December: Walk-ins – During placement season as many students login to portal, the
bandwidth is not sufficient and it eventually crashes. So, resumes are given by hand in resume
collection booth during walk-ins. There are high chances of getting tampered resumes. CGPA and
interns may be modified and fake which would later affect reputation of our institute in case of
negligence.
• We can try to increase the connection quality, then we can have online walk-ins. Or we can ask
companies to give wait list for intermediate steps as well which can be used instead of walk-ins
 later if required. This would reduce the number of requests for walk-ins from companies. And
due to less number, we can try to have a proper check on resumes.

➢ During December: Resume pushing – DPC’s may be in a trouble where their most supportive seniors
for these many days would ask to show their resume to HR and ask for an interview which is wrong but
even DPC cannot say anything as he helped for these many days in insti.
• If it is really a serious issue, then we can end up keeping notices around the place that if caught
by resume pushing then that student is not allowed to sit for interviews in that particular slot or
day (if it is even more concerning issue). And DPC can be punished by giving an extra schedule
of work than normal if caught. This may control the situation a bit.

➢ During December: ▪Actually companies have to release offer list by the end of slot or after completion
of their interview program, but if a company liked a person, then they stalled the candidate so that he
will not get a chance to sit for any other company in that slot.
▪And a candidate is allowed to get multiple offers in a slot. At last, he will end up choosing one of them
which means the other offers are wasted and would benefit others.

➢ During placements: New initiative to deposit an amount of 10,000/- by companies for placement
process was taken due to which start-up companies (especially for IDDD Robotics) were not ready to
come to IITM for recruitment process.

4. Credentials and References:

➢ Student Relations Coordinator - MEA 2019-20.
• Ananyananda Dasari - MEA secretary 2019-20 | 9640753901
• Radha Krishna Jalamanchili - MEA secretary 2019-20 | 9940123308

[ME]
1. Pitch:
We have to do enough investigation about the company, its profile, it’s potential to recruit from our
college and then we should be ready with our pitch points. We should search for that company’s contact from
LinkedIn or Profs or seniors and then give our impressive speech to attract them. If he is interested, we can ask
for personal contact instead of following the process from receptionist or manager again. And end kindly by
saying that we will be looking forward for a long lasting relationship with that company and waiting for their
earliest reply.

We can start the pitch with salutation and then delivering following points to the company:

➢ For normal companies:

• We are talking from mechanical placement team IIT Madras. It is indeed with great pleasure we
cordially invite your company to participate in our campus placement programme to hire
students graduating in 2021.
• Our college is one of the most prestigious institutions in the world for research in engineering
and sciences and mechanical engineering is one of the oldest and recognised branches in the
campus. It offers cream of talent in the country.
 • We have excellent laboratory facilities, workshops and has among the finest faculty members in
any educational and research institute.
• In addition to teaching UG and graduate students, the faculty of our branch pursues research
through graduate students. We got MTech, MS, PhD, Dual Degree students working under profs
for research.
• Our students have done their specialisation in courses like CNC and AC, Microprocessors in
Automation, Modelling and Simulation in Manufacturing, Sensors in IM, Principles of Product
Design, Advanced materials, Numerical methods in Thermal engg, Theory of vibrations, FEA and
so on.
• Our students have done their internships in top companies like Caterpillar, Bajaj, EATON, GE,
Shree Cement and many got PPO as well.
• Few of them even did sem exchange with Germany and performed extremely well.
• Our campus has a centre for innovation where students develop and compete with students
world-wide with their own innovative ideas like Raftar, Anveshak, Hyperloop and all. Our
branch students are a great part of that.
• Our students have also done various POR’s increasing their professional and soft skills.
• Mercedes Benz, Wipro, Flipkart, Tata Consultancy, Gulf Oil Lubricants India Ltd, Citibank,
McKinsey & Company, ZS Associates, ANZ, Ola are among the many leading companies visiting
our campus for recruitment.
• Our students are interested in your company. So, we would like to invite you to our college and
we are looking forward to a mutual beneficial relationship with your company.

➢ For IDDD Robotics:

• We are talking from mechanical placement team IIT Madras. It is indeed with great pleasure we
cordially invite your company to participate in our campus placement programme to hire
students graduating in 2021.
• Our college is one of the most prestigious institutions in the world for research in engineering
and sciences and mechanical engineering is one of the oldest and recognised branches in the
campus. It offers cream of talent in the country.
• As you might have already heard our campus initiated a new programme of IDDD Robotics.
IITM has faculty working in the area of robotics spread across various departments. Since no
single department has the critical mass to offer a dual degree program in Robotics, an
interdisciplinary dual degree program is proposed.
• Our students graduating with a dual degree in Robotics have specialised in Basic robotic
technologies used across various applications; Kinematics, dynamics, and control of Industrial
and field/service robots; Sensing, perception, planning, and control applied to autonomous
robots; Application of Artificial Intelligence, Neural Networks and Reinforcement learning in
Robotics; Hardware systems and controllers used in robotics; Design of robotic systems for new
applications.
• As hands-on experience is vital component in learning about robotics, the laboratory
experiments proposed gave practical exposure on various types of robots and their design,
programming and control to our students.
• Laboratory experiments done by our students of IDDD Robotics are on surgical robots, aerial
robots, underwater robots, wheeled mobile robots, parallel manipulators, serial manipulators,
sensors and actuators, robotic vision system, robot calibration.
• The structure and curriculum for the IDDD Robotics have been formulated with the objective of
leveraging on the academic strengths of each dept to ensure the true interdisciplinary nature of
the programme.
 • Our students are a part of many workshops like ibot and also part of CFI where students
develop and compete with students world-wide with their own innovative ideas like Raftar,
Anveshak, Hyperloop and all. They have also done various POR’s increasing their professional
and soft skills.
• Our students are interested in your company. So, we would like to invite you to our college and
we are looking forward to a mutual beneficial relationship with your company.

2. IDDD Robotics:
Working of last year’s team -

➢ IDDD stands for Interdisciplinary Dual Degree. This IDDD in Robotics is proposed recently.
➢ As this is new to handle, team tried their level best to be efficient but didn’t succeed.
➢ They first tried to take the help of a prof from ED department but couldn’t benefit much as they
were unable to reach to him when needed as he is a very busy person.
➢ Then started searching companies through LinkedIn. As most companies are start-ups it was
difficult to get companies. Though found a company in LinkedIn, finding the contact of required
person (manager) was difficult. Premium account would benefit a lot to reach to more number
of companies.
➢ Took help of students, asked for feedback and data they know about any companies (kind of
wish list) or contacts. They listed about 20-25 companies but none came as it was first time.
➢ Even though got few companies in hand, there were many other problems. As most of the
robotic specific companies were start-ups, the initiative of deposit of 10000/- i.e., company
funding was not comfortable for them. This resulted in loss of few companies who were ready to
come before.
➢ These start-ups would look for maximum skills with minimum salary. So, they were not
interested to come to IITM, as they were in a perception that our students with good skills have
to be given high salaries.
➢ Only thing that team had about this is only its brochure; exact info about IDDD Robotics was
missing and not aware, so the pitch points were not so effective.

Suggestions to improve –

➢ We can create a LinkedIn premium account once and the same account can be used every year
as our department’s account instead of accessing through personal accounts. We can later divert
the companies to our personal accounts once we get them through main account.
➢ Can take data about it for pitch points from more students and should try to surf in net. Need to
follow profs, that is the only way where we can get standard companies. We need to follow profs
with patience from long time before interviews to get their contacts. We can contact seniors
who passed out for company contacts. We can even try to approach alumni.
➢ Number of students is limited to 25, and in that also only 22 to 23 students sat for placements.
Increase in this number would encourage the companies to some extent as they would get at
least few students for their company. As these students can sit for other placements as well,
they may not face a problem that they will not get placed if they won’t consider these
companies. Few students were not interested in these jobs as they would expect less salary than
other company that he can sit for. So, we should try to get to know more companies that are old
rather than new companies.
➢ Many companies opened for IDDD Data Science. So, we can check if the companies that are
opened for other IDDD programme can be opened for Robotics also.
➢ Few companies that would help if you missed them: (I mentioned at the end of Annexure; have a
look there).
Bonus Question:
1. Help from my side to the graduating students during the process:

➢ First I would try to build a good relation with the seniors sitting for placements so that they would feel
comfortable to contact me for any queries or requirements without thinking of age difference. This will
help to increase my communication skills as well.
➢ I would generally be able to contact seniors during exams or interviews. Normal time PC’s are allotted
for them. But I will take initiative to take care of students and talk to them even though I’m not
appointed for it.
➢ During exams, I would make sure that they will not face problem about invigilation. And also would
transfer the message to required person soon if there are any technical issues faced by them.
➢ For PPT’s, I will try to make them attend it by saying its importance. If they are not at all ready to
attend, I’ll attend the PPT by myself and will later brief to them the important points if any. This would
save their time.
➢ During interviews, I will make sure that I attend to all problems of students patiently. I’ll help them in
each stage and will try to make sure that no one is feeling biased with respect to interview order as
there were complaints in the past in feedback collected by me.
➢ I will try to increase the number of students in waitlist as this may benefit few students later.
➢ Some seniors may not like asking help from me as I am a junior to them. I’ll try to the fullest to make
them feel free first. When it comes to problems like situations where they need someone to talk or
council, then age doesn’t matter there. I would stand first to give my helping hand. I would make them
feel that they can share with me and I’ll not let others know if they don’t want. This would give them a
relief.
➢ I would remind them of resume building from quite before by saying the problems faced by last year
graduates. I will guide them at every stage by describing problems faced by previous graduated
students as now I know few seniors and their problems this time that they faced during placements. As
I personally saw them, I would be able to describe effectively to the students then and take care that the
same problems don’t arise.
➢ I would appreciate them for every small work; this will help to boost their confidence level and would
perform well in further tasks and interviews.
➢ For students who had less CGPA, I will encourage them to write more number of mock tests. By slowly
appreciating, I’ll make them find their issues and rectify them as this is very important for them to get
placed. I will take care of them in a way that I am the only responsible person for him because this
would help me even to work efficiently for them.

Annexure:
▪ Feedback collected from students who sat for placements this year (this is because we are
student centric and work for student satisfaction, it is important for us to know):

➢ No attendance criterion for PPT’s was good. They felt relief as they have many other works in their
final year. But attendance turnover was less than 50%.
➢ Pariksha tests were good initiative. They are expecting for core mock tests also like non-core
conducted by IPR.
➢ Resume sessions were good and decently helpful. Resume verification process was decent; though
slight difficulties in verifying few points but they felt it fine as they can understand the effort.
➢ Misinformation regarding resume deadlines.
 ➢ PC contact was quite irregular. Communication about tests and stuff was not proper and they had to
gather data from other sources.
➢ Preparation material didn’t reach everyone.
➢ Tests standard was good but were not conducted on time. They were always delayed and
sometimes cancelled which wasted lot of their time. Invigilation can be improved.
➢ Wi-Fi was not working some times during exams. They were using hotspot and wrote exams. And
for few websites hotspot didn’t work, this made them to wait a lot due to improper check on Wi-Fi.
➢ Repeated tests conducted for same companies and some companies who conducted tests didn’t
consider the test score later. They felt that this could be avoided. Test results were announced late
which would otherwise give them more time for interview preparation.
➢ They need clarity whether a company has PPT or not as time delays were caused by many
companies by putting a PPT suddenly.
➢ “Interview process was excellent. The core and coords were extremely helpful and I’m personally
impressed by how cordial and polite they were even though they were working so much. Handled it
very well.” This is said by one of the placed students.
➢ They expected companies for IDDD Robotics. So they were a bit upset for no company turning up.
➢ Biased ordering for interviews; said by some.
➢ Few POC’s were a bit irresponsible for some companies.
➢ Announcement about walk-ins was only through WhatsApp and many missed it. They want this
process to be transparent as they want to know on what criterion a company is asking for walk-ins
and they doubted that few companies asked for walk-ins even before completion of waitlist.

▪ IDDD Robotics:

When I went through LinkedIn in search of companies, I noticed that our alumni are working in quite
good number of robotics companies. So, we can contact with the help of our alumni if possible.

Few potential recruiters who look for students with knowledge of robotics:

➢ EATON CORPORATION
➢ BOSCH
➢ TCS INNOVATION LABS
➢ TITAN
➢ ABB ROBOTICS
➢ KAWASAKI ROBOTICS
➢ PARI ROBOTICS
➢ DRDO
➢ CSIR
➢ SYSTEMANTICS
➢ HITECH ROBOTICS
➢ STRYKER
➢ SNAPHUNT – Robotics Engineer | https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/1799952458
➢ CIEL – Robotics Engineer | https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/1818162201
➢ DRISHTI – Robotics Software Engineer | https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/1811563935