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Placement Notice Board · What the data shows

Read the notices. Then decide.

Every year, students are told to stay in line, keep their heads down, and clear the placement rounds. Here is what the official data shows about that line today.

RTI · 2023-24
30–40%

of registered students at several IITs, including Kharagpur, BHU, Hyderabad and Indore, were still without offers by late April 2024.

Careers360, May 2024 ↗

The Builder Manifesto

We were told the plan was simple. Crack the exam, get the seat, clear the placement season, and life is set.

The plan is breaking. Seats are harder to fill with offers. Machines are learning the work that entry-level jobs were made of. And a degree on its own proves less every year.

We think there's a better way to spend four years. Build something. Find a problem you can't stop thinking about, find the people who care about it too, and ship.

You might fail. Most startups do. You'll still leave college having done what no mock interview can teach: made something real, for real people, with real stakes.

This shouldn't be a privilege of a few campuses with an incubator and an alumni network. It should be normal, in every college, in every city.

That's why The Future Council exists. Don't queue. Build.

Skill Acquisition

Placement prep vs. Building.

What you actually learn from spending your college years shipping a real product.

The Placement Queue

Placement Prep

Solving artificial problems Practicing leetcode algorithmic puzzles with predetermined answers that no customer actually uses.
Pleasing interviewers Crafting answers to fit a standard rubric where someone else decides if you are selected.
Simulated stakes Mock interviews and theoretical case studies where nothing breaks if you get it wrong.
Waiting for permission Waiting until final year placement drives to find out where your career begins.
The Builder World

Building a Startup

Talking to real customers Uncovering painful problems, conducting 20+ user interviews, and understanding what people will pay for.
Shipping working products Writing production code, using AI tooling, deploying live software, and iterating from user feedback.
Selling, distribution & revenue Convincing strangers to try your product, handling objections, and collecting your first rupee.
Undeniable Proof of Work You graduate having founded a team, built software, and pitched investors. You are hired for what you shipped.
Institutional Support & Policy

The college safety nets you didn't know existed.

You don't have to choose between a degree and building a startup. Many top institutions and national policy already protect student founders.

Deferred Placement Policies

Several IITs and IIMs formally allow graduating students who start companies to defer campus placement for up to two years. If your venture doesn't work out, you return to the placement drive with full alumni support.

National Innovation & Startup Policy (NISP 2019)

Framed by the Ministry of Education (MHRD) and AICTE, the National Innovation and Startup Policy explicitly asks universities across India to allow:

  • Semester breaks and 1-year gap breaks for student founders.
  • Academic course credits for working on startup prototypes.
  • Attendance relaxation for student founders pursuing customer validation and incubation.
Read the NISP policy ↗ Ask your dean or T&P cell for these rights.
For Indian Parents

A letter to parents.

Dear parents,

We know how hard you worked to get your child into college. You want them to have financial security, dignity, and a clear path ahead.

When your child says they want to spend time building a startup, it is natural to worry. But building a startup in college is no longer a reckless gamble—it is the fastest way to become exceptionally capable.

Here is how The Future Council protects your child:

  • Aligned, founder-first terms: Campus chapters and community membership are 100% free with zero equity. For our selective 4-week Launchpad accelerator cohort, we take an aligned 2% equity stake in the 20 selected ventures (founders retain 98% ownership), with zero tuition and zero success fees on funds raised.
  • Safety nets exist: Many colleges let students defer placements for up to two years. Check your college's policy.
  • Real skills for a changing world: Even if the startup fails, tech companies actively recruit founders because they know how to build real products, talk to customers, and solve problems independently.

College is the cheapest time in life to take an ambitious swing. Thank you for supporting their agency.

Dhruv Madan & Aryaveer Chauhan · Founders, The Future Council

Share with your parents on WhatsApp ↗ Sends a calm explanation directly to their WhatsApp chat.

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