Mr. Joshua Raju has been working as the Training and Placement Officer at BABA Institute of Technology and Sciences, Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh. He is a resolute and self-driven person with 5+ years of work experience in providing Career Counseling Services in Categories like Interview Management, Time Management, Managerial Upskilling, Conducting Interviews and similar. He has done Bachelor of Engineering in Information Technology in 2013 and Master of Engineering in Computer Science and Technology in 2016, both from B.I.T.S Vizag of JNTU Kakinada.

During his professional journey, he was Keynote Speaker at 2 International Webinars and 5+ Training Sessions across the State and has even attended a training session as well as been a key resource person for an International Conference in Columbus, OHIO, and South Dakota in the United States for around 5 Months. Also, before joining BITS, he worked as an Assistant Professor with Chaitanya Engineering College, Visakhapatnam for 1 year from 2016-17. He is proficient in English, Telugu and Hindi language and has keen interest in Educational Development, Outdoor Photography as well as Cricket.

Baba Institute of Technology and Sciences

From how many years you are working with BABA Institute and what are your key responsibilities here?

I joined the BABA Institute of Technology and Sciences in 2016 as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science. But post Covid, I was given the task of handling recruitment related activities of college as a Training and Placement Officer. And if I talk about my key roles and responsibilities here, I am responsible for providing additional training programs to students that they need after the curriculum. And generally, they have 6 subjects and 3-4 labs in each semester, so I need to supervise and bridge any kind of gaps between academia and industry demands if they arise. 

Apart from this, we need to regularly collaborate with different institutes, organizations and industries for students' skills enhancement and expose them to the happenings of the outside world through events such as seminars, workshops, guest lectures and industry interaction sessions, wherein we invite expert professionals and professors. Last but not the least, inviting MNC companies to campus for recruitment of students for various job profiles also comes under the scope of my work.

Who all are part of your placement team and how are they working?

We have a dedicated Training, Career Development and Placement Cell in college and the team is headed by our respected Principal and after him, I am the core person who takes care of all the Departments as a whole. And since we have 5 Engineering Departments and 1 PG Department, the placement team also includes 1 Faculty coordinators from each department, so all in all, we work as a team whenever any training sessions need to be organized or companies are invited on campus. Then we have eminent student coordinators also, through whom we ensure that every student stays updated of whatever initiative we are taking for their personal and professional growth.

Who are the top recruiters of your Baba Institute of Technology and Sciences?

Renowned MNCs and organizations like Mphasis, TCS, Capgemini, Wipro, Infosys and many more organize Campus Drives wither offline or online to recruit students for various job profiles and our Alumni plays a major role in this, as many of them are already working with these companies. And we provide them with the best possible hospitality service whenever they visit us, either for any program or to conduct student interviews to make sure this relationship continues the same way it is at present.

Apart from this, corer companies of Mechanical Engineering and Civil Engineering domains also visit us, and many of them are even working with us in partnership for automobile spare parts and geo mapping. Overall we are very happy with the pool of companies coming to our college and every year, we are making new advancements. Last but not the least, Mphasis is moving with us into an MOU very shortly and we are going to be one of those empanelled colleges for Mphasis.

Check Baba Institute of Technology and Sciences Placement

What kinds of training programs are offered by your institution to students to make them industry ready?

Our college with the support of its Training and Placement Cell regularly organizes various kinds of training sessions for students, including one for improving their communication skills, because core knowledge will ultimately be covered by teachers. Then we have general campus recruitment training which we offer to students right from 2nd year of their course, and these sessions are mainly focused on improving the general aptitude, reasoning skills and technical competencies of students. And lastly, we do organize multiple rounds of mock interviews in association with our Alumni HR or HRs of other companies we are in partnership with, and this practice is to ensure that if any improvement are needed in students resume or the way they should present themselves in front of an interviewer, those things can be fixed beforehand.

What are the general placement statistics of different departments of your college?

Most of the time, 80-85% of our students get placed in reputed companies. And if we clearly observe the situation, unlike earlier times, nowadays students are not just interested in doing a job, as most of them are either going to pursue higher education in a Global University or many of them are even going on the path of Entrepreneurship. So if we take an average, 3-4 students out of 10, be it the CSE or ECE domain, want to pursue MS in countries like the UK or US. So the actual number of students applying for a job shrinks to 70-75%. Then there are few students who wants to go in government sector, as they assume it to be more secure as compared to the private one, so even if your bring companies like TCS, they are like, we are not interested as we want to go in Railways or some other govt sector, GATE related jobs or work with Navratnas of Miniratnas. Now let's come back to our original question, even when a student secures a job, we encourage them to give interviews with other companies as well. Apart from all this, to fulfill the requirements of every student, as everyone might not be interested in coding, we invite companies from diverse domains including Core, IT, ITES and BPO as well.

What highest packages have companies offered to your college's students till date?

If we talk about the period after Covid pandemic, it comprises 3 years, and in this time frame, many of our students have secured very lucrative salary packages with good companies. And to be specific, one of our Mechanical department students named GVS Lokesh recently grabbed a whopping annual package of INR 10.2 LPA at Byju's and the job profile was Business Development Associate. Then we have another student named Mr. B. Rajesh from the Computer Science Department, who moved into the AI field and got a package of INR 11.3 LPA during his internship itself, and later he secured another package of INR 12.6 LPA. And in 2023 also, we have a student named Sandeep who got a stellar placement offer of INR 30.6 LPA, but shortly he’s been promoted and this time with a wonderful package of INR 50 LPA. Also at present, he is working remote as a Backend Developer with a German based company called Infinite Proxies.

How has been your overall experience with BABA Institute?

To be honest, working with institutions like BABA is not easy at all, as we are not like the super well-established and well-funded private colleges who have hundreds of collaborations with leading industries. Infact, for us, every semester is a challenge, because every student looks for new learning opportunities everyday to get prepared for the corporate world by the end of their course. And even if we forget about those 20% who want to go for higher studies or government jobs, we are still left with 80% students, and that's a huge chunk. Apart from this, the talk of recession which started last year is also impacting us in many ways.

We are also constantly occupied with the responsibility of making students competent enough and ensuring that each of them get a decent and responsible placement at the end of their course. But it doesn't mean that there are hurdles only, as we believe that God is with us all the time. And from the year our college was established, it is growing year by year. Lastly, our end goal is that not only one student get highest salary package, but we are constantly working to see our students relieving out with a strong connection towards the Institution and a satisfying smile on their faces and blessings from their parents.