As colleges grapple with placements, students are busy re-working resumes and attending programmes on personality development and soft skills

With companies playing hard-to-get at campus placements, students from engineering and management colleges are re-working resumes to attract job offers.

"I've been going over my resume details, but don't feel confident that it will impress company officials. I've added information regarding the clubs on campus, which I joined and the various programmes we organised through the year. I hope that earns extra credit from the interviewer," says Abhijit Sabarwal, an engineering student.

To help students gain that extra edge, some colleges like RV College of Engineering, BMS College, and the Presidency College are hosting training programmes on campus. "We are providing students training to meet industry demands through the third and sixth semester. Students are under pressure due to market conditions and want to focus on building their resumes," says NS Narahari, director training and placements, RVCE.

For first-year management students like Roshan Ali from IFIM and Ankit Sharma from Christ University, these placements have shown them the need to beef up their resumes while still on campus. "Everywhere placements are not going great. This is the time for us to work on building our resumes," says Ankit.

With placements looking bleak, institutions are also getting outside agencies to train students to better their chances at being hired. Career Launcher, an institute coaching students to face competitive exams like CAT has been getting requests to visit campuses prior placements, to conduct training programmes on soft-skills, personality development and resume-writing.

"We have been getting more requests to conduct the Campus Express Programme, where we help students train for group discussions, personal interactions, aptitude tests, and personality development. These skills will be the distinguishing factors in the market," says Ananth Acharya, city head, Career Launcher.

Students are convinced that academics aside, it would be what they bring to the table, in terms of extra co-curricular activities, that will improve their chances during placements. "I have seen many students entirely focussed on resume-building. They want to see how they can stand out," says Syed Rehan, an engineering student from MS Ramaiah College of Engineering.

Jayalakshmi Venugopal/ DNA-Daily News & Analysis Source: 3D Syndication