#Coronaconcerns: Corporates retract campus placements amid global economic crisis

The global economic crisis due to the coronavirus pandemic is unprecedented, given that it has affected small and large enterprises and people across socio-economic strata. In the corporate sector, for instance, employees are looking at job losses, pay cuts and furloughs, as companies deal with the massive fall in revenue. Recruitments are always the first to be frozen in times of a financial crunch.This time around, it comes at an inopportune moment for the student population, many of who were on the cusp of a professional journey, having cleared campus selection processes, only to now be told that the offers stand cancelled.
CAMPUS PLACEMENTS ON HOLD DESPITE HRD MINISTRY AND INSTITUTION REQUESTS
In early April, HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank appealed to companies to not withdraw job offers made during campus placements due to the current economic downturn. Days later, the director of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Jodhpur, Professor Santanu Choudhary wrote an open letter to companies, imploring them to not cancel or freeze hiring in their respective companies for students from IIT’s different branches.
But that, it would seem, has not deterred MNCs from withdrawing offers, with rejection letters sent out as recent as this week.
STUDENTS WITH CONFIRMED OFFERS HAD NO BACKUP PLAN
Arjani Roy (named changed) a multimedia journalism student from a Bengaluru-based journalism institute was one of eight from her batch chosen by an international news agency. The prospect was so alluring that she let go of an opportunity to work with an English daily newspaper. “On April 13, the news agency decided against hiring me, giving no explanation and leaving me with no backup plan in the current atmosphere,” she says. Shreya Mishra, who is graduating from the Bengaluru-based Symbiosis Institute of Management, and 15 of her classmates, all of who were hired by a tech firm in March, were given rejection letters after the pandemic broke out.
COMPANIES STATE LACK OF REVENUE AS REASON
Kunvarjit Singh, a mechanical engineering student from Delhi Technology University, was expecting a postponement in his joining date or a renewed offer with lesser pay. “What I got was a termination letter. When I discussed this with the HR department, I was told it was because of a lack of revenue at the time.”
ALUMNI, SOCIAL CONNECTIONS TRY TO HELP
Graduating students from different branches of the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) are now posting their profiles and resumes on LinkedIn, which are being shared by their teachers, seniors, friends and classmates to increase visibility and the prospect of a job. “One of my students was to move to Mumbai, to join an event management firm. But when she couldn’t travel owing to the lockdown, they terminated the offer. I have been spreading word about my students in my circles, as a word-of-mouth from a trusted source could work to their benefit,” says Kolkata-based Arghyadeep Banerjee, who teaches marketing in the media studies department at Ashutosh College, Kolkata.