Google to shift talent search from IIT (Indian Institute of Technology) to NIT (National Institute of Technology) The tech giant wanted to be Day 1 recruiter, but sought two weeks to decide on candidates after interviews.
Google, a top paymaster at the IITs, had reached out to at least three NITs, Surathkal, Trichy and Warangal, seeking to be a Day 1 campus recruiter in the final placement season for undergraduates that kicked off last month.
Moreover, Google’s plan to recruit from the NITs this year got stalled after it asked for at least two weeks to decide on candidates after campus interviews.
However, companies participating in the final placement typically announce results on the day of the interview, giving candidates the chance to participate in the selection process run by other recruiters.
The NITs refused to make an exception for Google, which is known to offer compensation packages of upwards of Rs 1 crore at engineering campuses for international roles.
“Google was asking for a long time, almost a couple of weeks, to reveal the results. This really does not work in placements at any of the IITs, then why should this happen at NITs?” said AK Bakthavatsalam, head of placements at NIT-Trichy.
If the company decided not to hire a person, the student would lose a chance with other top recruiters, placement officials said.
“There has never been a long gap between the interview and the results,” Bakthavatsalam said.
Like most NITs, the school at Trichy started its placement mid-August and the list of top recruiters on Day 1 included Amazon, Microsoft, Goldman Sachs, DE Shaw and Uber.
In the past, Google has offered hires at engineering colleges including the IITs annual pay of around Rs 25 lakh for domestic roles and up to Rs 2 crore for international ones.
NITs not ready to change policy for Google
“We hired from tech campuses across India last year and are looking to hire again in the coming year. Our guiding criterion is great talent, regardless of which college they come from. All candidates who successfully clear Kickstart are invited to interview with us,” said Jayashri Ramamurti, people partner, tech, Google India.
Kickstart is one of the screening tests at the entry level initiated by the company. Google said it plans to hire engineers this year as well.
However, at Warangal too, Google sought a Day 1 slot with the condition that it got a few weeks to decide on candidates.
“We were willing to accommodate on Day 1 but due to the company’s internal policy, things did not work out,” said Chintham Venkaiah, head of placements at NIT-Warangal.
“Google is a top recruiter at campuses and despite our best efforts it would not be part of final placements at our campus this year,” Venkaiah added.
Trichy, Warangal and Surathkal are among the most sought-after NITs among recruiters.
“Google wanted to visit for final placement but we did not want to make any changes in our placement policy,” said Vijay Desai, chairman, Career Development Centre, NIT-Surathkal.
“We would follow our own policy and make no changes,” Desai added.
In 2016, Google had chosen to bypass the placement process at IITs after almost a decade of hiring from the campuses, then made a comeback in 2018.
Google did not approach NITs in Jaipur and Jalandhar for final placements. “Google has not approached this year,” said S Ghosh, placement in-charge at BR Ambedkar NIT, Jalandhar.
Like most the institutes, NIT Jalandhar also decides Day 1 slots according to pay packages on offer.
How to get a Google Job? Do you know what is Code Jam?
Google Code Jam is an international programming competition hosted and administered by Google.
The competition began in 2003 as a means to identify top engineering talent for potential employment at Google.
Code Jam consists of a set of algorithmic problems which must be solved in a fixed amount of time.
Competitors may use any programming language and development environment to obtain their solutions.
From 2003 to 2007, Google Code Jam was deployed on Topcoder’s platform. Since 2008 Google has developed their own dedicated infrastructure for the contest.
Between 2015 and 2018, Google also runs Distributed Code Jam, with the focus on distributed algorithms.
Distributed Code Jam is run in parallel with the regular Code Jam, with its own qualification and final round, for a top prize of $10,000, but is only open for people who qualify to Round 2 of Code Jam (up to 3000 people).
Several Google Code Jam problems have led to academic research.
‘Gennady Korotkevich’ World’s Top Sport Programmer
Korotkevich (born 25 September 1994), is a Belarusian sport programmer who has won major international competitions since age 11, as well as numerous national competitions.
His top accomplishments include six consecutive gold medals in the International Olympiad in Informatics as well as the world championship in the 2013 and 2015 International Collegiate Programming Contest World Finals.
As of December 2018, Gennady is the highest-rated programmer at CodeChef, Codeforces Topcoder., Atcoder and HackerRank;
He is widely considered to be the greatest sport programmer of all time.
