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Placements 2013: Startups are the new flavour of the season

The placement rounds are well and truly underway at the IITs, and competing among global giants and MNCs for the plethora of talent available at the premier institutes are local startups with humble beginnings.

Companies like Housing.com, Zomato, Flipkart etc which are themselves headed by individuals who were in college a few years back are now back in the campuses looking at new talent.

Though many startups find it difficult to hire talent in general, let alone from India′s premier institutes, things begin to change once the venture receives a significant amount of external fundings.

Five-year-old Zomato, which has received a funding of $37 million, has been included in the earlier slots of the placement rounds at IIT-Delhi and IIT-Bombay and has offered packages amounting to Rs. 26 lakh.

Housing.com has hired 45 IIT graduates during top slots at campuses in Delhi, Mumbai, Kharagpur and Guwahati.

Even though startups have always had interesting job profiles, the competitive salaries offered by the startups have now made these companies more enticing to the students.

Snapdeal hired 40 students from across IITs last year and are looking to hire about 50 more students this year.

IIT-B has given top slots to Myntra, job site Naukri and Gulf Talent, classifieds website Quickr, and multi-screen gaming platform Snapstick.

In the coming days, cab companies Ola and Meru, algorithmic trading firm iRagecapital, flight ticket booking site ibibo and customized software developer Skiify Solutions are in line to come.