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CONDUCTING VIRTUAL PLACEMENTS IN IITs?

180+ COMPANIES

1300+ STUDENTS

150+ HOURS

790+ OFFERS

70% OF TOTAL OFFERS

Placement Interview Process is conducted parallelly in all major IITs and it is the largest event of the year. High efficiency in operations required by the Placement team to ensure smooth experience for Companies and Students.
Interview procedures of the company is conducted from 1st Decembers slot wise. It almost takes 2 weeks to complete the process of all companies in Phase I.
COVID-19 disrupted the dynamics of the placements. Conducting the Virtual Placements is the new challenge for the IIT BHU Placement team.

Physical Interviews Process

Impact

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Understanding the Problem

To understand the various user behaviour, we have conducted the virtual internship process of more than 30+ Companies. General cycle of stakeholders involved during the process:

User Pain Points Involved

To solve the user pain points, I proposed a solution to my tech team, to design a Web App for efficient interview scheduling and real time tracking of the students by using API on technologies like Google Calendar & Google Sheet.

Web App will be designed as multi-user systems, where one set of users have to manage the companies details and other set of users have to schedule the interviews of students for respective companies.

Functionality of Web App with excellent UX will solve major pain points in conducting virtual interviews in IITs?

User Pain Points
	a) In isolated place and have to attend multiple interviews during one slot. b) Difficult to respond text or calls during ongoing interviews. c) Marking attendance/ Informing the team they are unavailable for awhile.
	a) To Conduct Parallel Interviews of 20+ Companies and Interviews of 250+ students virtually. b) Sharing the interview link to the individual students. c) Tracking of the Students d) Adding extended shortlist, special request. e) Coordination between coordinators and control room. f) Process to conducted according to the Policy
	a) To ensure smooth virtual process within time constraints and avoid any waste of the time. b) Expiration of Interviewer Link and addition of new panel member

Students

Placement Team

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HOW THE SOLUTION WILL BE USED IN VIRTUAL INTERVIEWS?

Database will be shared between the TPO Portal and Web App by using DB instance. �
WebApp will have two access, Admin login which can access all companies and Coordinator login, which can access the assigned company. �
Admin will add company details, do slotting, assign companies coordinators, add shortlist on the TPO Portal. Same will be displayed on Web App.�
Coordinators will create virtual rooms and will schedule the interview of students by creating event on their google calendar.

Add/Manage shortlist feature will help coordinators to add shortlist for round 2 and round 3, extended shortlist or remove unavailable students from the shortlist.�
Google Sheet will help Coordinator and HR for easy smooth coordination.

TPO Portal: Complete independent service capable of handling every activity for placement and internship process. Functionality include:

i) Data Collection from students and Verification of their data

ii) Listing of Companies visiting campus and collecting willingness according to the criteria.

iii) Resume generation

iv) Preference filling for companies in a particular slot and allowing students to attend interviews of top 4 preference companies as per placement policy

vi) Result declaration and blocking students already placed in previous slot

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UI: How this Web App will Solve Various User Pain Points?

1) Will solve the pain point of addition of new panel or modifying the interviewer link effectively. �

2) Status will help us to track the students. Student will have unique ID where they can mark attendance. In case student is in another interview it will displayed here. �

3) Using the Number- Name format will minimize the margin of error of sending students to another panel.

4) Send will create event in students calendar.�Event- Contains interviewer link+Timing and will block the calendar. After the interview, Students have to mark interview over by using unique ID.

5) Urgent Call feature can be used for special or immediate call. Here student will receive a mail and all coordinators can also view this call, so that they will not schedule him for another process.

6) Info will used to view student contact details, Number of shortlist with preference order and number of interviews completed.

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CAN VIRTUAL PLACEMENTS BE NEW NORM?

Total 180+ Companies visit in premier engineering colleges and 100+ companies in top management colleges in India. �
On campus hiring is cost intensive process. �
Virtual Process have reduced the overhead cost of the company and operational cost of the college.�
Virtual placements can become norm if we enrich the user experience of all stakeholders.�
Proposed solution is first step to enrich the user experience of all stakeholders by using technologies by optimizing operations.�
Only cost we have to bear is implementation charge�
Market Size: 800 Million (Approx)�

Estimate of overhead operational cost of companies during On-campus Placements (PPT+Interviews):

Assumption:

a) No. of Panels during PPT & Interview respectively: 3 & 10 �b) Case1: 40% of Companies don’t opt Institute Service (Accommodation) �Case2: 60% of Companies opt Institute Service

c) One Day Stay in PPT & Two-Day Stay in Interviews

Total Overhead Cost to Company (Case1): PPT(10K*3*2+10K*3+5K*2+5K*3)+Interviews(10K*10*2+10K*10*2+5K*3*2+5K*10) = 5.85 Lakh (C1) ��Total Overhead Cost to Company (Case2): PPT(10K*3*2+5K*2+5K*3)+ Interviews(10K*10*2+5K*3*2+5K*10) = 3.65 Lakh (C2)��Estimate of operational cost of Campus during Placement Interviews:

50K+(180*0.6*(10*2+3*1)1K+500K+(180*10*350/1000)K =36.64 Lakh (C3)

Companies Allowance (INR)
Flight (Per Head)	10,000
Hotel (Per Head)	10,000
Cab (shared upto 3)	5,000
Meal (Per Head)	5,000

Market Size��If campus spend (30% of cost) and companies (10% of cost) on conducting virtual placements by using technologies.

Total Premier College: (20 (Top Eng)+10 (Top Management ) = 30�Let assume 1 company visits around 5 campus and 400 total companies do campus hiring. ��Market Size = 30*C1*0.3+400*4*(0.4*C1+0.6*C2) = Approx 800 Million

College Operational Cost (INR)
Stationary	50, 000
Guest House (Per Head)	1,000
Maintenance Charge	5, 00, 000
Lunch/ Refreshment (per head)	350

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SUCCESS METRICS

PITFALLS

System Usability Scale: It measures the usability & learnability of systems by asking a 10 item questionnaire with 5 responses. A SUS score above a 68 would be considered above average and will measure the success of this solution.��

Consistency: Consistency will be important metrics to measure the success of the this solution. Any update or status of any process should be consistent around all users.

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Onboarding of multiple users simultaneously �

Internet Connectivity & Sudden Power Cut: Major Issue students face is uncertainty on internet connectivity and power cut. In case of this setback it is difficult for our coordinators to track students and schedule interview. ��

Margin of Human Error: This solution almost automated the entire operation but many decision & coordination stills lies in hand of coordination. In case of any information lag, can cost of sending wrong candidates into wrong panel.

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Transparency: This solution is not covering the aspects of transparency. During physical interviews, all process are go through in front of students but virtual interviews possibly decreased the room of transparency from two - three folds.

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