Sri Saravana Babu sir started his career in academia in the domain of physics and eventually started his journey as a placement director in the year 2004, and now he is one of the most well-connected placement officers in the industry for organizations. Saravana Babu sir holds a master's degree in Master of Science (M.Sc.) Physics from N. G. M College and Master of Philosophy (M.Phil.) Physics from MS University. He has also done an M.H.R.M. (Masters of Human Resource Management) from Pondicherry University. He is currently serving as the Senior Director for Placement at KL University.

KL University

You held key positions at various institutions throughout your career. What is that one thing that made you excited and walk with KLU on the journey?

Sri Saravana Babu sir started his career in academia in the domain of physics and eventually started his journey as a placement director in the year 2004, and now he is one of the most well-connected placement officers in the industry for organizations. Saravana Babu sir holds a master's degree in Master of Science (M.Sc.) Physics from N. G. M College and Master of Philosophy (M.Phil.) Physics from MS University. He has also done an M.H.R.M. (Masters of Human Resource Management) from Pondicherry University. He is currently serving as the Senior Director for Placement at the KL University.

What motivated you to pursue a career in academia and become a placements director, from the corporate industry?

I joined as a physics lecturer earlier in 2001. Then, until 2004, I was in the same domain. I was the founder and placement officer of the previous organization, where there was no placement office before. My colleague thought, Why can’t we start the placement office? So, we submitted the proposal, and in 2004, I started the placement activities at the earlier institution. Then, slowly and with time, we also learned how to handle the activities. We achieved good results 2–3 years down the line. Now, that institution is also one of the top institutions in Andhra Pradesh. A couple of my subordinates joined as placement officers at IITs. We also keep on interacting with each other and all the inputs we dump into the practices at KLU. So, we kept a reference to NITs and IITs as our placement model, and we started doing that summer internship at the end of the second year. We started doing things one year ahead of the other peer institutes. That helped us stand apart from the other institutions in the region.

How well is KLU focusing on maintaining industry relationships with companies in order to leverage them for live projects, training, and placements for the students?

Since we have numerous recruiters who are in constant touch with us and visit us every year, we have a separate concept called a practice school on campus. Practice school is purely meant for an internship. So, the students and the recruiters are being invited both by the practice school and by the placement office. In the placement office, we invite them for placements and request that the companies provide internships for the selected students. The practice school concept is to invite companies for internships, and if performance is good, the students will get a PPO. We also have partnerships with Internshala, which are purely in agreement with AICTE, and we also have certain MOUs with industries across all verticals. They will provide an opportunity every year for our students to go on internships. Internships are a mandatory activity not only in engineering but in all other domains as well.

What steps do you take to assess and match students' skills, interests, and career goals with suitable placement opportunities?

Since we have a good number of recruiters in constant touch with us and visit us every year. We have a separate concept called a practice school on campus. Practice school is purely meant for an internship. So, the students, and the recruiters are being invited both by practice school and by the placement office. In the placement office, we invite them for placements and request the companies to provide internships for the selected students. The practice school concept is to invite companies for internships and if performance is good, the students will get a PPO. We also have partnerships with Internshala which is purely in agreement with AICTE and we also have certain MOUs with industries across all verticals. They will provide an opportunity every year constantly for our students to go for internships. Internships are a mandatory activity not only in engineering but also for all other domains as well.

Can you discuss your experience handling Placements & Internships, what are the major challenges of being in this role and how do you manage them?

So, 20 years ago, when I started the placement activities, I thought, Initially, one or two years would be difficult for us, but after that, things would run smoothly. But, even after these 20 years, I am running the same as I did from day one because the industry is very dynamic, and we have to prepare the students for that. We have to prepare the students according to the requirements of the industry. The industry is drifting from conventional placements to focused placements and skill-based placements. So, now, skill is the first criterion that companies see; earlier, they used to say they only wanted computer science and electronics students. Now, they are saying they want students who are experts in DevOps and students who have skills in cyber security or who have a certification in cyber security. So, this is a dynamic change that happens. Another thing is communication skills. Communication skills play a vital role because whatever you know technically, you have to express it to the interviewer. The next challenge is that students do not have a clear vision or plan for their careers, and they will take placement for granted. And once they get placed, the parent influence also comes into the picture. They might go for higher education. And the institutions suffer a lot because the companies that visit us will hire based on their requirements. And all of a sudden, if the students are not joining, they have to go again for hiring. There is a cost involved, and sometimes if the numbers are very low from our institutions during the joining, then the company may not come the next time to the campus. So, we may lose some companies because of the low fit ratio.

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Can you share with us some initiatives you have implemented in KLU in terms of improving the training and placement processes?

We have some initiatives, like doing a lot of practice exams for the students. Apart from conducting company-focused exams, we started this activity in the third year for the students. We break the entire syllabus into individual, small microparts, and we start conducting practice tests for students, and the results are shared with them. The poor students and poor performers are informed to prepare on the topics. We introduced the badges and super badges concept, where students who attend each exam are counted into badges and the score is counted into super badges. So, we kept minimum criteria on badges and super badges for placements. We also shared the ranks of the students based on the exam. So, a dashboard with the ranks is visible for each student in the portal. When we had that leaderboard in place, the students started working towards increasing their rankings. So, we just triggered a race, and it did most of the work for us. Another initiative we took in the administration was to have a portal where the placement administration happens. We will be posting the company and the criteria. Only students who are interested will apply, and students who are not interested will not.

How do you engage with alumni who have participated in placements or internships to build a strong network and facilitate mentorship opportunities for current students?

We have a strong alumni network. Every quarter, the alumni will be visiting us at the campus for alumni meetings, and we have them all across the globe. Our team will be interacting with them. Whenever there is success in placements or an achievement from the students, Immediately, we share them with our alumni. There may be direct involvement by alumni. In many big companies, most of our alumni are in senior positions with 25–30 years of experience. So, these people are influential in their companies. So, when we do not approach them asking for recommendations, we want to make them aware of what is happening in the institution. It is our responsibility to spread the information, news, success, and celebrations to them and make them aware of what we are doing.

What is your vision as director of Placements KLU, for the upcoming years?

My mission is to be the top placement officer in the country. If I achieve that, automatically the institute will be at the top in terms of placements. There are two goals. One is to create visibility across the industry about our activities and bring top-notch players to the campus for placements with the best possible package. So, if one placement cycle goes well, we will get the top talent in the country. If good students join our institution, they automatically attract top companies. This is a cycle that we triggered a couple of years ago. And we expect that in another 5–6 years, the students coming to us will be the top talent group. Everyone strives to be number one, but reaching there as early as possible is our target. If the institute becomes number one, the placement officer will also be treated as number one, and vice versa. We want to be the first choice for students and parents, as well as for the industries in all requirements. So, this is our mission, and it should be achieved at the earliest. Because the competition is enormous and growing multifold. Even if you take a rest for a day or two, you’ll fall behind. We are very passionate, and we are working in all dimensions to reach the top spot.