US firms send ‘regret’ letters to IIT techies

Kolkata: For the first time in the history of IIT-Kharagpur, the country’s oldest IIT, 12 of its students have got ‘regret’ letters from three top US IT firms. The unprecedented blow has left the students and faculty shell-shocked.

During campus placements in January this year, US technology firms Montolova, Magma Design Automation and Paradigm had picked the 12 students (from the electrical, electronics, IT and computer science departments) and given them offer letters. The pay package was more than Rs 7 lakh per annum, besides incentives and perks.

The students gave their “notes of acceptance” and all that remained was the joining letters. After months of waiting, what they got were ‘regret’ letters in September, saying they “cannot be taken because of internal re-organizing”. The batch has recently got their B Tech degrees.

“When we got the campus offers we were elated. We were waiting impatiently for the day when we would fly to the US. We weren’t worried when the letters were delayed, because we had never imagined that we would lose jobs. When the regret letters landed, we were shattered,” said a student.

The scene is quite gloomy for the 2008-09 placements due to start in December. Some top recruiters are staying away. Some others are cutting the number of jobs on offer. Montolova and Paradigm have not taken any of the nine students they had promised, while Magma had offered jobs to nine but finally took only three.

Two of these firms are not joining the placements this year. “These companies sent regret letters to the institute too, explaining that they are not in a position to take our students. It was a big blow but we are now negotiating with other companies. There is no dearth of jobs for our graduates, but the students in question are really bright and didn’t deserve this loss of face,” said B K Mathur, faculty member and head of the placement cell. “This is the fallout of the recession. IT firms, heavily dependent on borrowings, are tightening their purse strings. Recruitments are hit first and next in line is R&D,” he added.