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With the vision of enhancing their students’ career prospects and providing practical experience, the Placement Cell at Jesus and Mary College brought a variety of internship opportunities under one roof at Internity, JMC’s annual internships expo.

On Thursday, 26 February, the Placement Cell at Jesus and Mary College hosted Internity, the annual internships expo. It was organised under the second edition of Momentum, the flagship career summit of Jesus and Mary College. Intending to provide students with a platform to build expertise, practical skills and a professional network that enables them to excel in their careers, Momentum brings together industry leaders, recruiters and students to discuss career growth, evolving industry trends and skill-building, thereby “bridging the gap between academia and industry”. It also connects students with a strong alumni network of 900+ members, offering mentorship and career guidance.

Internity provides students with direct access to internship opportunities across multiple industries, enabling them to select roles that complement their academic backgrounds and career goals. This opportunity was open to all students from all disciplines and course combinations at JMC who had registered via a Google form. A few seats were also available for non-JMC female college students on a first-come, first-served basis. Thirty four companies took part, with the majority setting up stalls on campus while others joined virtually. It was worth noting that there was a highly diverse pool of recruiters, ranging from startups and established corporations to non-profit organisations. Ventures working in areas such as vegan snacking, neuroscience, mental health advocacy, education, finance, environmental sustainability and cybersecurity participated, looking for enthusiastic content writers, social media managers, web developers, community engagement and public relations interns, research interns, as well as finance and marketing interns, among others.

Internity witnessed massive participation, with many students dropping off their resumes at recruiters’ stalls. Recruiters also took the time to patiently explain the nature of the work and the roles and responsibilities and engage in meaningful discussions with students. All tables also featured QR codes, which, when scanned, directed the interested students to a Google Form-based application, thereby streamlining the process. Many organisations, especially non-profit ones, offered unpaid internships but promised a certificate of completion and a letter of recommendation, while others offered a stipend of up to even Rs. 10,000. Most of these internships were for one to three months and offered on-site, remote and hybrid working experiences.

Reflecting on their event, the president of the placement cell stated,

Right now, we’re still upscaling our event—it is only the second edition. Last year, we focused on the number of companies, but this time we are more quality-orientated. We aim to help students become future-ready for upcoming placements and the evolving job market. The good thing is that this in-person experience is better than having to apply from group chats and links… Last year, around sixty to seventy students got offers from various companies.”

This shift towards quality and inclusiveness was also mirrored in student feedback. Speaking about their experience, a psychology student shared that for the first time, they encountered numerous psychology and mental health-related internships. They added, “There was inclusiveness—at most internship fairs, the companies that come are mostly commerce-orientated…for finance roles or for recruiting data analysts. But this time I saw that there were many NPOs and mental health organisations. Many students also described the opportunities as “flexible” and recruiters as “friendly, approachable and good to talk to”.

Students appeared genuinely enthusiastic about the expo, stopping by tables that interested them and looking forward to securing internships, gaining work experience and building strong resumes. Beyond simply seeking internships, Internity also served as a platform to build professional connections and gain access to valuable networks. In such competitive times, hands-on experience in the field is indispensable. Rather than independently searching for internships, it is immensely beneficial when the college itself brings these opportunities directly to the students.

Nasheta Zaidi
[email protected]

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In the midst of the unclear selection criteria, the inability of colleges to prepare students for corporate interviews, and the inclination of prosperous packages to only prime colleges, placements have become a tricky territory to navigate.

When you see a third-year student with a formidable countenance, sitting in formals, tapping their feet in nervous anxiety, it is a nobrainer that the student is awaiting the result for the last round of the recruitment drive. A little hope, a little fear, and plenty of drama are what could potentially sum up the tormenting interview rounds. If the fear turns out real then there are high chances of feeling wornout and developing loathsome feelings for the company. Being a student who’s already faced rejection from multiple companies, it is disheartening to tell your loved ones that you didn’t crack it. What is even more saddening is that you feel worthless, and the weariness of the day translates to a lack of efficiency in the remaining recruitment drives. Since these jobs are exclusive to many University of Delhi (DU) graduates, it needs to be asked: are these jobs worth the hassle?
From what can be noticed through simple observation, the compensation offered to graduates does not seem enough to sustain a metropolitan lifestyle. The packages offered by most companies fall in the bracket of three to four lakh per year and that means barely enough salary to make the ends meet, let alone keep aside some savings. The job profiles are often not what students aspire to do right out of college, and securing placement in the popular profiles is a tough nut to crack. The precursor for most students is exposure and the fear of sitting idle, which is why factors like job profile and compensation take a backseat.
Top colleges of DU, like Shaheed Sukhdev College of Business Studies and Shri Ram College of Commerce are adrift from this concept to a certain degree, as many companies come to these colleges with reasonably good profiles and higher than average packages. Meanwhile, other colleges, especially the newer and off-campus ones, are yet to have an active, functioning placement cell to remove the aforementioned barriers.
If all companies do visit these campuses, students from courses other than Commerce and Economics are not eligible to sit for these drives. In many colleges, students who do secure placements are debarred from sitting in the forthcoming ones. DU’s Central Placement Cell is a right step in this direction, but the odds of securing a job are lesser with more number of applicants.
The latent, fundamental problem behind placements in DU is the lack of knowledge of the job profile. Colleges give little insight into what the corporate world expects out of students. The subject structures of many courses fail to equip students with the necessary knowledge they need to decide which field they’d like to start their career in. With surface-level knowledge and ambiguity on a lot of topics, the course structure is still bent towards academic learning over joboriented learning. The Choice Based Credit System, which proclaims of being studentoriented, that offers choice and mobility to students remains ineffective. Due to lack of infrastructure or lack of enthusiasm for college administration, the “choice” remains nonexistent.
Another recurring issue amongst college graduates is the seemingly dubious methods employed by recruiters to judge candidates. Interviewers give higher weightage to a candidate’s ability to speak English fluently over their knowledge in the field. The Human Resources round continues to be hit-or-miss in many cases, and the candidate is left in the lurch, wondering what went wrong. Thus, there is a scope of countless permutations out of it and no fixed answer.
Given a fresher’s limited knowledge of everything corporate, it’s understandable why companies employ conventional wisdom to assess candidates. What could, however be added, is a proper feedback mechanism, and above all, a move to conduct more offcampus recruitment drives that assess a candidate on meritorious grounds and not on the basis of which college he/she belongs to.
To all my fellow third-year students who’ve faced rejection, it’s imperative to realise how inconsequential these placement drives are in the larger scheme of things. There’s probably a better job offer waiting for you in the coming months!

Vijeata Balani

[email protected]

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