Insti gets more than a thousand job offers annually. In this hectic time of internships and placements, we shed light on the team behind the scenes. The academic affairs sphere manages job recruitments, course structures, and a number of clubs.
The Academic Affairs Secretary (AAS) is responsible for all the academic affairs in the institute in the form of the academic sphere, which includes courses and curricula, educational activities and clubs, and UG and PG research. The task of smoothly carrying out placements and internships also comes under their discretion. Apart from this, many academic clubs like the Finance Club, No Code Club, Case Club, and Biotech Research Club fall under the AAS. The AAS is an elected representative; institute student body elections happen sometime in the spring semester, and the AAS is elected along with other representatives.
The AAS primarily takes care of student employment twofold: the Placement and Internship (PIE) cell directly takes care of job opportunities, while the Career Development Cell (CDC), as the name suggests, aids career development. Recently, the Career Development Cell and the Placement and Internship Cell have been jointly put under the banner of Career Pathway Centre, which focuses on Student Career Development as a whole
Placement and Internship Cell (PIE)
The placement and internship team is responsible for helping students secure internships and placements. It is jointly overseen by the AAS and the research affairs secretary (RAS). There are placement and internship heads (who are selected through an application and interview process) under the AAS who oversee the cell.
The placement and internship cell consists of department-wise placement teams, the IPR team, the IDDD placement team, and the UIR team.
Department-wise Placement Teams: Each department has a placement team consisting of a multi-tiered hierarchy of a placement core, placement coordinators, and deputy placement coordinators. All the students sitting for on-campus placements or internships go through the placement team. Their tasks include conducting fundae for aspirants, ratifying resumes to ensure the information submitted is correct, onboarding more companies for IITM’s internship/placement season, and convincing companies to open slots for their departments. The department placement team primarily handles “core” companies, where applicants require knowledge and skills relevant to their branch.
IDDD Placement Team: IITM undergrads have the option of converting to an IDDD (interdisciplinary dual degree) after a few semesters. This allows students in their fourth and fifth years to pursue subjects other than those offered by their degree. IDDD cores, coordinators, and deputy coordinators perform roles similar to department placement teams, from handling students to managing companies for IDDD students.
Industrial and Public Relations (IPR) Team: The IPR team is inter-departmental, consisting of IPR cores, IPR coordinators, and IPR deputy coordinators. The IPR team handles non-core companies, which refer to those companies that require skills other than those developed through a student’s core curriculum. Consulting, FMCG, software development, and quant roles usually fall under the IPR team (although the split between IPR and department-wise placement teams might not be as distinct).
University and Institutional Relations (UIR) Team: The University and Institutional Relations team manages institute relations with other academic institutions and universities to garner inter-institute prospects. This team banks on the adage that a better research culture would promote R&D (research and development) amongst students, thus enabling them to take up core jobs. The UIR team handles processes such as securing research internships, semester exchanges, and higher studies opportunities for students. They also guide students in exams such as GRE/TOEFL for higher studies and provide general fundae for higher studies applications. Like other teams, they also have cores, coordinators, and deputy coordinators.
First-years can apply for the position of deputy coordinator for all four of the verticals under the placement and internship team. As a deputy coordinator, your role is to primarily aid those students sitting for internships and placements; ideally, the applications for these positions should roll out sometime at the end of your first year.
Career Development Cell (CDC)
The Career Development Cell (CDC) is primarily responsible for the career development of students within departments and the institute as a whole. CDC also takes care of career-based clubs. CDC has two verticals; the placement and internship vertical, which aids students with placement and internship preparation, and the mentorship vertical in the form of a new initiative: the Department Academic Mentorship Program (DAMP). CDC provides placement and internship preparation material, fundae for resume building, and mock internship and placement tests.
CDC oversees various clubs in the academic sphere, such as the Finance Club, No Code Club, Case Club, and Biotech Research Club. These clubs have heads, coordinators, and sometimes deputy coordinators (or equivalent positions).
Finance Club: The Finance Club aims to promote an interest in finance and provide a platform to learn about finance and quant. Finance and trading competitions such as the Optiver Tradeathon and the WorldQuant BRAIN challenge are hosted jointly by the Finance Club and various finance companies. They also conduct webinars and sessions to help students understand the principles of finance and investing.
Case Club: A case is a business scenario that companies expect students to analyze and solve during their hiring process. The Case Club provides a platform for case-solving enthusiasts in insti to come together and solve cases for consulting and product management. The Case Club conducts various fundae sessions for students sitting for internships and placements to improve their case-solving skills. The Case Club also provides a casebook that contains a variety of sample cases for students to practice with.
No Code Club: Students across insti have plenty of interesting and innovative ideas. However, implementing and realizing these ideas usually has technical hurdles that the newly-formed No Code Club aims to step in and overcome. Using tools such as LLMs (like ChatGPT), product-building tools, and note-making tools like Notion, this club aims to aid student innovators in removing barriers to technical expertise in developing their products.
Biotech Research Club: The newly established Biotech Research Club aims to create a platform for students and researchers who are enthusiastic about biotechnology. This club conducts events for the general public to learn about advances in biotechnology and also aims to provide hands-on projects on biology and allied fields.
To wrap up, the AAS handles the academic sphere in the institute, with a particular focus on the placement and internships of students.