Campus placement and career platforms

From campus to the first job, through placement tests, internships and résumés

In the final year of an engineering course, students update their résumés, sit placement tests and apply for internships. Some take part in hackathons. Others prepare to study abroad. A set of companies sells services for each of these steps between college and the first job.

Two sides of the market. Every service here connects job-seekers with employers, or prepares one for the other. Who pays depends on the service:

Students pay

for some tools, such as résumé builders sold on subscription.

Colleges pay

for others. A college buys tools that help its students get placed, because placement results attract the next year's students.

Employers pay

to reach students. They pay platforms to advertise jobs, run campus hiring, or hold competitions.

Who pays for what: students pay for tools such as résumé builders (BOLD), colleges pay for tools that get their students placed (VMock, iamneo (NIIT)), and employers pay to reach students through job adverts, campus hiring and competitions (Handshake, Unstop).

How campus hiring works. In India, companies visit colleges to hire final-year students, through the college's placement cell. They set an online test first, then hold interviews. Online platforms now let companies reach students at many more colleges than they could visit.

Competitions and internships. Companies run coding contests, hackathons and case competitions for students. These help them find good candidates. They also make the company known among students, which the industry calls employer branding. Internships, including remote ones, give students work experience before their first job.

Going abroad. India is one of the largest sources of international students in the world. Students going abroad need an English test, admission to a university, and money: a scholarship or an education loan. Study-abroad companies help with all of these. They usually earn commissions from the universities that enrol their students, and from the lenders whose loans the students take.

From the final year to the first job: in campus hiring a company reaches the college, sets an online test, then holds interviews, while contests, hackathons and internships help it find candidates; a student going abroad needs an English test, admission and money, and study-abroad companies such as Leap and WeMakeScholars help with all three.

Employers' own hiring software is covered elsewhere. (More on it in Market Segment 12.4, Applicant tracking systems (ATS) and recruitment marketing, in Industry Vertical 12, HR tech.)

Every company named here has posted software engineering jobs in India. Famous companies that don't actively hire software engineers in India are left out.

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Résumés, campus hiring, internships and study abroad

Résumés, campus hiring, internships and study abroad

Résumés

BOLD

with engineers in Delhi, makes résumé and cover-letter builders used by millions of job-seekers. It builds much of its product in India. BOLD has the most job postings in this Market Segment.

VMock

with engineers in Delhi, gives students AI feedback on their résumés. It sells through their universities.

Campus hiring, tests and competitions

Handshake

with engineers in Bengaluru, runs the platform on which American students find jobs, and on which employers recruit on campus.

Unstop

founded in India, with engineers in Delhi, runs competitions and hackathons. Companies use them to find students.

iamneo (NIIT)

with engineers in Chennai, sells coding tests and practice to colleges. (More on NIIT in Market Segment 42.5, Upskilling platforms and coding bootcamps.)

Qureos

sells AI recruitment tools, and learn-to-earn courses that link training to paid work.

Internships

Virtual Internships

with engineers in Bengaluru, arranges remote internships, with a structured programme around them.

Study abroad

Leap

with engineers in Bengaluru, helps Indian students go abroad. It covers preparation for the IELTS English test, university admissions and education loans.

WeMakeScholars

finds scholarships and education loans for students.

Leap and WeMakeScholars also appear in the market for education loans. (More on both in Market Segment 18.1, Digital lending and BNPL, in Industry Vertical 18, Lending and credit.)

One company here serves working doctors instead

eMedEvents

with engineers in Hyderabad, lists medical conferences. Doctors in many countries must earn continuing medical education credits to keep their licence, and they earn them at such conferences.

Four more companies work in this area: Expertrons Delhi, myBlueprint, Crack The Campus and Nbyula - Skillizens without Borders.

The first job that disappears.

Graduates used to be hired into entry-level jobs such as writing simple code, testing and customer support. That is the work AI models do first. The services here are shifting from finding a first job to preparing for a different one. For India's millions of graduates, the open question is what that first job will become.

That is the market between college and the first job: résumés, campus hiring, competitions, internships and study abroad. Students, colleges and employers each pay for a different part of it.

Who they hire

Who these companies hire, and for what, is on What edtech companies hire for.

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