Page 44 - Issue 01

CAMPUS RECRUITMENT

IN A PANDEMIC

STRUCK ECONOMY

Lukshya Verma

The legacy built by the alumni and faculty at IGIDR, along with the determination of students facilitated a
successful campus recruitment season amidst an economic slowdown that preceded the pandemic.

During the summer of 2020, as the institute's administration worked hard to build digital infrastructure
and an academic calendar that would ensure students’ academics continued unhampered, the placement
committee at IGIDR faced a different challenge of coordinating with companies that had offered summer
internships. The revised academic calendar had overlapped with the summer internship duration and it

seemed impossible to manage both. However, with the help of concessions from companies and the grit
showed by students, the summer internship program was a success in terms of the record number of
corporate internships and pre-placement offers. But the situation was about to get much more challenging
for the placement committee when it became clear that the pandemic was here to stay and would have a
severe impact on the final recruitment that was supposed to be held later that year.

Challenges of a New Normal

The challenge being faced by the committee
was two-fold. The first was that the economic
slowdown caused many firms to cut back on
recruitment numbers and some even froze
hiring. This was going to have a direct effect

on the institute’s placement statistics. The
other challenge was that the pandemic had
made the existing on-day placement process
obsolete. It had to be replaced by a
completely new process that was to be built
from scratch and had never been tried
before. The rolling placement process, which
is generally followed by most other

institutes, is not feasible for IGIDR due to the
small batch size and the strictly enforced rule

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