Placement day at IITs is a spectacle. Students don formal suits and anxiously await interview calls. Some companies conduct multiple rounds on the same day, leaving little time for rest. “It’s mentally exhausting but exhilarating,” says an IIT BHU student, who secured a top offer in a product management role.
Beneath the efforts, lies relentless preparation, sleepless nights, and emotional endurance.
For many, placement preparation begins months in advance. Utkarsh Gupta, a final-year student at IIT Kanpur, recalls how he balanced coursework with rigorous preparation. “I worked on case studies and data analysis projects while keeping up with academic deadlines,” said Gupta. He also completed research projects with professors from Harvard Business School and IIM Ahmedabad to learn data science skills. “I aim to bag a coveted management consulting and product management role to leverage my data science skills to solve real-world problems,” he said.
Harika Chittiboina, an IIT Madras alumnus, placed in Accenture in Japan, worked on multiple projects with the professors to get an extra edge. “I never went back home during winter or summer breaks as I was busy pursuing several projects under professors and internships to boost my CV,” she told indianexpress.com.
Preparation often involves mock interviews and group discussions. Team Pragati from IIT Madras, a student collective, organises sessions where seniors simulate interview scenarios. A student who is sitting for the placement season this year says: “During my mock interview, a senior asked me to present a pitch for my start-up that I had founded. It helped me refine my responses for the actual interview round.”
One of the most defining aspects of the placement preparation, Dhananjay Kharat, an IIT-B alumnus who works in Tata AIA Life Insurance said, was the mock interviews, particularly those with friend and colleague Akash Srivastava. “Despite knowing the answers, I often struggled to present them. Akash played a crucial role in refining my responses, providing constructive feedback, and helping me build confidence,” he added. Read More
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