Startups Look For Fresh Blood At Campus Placements

Startups are now commanding a prime spot in the race for campus placements in India. Flipkart, Amazon and Swiggy are reportedly seeking college graduates with a grasp of new technologies  at the country’s engineering and management schools.

ET reported that Quikr, Simplilearn, Droom, Tork Motors and others, have stepped up hiring freshers with an emphasis on data science, product management, design, full stack, iOS and Android development roles. Walmart-owned Flipkart, one of the top recruiters at engineering and B-school campuses, will increase hiring of fresh graduates by 40-50% this year.

“Our campus hires are a very important part of our talent pool as they are groomed to take up important and high-growth projects,” said a Flipkart spokesperson. “We visit the top 15 Bschools and top 25 engineering schools to hire our talent.

Engineering colleges like Indian Institutes of Technology and National Institutes of Technology, and management institutes such as Indian Institutes of Management, Indian School of Business and XLRI are witnessing strong demand for fresh graduates and post-graduates in the current placement season from startups, and the trend is likely to continue in the upcoming season as well.

ET reported that Amazon recruits from India’s leading engineering institutes will continue to form a key part of its talent pool.

“As we expand and grow in the country, talented engineers from these institutes will play an instrumental role,” Raj Kaza, director (talent acquisition), Asia-Pacific and India, Amazon told ET. IITs, IIMs, the Indian School of Business (ISB) and NITs are among the premier schools from which Amazon hires.

Food delivery platform Swiggy is looking at ways to streamline its campus hiring strategy this year as it maintains steady recruitment numbers.

“At our scale and complexity, we need engineers who can understand and improvise with the changing trends in technology,” said Girish Menon, vice president, human resources, Swiggy. “We have hired close to 40 students from numerous engineering campuses across India in 2019. We are looking at a similar number in 2020.”

Despite the challenges of training fresh graduates and giving them adequate time to hit the ground, experts said startups are taking a medium to long-term view. Hiring such candidates is cost effective and allows startups to build their own culture and pipeline of leaders.