770 JU students get job offers, 85 firms continue to recruit despite COVID-19 outbreak effects

At least 85 firms, both Indian and MNCs, from various segments have made job offers to students of the Jadavpur University (JU) and the novel coronavirus outbreak has not affected the ongoing placement drive so far, an official of the institute said on Friday.

The placement drive in JU had begun in August last year. The maximum salary offered so far is Rs 58 lakh per annum, up from the apex offer of Rs 42 lakh per annum in the previous placement drive, the JU placement cell official said. A total of four students have got job offers of more than Rs 50 lakh, she said.

Eighty four per cent placement has been achieved so far, the official said. A total of 770 students from both undergraduate and post-graduate engineering streams have got job offers, she said. The recruiters are from a wide range of sectors ranging from banking, engineering and FMCG to pharmaceuticals, the official said.

Some of the recruiters are Texas Instruments, Coca Cola, Cipla, Airbus, CESC Ltd, Mercedes Benz, Citi Bank, ADB, Siemens and HSBC, she said. "We have not seen any noticeable change in the behaviour of the recruiters in the wake of the pandemic and the lockdown. We hope it will remain as such," she said.

Four big firms have already taken interviews of students during the lockdown period and made good offers while two more will pitch in with offers in the coming days, the official said. Asked about a report claiming that a US-based analytics consultancy firm has backed out after offering jobs to 12 students, JU Pro-VC Chiranjib Bhattacharya said, "That is not the correct picture. Our placement record this year is even better than many IITs. The novel coronavirus outbreak has not made any impact on the recruitment drive in JU till now." The official hinted at the US-based firm only putting the recruitment process on hold for the time being.