Flipkart tops hiring charts at IITs, makes 118 offers

Ecommerce major Flipkart has stormed the IITs emerging as the largest recruiter in the first three-and-half days of this placement season. Dozens of other, lesser-known startups including Unbxd, Wooqer, Edudigm, ZeMoSo Labs are also making a significant number of hires, getting the better of many established companies in the war for talent. Flipkart has made 118 offers so far to the class of 2014 and is turning out to be a huge draw at IITs, hotspots for the best Indian engineering talent. At IIT-Roorkee, for example, 600 out of 1,600 students applied for job at Flipkart, according to placement sources. It picked up 11 students. The company picked up the most number of students, 36, at IIT Kanpur. "Our USP is clear - those who join us get the opportunity to build a company and its business from the ground up, grow along with it and learn at a pace and flexibility that is unmatched in the industry," Sachin Bansal, co-founder, Flipkart told ET. Founded six years ago by two IITians, Flipkart has raised $360 million in the last six months that is now funding its talent acquisition. Money from investors including Dragoneer Investment Group, Morgan Stanley Investment Management, Sofina SA and Vulcan Capital, that is now funding its aggressive talent acquisition. The company has so far offered salaries in the range of Rs 10.5-11.5 lakh, a cut above average salaries on offer at the IITs this year, but slightly lower than what marquee names like Citicorp and even some smaller startups are offering. "We look for talent that is smart, and has the ability to learn and adapt in a rapidly evolving industry. We look for people with great problem-solving skills and passion," Bansal added. Even as Flipkart is topping the charts early on, a bunch of smaller - and in some cases, hardly-known - startups thronged the campuses and have found ready takers. If IIT-Roorkee had ecommerce company Unbxd, Bangalore-based Wooqer and analytics firm Axtria; IIT-Kanpur saw mobile advertising technology maker In-Mobi and Fuzzy Logic. IIT-Kharagpur, on its part, has a big line-up, including A-star Singapore, Housing.com, Chronus, Ivy Cap Venture, Edudigm, InterviewStreet, App-Daily and Sharobi. At IIT-Guwahati, a number of different startups, including Capillary Technologies, Hike and ZeMoSo Labs, have signed up. At Guwahati alone, startups are expected to make over 30 hires. "This shift in trend from the rudimentary job profiles to a startup profile becoming the choice of fresh graduates is the thing of future," said Natesan Srinivasan, faculty incharge, training & placement, IIT-Guwahati. Many factors work in startups' favour. Timings are flexible; there's a flatter hierarchy; smaller teams lead to better bonding; individual contribution is reflected better and people are able to work in different verticals simultaneously, resulting in an exponential career growth curve. "Students are showing more interest in startups as many of them have been started by our alumni or those of other IITs," said Avijit Chatterjee, professor-in-charge, placements at IIT Bombay. "Some of the large startups also seem to have been infused with investments and therefore salary paid is good as well." Compensation offered by startups, though not bulge-bracket, is quite competitive.