Page 4: The Fine Print’s take on
the pressing issues on campus
Page 3: A monthly column devoted to
timely updates on the SU’s progress
Date: 29th January | Time: 6 PM |
Venue: 2207 | Bring the pen
THE FINE PRINT
ENGLISH
PRESS
CLUB
It’s that time of the year again. Everyone is hurrying about anxiously in suits, to and
fro the academic buildings in groups, and talking in hushed tones as to how their
interview or group discussion went. As football teams around the world scuffle to
sign a big name or two in the ‘Winter Window’, companies throng our campus for
placements. No better way to get all the statistics regarding placements than to have a
chat with the PU Coordinator, Shobhit Mohanty, who revealed that a clear
improvement is visible as compared to last year. With a focus on core disciplines
namely, Mechanical, Chemical, Civil, EEE, this season has seen a noticeable addition
in the number of recruiters.
According to Shobhit, after just a week of interviews this semester, 60% of the
students had already been placed, that is, a total of 272 out of 450 students. Claiming
to breaking all previous records, Shobhit is extremely proud of this achievement. The
maximum salary offered this semester till date is 25.5 lakhs, the average being 12.2
lakhs, which is another record. Around 40 companies have recruited students so far,
and the average intake per company has increased. Some of the reputed companies
that visited our little hamlet during the winter window (about 15 in total) were - Tata
Steel, Honeywell, Exxon, Texas Instruments, offering packages of over 6 lakhs each.
“The placement packages are not of the order of what are offered in the first semester
as we don’t have Facebook, Microsoft and Google. Nonetheless, core companies
have been offering significantly higher salaries,” remarks Shobhit. No procedural
changes have been incorporated this year, but the sincerity and hard work of the PU
team is paying off.
PRESENTS
SEMESTER II
ISSUE I
PILANI
JANUARY 2015
One point to contemplate is that the PPO figures reveal a considerable setback.
Initially, 45 students were awarded a PPO, but now only 35 of them will be joining, as
a lot of people landed their ‘dream jobs’. Any company that paid more than 6 lakhs
was considered a dream job in the winter window, and if a person secured it, he was
taken out of the placement process, unless an ‘open’ company was hiring, giving an
opportunity even if you are already placed or have a dream job. In semester
placements, if one gets placed in a certain firm, he/she can further apply only if the
new offer is 1.7 times the initial CTC. Any company visiting in the dream fortnight
(first 14 days of placements - until 31st January) is a dream company unless otherwise
stated by the PU.
Additionally, Shobhit did highlight a few problems, such as the maintenance of the
PU portal which links all three centres - Pilani, Goa and Hyderabad. The blame lies
with the slow internet speed and old server technology. He strongly feels that this will
not be sustainable in the long run. They have implemented a new portal, which is still
in its beta phase, and its maintenance is tedious. Also, pitching to core companies is
difficult, as students comprising the PU team who are on their PS need to alter their
schedules to call these companies.
A few final words of wisdom by the Coordinator, “Don’t be tensed, just continue
what you’ve been doing till now, there are ample opportunities available to be placed
in good companies.”
Last APOGEE, in 2014, the first edition of Aarohan was held at the behest of the
CoStAA. To streamline and help organize the same, the Department of External
Affairs, or DExA was formed. It was mandated to help Aarohan reach as many
schools as possible in this country.
Aarohan is a nationwide school-level event for classes 9 to 12, comprising two segments - Code Voyage and Brainiac. While Brainiac is a science and logical aptitude
test, Code Voyage is an online coding competition. Open only to classes 11 and 12,
Code Voyage is hosted by CodeChef, which is sponsoring the same. Aarohan sees
students battle it out to be one of those select 15 who get a chance to visit and stay
in BITS Pilani and attend APOGEE. With 5000 participants in the fray, Aarohan
2015 has grown to a grand scale. What started with a meagre 13 cities has exploded
to 36 cities, with several Tier 2 cities being involved. There has been a significant
growth from last year, which saw 4000 students participating. At least one volunteer
is stationed in every school so as to ensure the smooth functioning of the event
there. Spread over a number of days to accommodate the differing academic schedules across the nation, Aarohan has received appreciation and excellent reviews with
respect to the management of the event and the quality of questions.
January 16 – 18, 2015 saw the LTC section of campus turn into quite a
technocrat haven. Organized by Embryo, the CSA and the CSIS and
sponsored by LinkedIn, the Alumni Research Talks 4.0 (ART 4.0) saw yet
another big clique of like-minded students gather to listen to the diverse
opportunities of research in Big Data, Embedded Systems, etc. and the
outcomes of pursuing them. Embryo believes a great chunk of the academia
is oriented mostly to get a big fat pay-cheque after slogging it through a few
years. ART strives to convey the message that plenty of avenues exist in
research that can lead to extremely satisfying ends.
SPEAKERS: Partha Talukdar, Kalapriya Kannan, Rati Agarwal, Ganesh
Venkataraman and M. Balakrishnan.
PANELISTS: Prof. Shan Balasubramaniam, Dr. Navneet Goyal and Dr.
Rahul Banerjee.
Despite an expansion in the overall number of cities and the number of participants,
the presence of Aarohan in the 13 cities where it already was functioni