Software giant Oracle has unexpectedly revoked a significant number of campus placement and pre-placement job offers extended to fresh graduates from India's premier engineering institutions, including the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and National Institutes of Technology (NITs).
This move comes as the placement season is drawing to a close, forcing affected students to restart their job search in an already competitive market. The decision is understood to be part of Oracle's broader restructuring efforts, which saw over 30,000 global job cuts in April.
Students Face "Zero-Day" Setback
Many of the impacted students had secured their offers through 'zero-day' campus placements, a system that typically prevents them from applying to other companies. This policy has left them in a particularly precarious position, as they now find themselves without job prospects just as their academic careers conclude.
Smit Jogani, an IIT Kanpur student, shared his experience on LinkedIn, expressing the profound disappointment: "Hitting rock bottom right at the finish line is tough. I did it once, and I will do it again. I’m staying optimistic, putting my head down and focusing on building."
Another IIT Kanpur student, Gautam Raj, described receiving the "heartbreaking news" of his Member Technical Staff offer being revoked just a week before graduation. "It hurts deeply to see my path vanish right at the finish line. Finding myself starting from zero at the last minute, especially after giving up those other amazing opportunities, is a very heavy feeling," Raj wrote.
Kaushal Jain, also from IIT Kanpur, is among other students actively seeking new opportunities on professional networking platforms following the revocation of his job offer.
Broader Context of Oracle's Restructuring
The exact number of affected students across the country remains unconfirmed, but reports suggest more than 50 students from various IITs have been impacted, alongside several cases from NITs, including three from NIT Warangal.
This wave of offer revocations follows Oracle's large-scale global layoffs in April, which saw an estimated 30,000 employees let go via early morning emails, with approximately 12,000 of these from India. A majority of these layoffs reportedly occurred within the company's healthcare division. The current situation underscores the challenging job market for fresh graduates amid ongoing restructuring within the tech industry.