Look who’s back at IITs to pick summer interns!

At the older Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) of Kharagpur, Bombay, Madras, Kanpur, and Delhi, the companies that have registered early include Bain & Company, Boston Consulting Group, Deutsche Bank, D.E. Shaw, Nomura, Glean Technologies, Wells Fargo, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, and Google India, placement coordinators toldMint. They are offering salaries of ₹1.5-4.5 lakh per month,show the registration details shared with Mint.

During the placement season starting August at most IITs, these companies will recruit students for internships in the next summer break between May and July 2026. The institutes hope to get offers for as many students as possible in a tight job market and global uncertainty. Internships are a barometer of the students’ capability to secure jobs through the placement evaluation process.

“At McKinsey, interns are compensated in alignment with their full-time counterparts of similar tenure,” said McKinsey in response to queries emailed by Mint. “We ensure parity in treatment and compensation, reflecting our commitment to providing a meaningful and rewarding internship experience.”

The company is hiring for the position of business analyst.

Other companies that have also registered to pick interns include Ebullient Securities, WorldQuant, Zepto, Blinkit, Myntra, AlphaGrep and DRW Holdings.

Pre-placement offer push

Engineering placements dipped for the batch of 2024, with hundreds of students struggling to secure a job even in the second hiring round. This year has been better, but it’s only the beginning.

The summer internships can also land pre-placement offers (PPOs), securing jobs for candidates at the firms they intern at and allowing them to skip final placements.

“We are expecting a greater number of PPOs this year, with at least 80-90 more offers from the recruiters than last year,” said a placement coordinator from one of the newer IITs. This category includes IITs of Indore, Patna, Ropar, Guwahati, Roorkee, and Jammu.

High-frequency trading (HFT) firms such as Flow Traders, NK Securities Research, Da Vinci Trading, Optiver, and Graviton are known to be the hiring paymasters at IITs. This time, their highest offers are up to ₹4 lakh a month, according to details shared with Mint.

However, international internship opportunities from Jane Street are still being evaluated. While the HFT firm is known for hiring and rolling out pre-placement offers, the Securities and Exchange Board of India’s interim order barring it from accessing the market for alleged manipulation has left the IITs in a bind, Mint reported earlier. The institutes have to decide whether the firm will be allowed to hire from their campuses.

AI, ML in demand

Demand for artificial Intelligence and machine learning (ML) roles is also picking up. “These roles, earlier restricted to software development and coding profiles, are now even included in product development roles, especially at consumer firms like Hindustan Unilever, Flipkart, Uber, etc.,” said a placement coordinator from an older IIT. HUL is offering a stipend of ₹2.2 lakh a month, while its rival Nestlé is offering ₹1.5 lakh a month.

A placement coordinator from one of the newer IITs also said that recruiters now expect students to know machine learning and artificial intelligence, as AI and ML are becoming increasingly essential and popular skill sets for acquiring jobs.

“AI continues to be a key driver of growth at Glean, and as a result, we’ve increased our campus hiring targets compared to last year,” a spokesperson from enterprise tech firm Glean said in response to Mint’s emailed queries. “As the market evolves and demand for AI-driven innovation accelerates, we’re investing in top talent to help us build the future of work.”

Queries emailed to the IITs remained unanswered till press time. Barring McKinsey and Glean, no other company responded to Mint’s queries.

Glean is hiring software engineer interns for its Bengaluru and Palo Alto offices. Interns at Glean work on real product challenges from day one, the spokesperson said. “These roles are a key part of how we invest in the next generation of engineers, and strong performers may be considered for full-time opportunities at the end of the internship.’

Mint reported earlier that having ‘AI engineering’ and related skills not only increases chances of being hired, but also improves salary by up to 13% in technology-specific roles, and 64% in non-tech roles.

To prepare their students, said a placement head from one of the newer IITs, the institutes have increased their focus on AI by introducing more courses and projects related to AI during the academic year.

Ria Dalal contributed to this story.