This year’s campus placement season has been challenging, with hiring momentum slowing due to global economic and geopolitical uncertainties

Placement figures are pouring in from B-schools and engineering colleges across the country. Based on who you talk to, you will hear a different story. For instance, Mumbai’s SP Jain Institute of Management and Research (SPJIMR), which concluded placements for its 2023-25 batch in January says it has achieved 100 per cent placements for its largest-ever batch of 336 participants.

IIM Ahmedabad, which completed its final placement process for the MBA Class of 2025 recently, said firms from multiple domains participated across the three clusters of placements, and all students across 30 cohorts were placed. Prof. Viswanath Pingali, Chairperson of the Placement Committee at IIMA, said, “Amidst the current volatile state of the geopolitical environment, we expected strong headwinds for this year’s placement season. However, corporates showed faith in IIMA as usual.”

Not so cheerful is the tidings from ICFAI Business School in Hyderabad. “Placements as on date are the same number as last year in general. Most companies are on a wait-and-watch mode. Although there has not been any reduction in recruitments from companies, the selection process has become very stringent. We hope to complete placements by the end of April,’‘ said a senior functionary of the institute.

At the Sona College of Technology in Salem, 57.2 per cent of the batch had been placed by January 31. The institute had offers from Zscaler, CISCO, Dassault Systems, among others.

Krishna Vij, VP, TeamLease Digital, says, “This year’s campus placement season has been challenging, with hiring momentum slowing due to global economic and geopolitical uncertainties. Companies, especially in the technology sector, are adopting cautious hiring strategies, focusing on profitability and niche skill-sets rather than bulk hiring.”

S Pasupathi, COO, HirePro, an AI recruitment automation firm, says, “This year’s placement season has been marked by a cautious approach from IT services firms, with hiring slowing down due to a wait-and-watch strategy. However, with IT services expected to remain strong for the next seven-eight months, we anticipate positive hiring trends for FY26-27.

Up or down?

Are placements going up or down? Bhishm Chugani, Director for Career Services, SPJIMR, puts things in perspective when he says, “Sometimes the placements don’t reflect the economic conditions, especially in the top B-schools in the country.”

As he explains, “For hiring hundreds of thousands (of candidates), it may go up or down, but for hiring 20-30 management trainees across B-schools, companies will continue to do it, even if the economy goes up or down. Placements, therefore, sometimes don’t vary so much because the top conglomerates will still hire for their management development. It’s a programme-driven thing.”

Have the hirers changed? Chugani says, “We did see a little territory being ceded by the FMCG industry. FMCG as a whole took a little fewer numbers as opposed to the previous years. And consulting took a few more this year as opposed to the previous years.”

At ICFAI, the spokesperson said, “It is observed that placements are down 10 per cent from IT companies overall, but have been made up by other sectors.”

According to B. Sarvanan, Director - Placement, Sona College, hot sectors when it comes to campus hiring are digital manufacturing (industry 4.0), IT product development, embedded systems & VLSI, design & rebar detailing, data engineering and supply chain management.

TeamLease Digital’s Vij points out that while institutions are under pressure to maintain 100 per cent placement records, students with in-demand skills continue to find opportunities in emerging sectors such as green energy, fintech and global capability centres.

Compensation packages

Salaries seem to have maintained their levels of last year. At SPJIMR, this year, the average annual salary/cost-to-company (CTC) was ₹32 lakh per annum, reports the institute. Over 53 per cent of the batch received offers above ₹30 lakh per annum, and over 90 per cent received offers above ₹25 lakh. The median annual salary was ₹30.50 lakh per annum, which was comparable to last year. This trend varies across B-schools.

According to Sona College’s Sarvanan, some new trends in fresher hiring observed include more focus on diversity and inclusion, virtual hiring and AI-based recruitment.

With inputs from Janaki Krishnan, Aishwarya Kumar, Naga Sridhar

Published on February 17, 2025