For one National Institute of Technology (NIT) student, cracking Oracle after six failed placement attempts felt like life finally turning around. His family celebrated. Relatives were informed. After months of uncertainty during a difficult campus hiring season, he believed his future was secure.

Then came a phone call that changed everything.

The student, who requested anonymity, is among several engineering graduates across IITs and NITs whose offers from Oracle were recently revoked, throwing their careers into uncertainty at a time when the technology job market is already under pressure from layoffs, AI-led restructuring and slower hiring.

“A person who was not being selected anywhere suddenly had the best placement in college,” the student told Business Today. “I was not expecting to crack Oracle, but when I did, my family was very happy.”

Must read: Oracle revokes placement offers, IIT Kanpur fresher says he 'hit rock bottom right at the finish line'

The student said he cleared three rounds of interviews before receiving the offer in October alongside three of his batchmates.

Another student, Smit Jogani from an NIT, described a similar experience. Jogani interned for two months with Oracle’s Corporate Architecture division in 2025 and waited nearly a year for clarity on his pre-placement offer.

During that period, the division was dissolved, and he was moved to Oracle Health and AI (OHAI), the company’s healthcare infrastructure unit. 

By early January, while batchmates placed in other Oracle divisions had started receiving offer letters and background verification emails, Jogani said he only received an email asking him to begin the application process after receiving offer confirmation. Business Today has reviewed the email sent to the student.

‘I was blank’

Around May 12-13, students said they were informed that their offers had been revoked.

“There was a sense of disappointment as well as panic, because at that time I was not aware of what we had to do,” the NIT student said. “It was just like drowning in the middle of the sea without any help.”

Jogani said the development, while not entirely unexpected, still left him shocked.

“Deep down, I knew that my offer was going to be revoked,” he said. “But when it happened, I was blank. I can't do anything. I was helpless.”

According to Jogani, Oracle selected 25 interns from his institute and later revoked offers for 22 of them. Separately, six students were hired through campus placements, and only his offer was withdrawn because the OHAI unit was being wound down.

The revocations come as global technology companies continue restructuring operations amid economic uncertainty and rapid AI adoption. Companies including Meta, Amazon and Cognizant have announced workforce cuts or hiring recalibrations over the past year.

Must read: Meta to lay off 8,000 employees on May 20; Internal memo reveals AI restructuring plans

‘One Student, One Job’

For many affected students, the situation became worse because they had already exited the placement process after accepting Oracle’s offer.

Several IITs and NITs follow a “One Student, One Job” policy, under which students who secure a placement are barred from applying to additional companies through campus recruitment.

That meant Oracle became their final opportunity during an already weak hiring cycle.

“One question has been stuck in my mind,” Jogani said. “If they didn't want to give us an offer, then why did they give the offer in the first place?”

“If they were getting rid of OHAI, then why put us in that business unit at all? They should have rejected us and said, ‘We won't be able to give you a PPO (pre-placement offer) best of luck.’ Then I could have tried in other companies. I would have got some other offer for sure.”

“But instead, they chose to do this thing,” he added.

Must read: What is Oracle? History of the US software giant facing backlash after IIT, NIT offer pullbacks

From Rs 36 LPA dreams to restarting the search

Students who once expected compensation packages of Rs 30–36 lakh per annum (LPA) are now re-entering the market at significantly lower salary expectations.

“I don't have any option,” the NIT student said. “It's a compulsion rather than a choice.”

Jogani said the setback has also created financial pressure at home. His family is repaying a home loan, and he had expected to contribute substantially using his Oracle salary package.

Now, he is applying for jobs in the Rs 12-15 lakh range, while acknowledging that freshers currently have little bargaining power.

The broader hiring environment has remained weak throughout their engineering years, the students said. Jogani added that geopolitical tensions in West Asia and global macroeconomic uncertainty further slowed hiring activity, reducing openings and making recruiters more selective about skills and experience.

The result, students say, is a campus ecosystem increasingly defined by delayed onboarding, shrinking opportunities and revoked offers, a sharp contrast to the booming tech hiring cycle many expected when they entered engineering college.