Bengaluru: This placement season, mechanical and civil students are back in demand in engineering colleges, with many institutions reporting renewed interest in hiring students from core branches. Several colleges have witnessed an increase in the number of companies hiring from core branches for students graduating in 2025-26.
Several colleges have been able to place almost 100% of their students. University Visvesvaraya College of Engineering (UVCE) said all their civil students were placed and is hoping the same with the mechanical stream by the end of the season. "The number of companies coming in is better than in the past five years," said placement officer Dileep Kumar, UVCE.
The reason for the high percentage of placement could also be because of the lower number of students when compared to other streams. "Many colleges have shut down the core branches; in some others, the intake has been reduced to a small cohort of students. With this, in the campuses that have students in these branches, the demand is high for them," noted KN Subramanya, principal, RV College of Engineering.
Ramaiah Institute of Technology dean, training and placements, Sreenivasa Ramanujam K said that there is at least a 20% increase in the number of companies coming for mech and civil students, including companies working with drones and electric vehicles. "We were able to attract around 60 companies. There are more discussions happening with companies working with drones and EV-related vehicles. Yet another related branch called industrial engineering and management IEM is also doing well this time. While 51-53 of the 60 students have been placed so far, the others are also likely to find placement in the next two months," he said.
PES University said the pattern is how internships are getting converted to job offers. "Either students have been placed or have internships. The trend this time was to get internship offers and that getting converted," said KS Sridhar, placement head.
Cambridge Institute of Technology said while all mechanical students were placed, civil engineering is also nearing 100%. "While it was picking up last year too, this year has been really good. In terms of admissions to the first year, there's a demand for management seats in civil, mechanical and electrical programmes this year," said BV Ravi Shankar, principal.
"The package for these branches is not as good as computer science streams initially. But over years, it rises and becomes on par with others," Dileep added.
Expert Speak
This reflects a strong comeback of India's core economy, driven by infrastructure growth, manufacturing expansion, EVs, renewable energy and industrial capex. What is also changing is the balance between domain and technology skills. Companies today are not just looking for pure core engineers, but professionals who understand design, automation, analytics, simulation tools, AI-led operations and smart manufacturing. This convergence of engineering fundamentals with digital capability is making mechanical and civil graduates far more relevant and employable than they have been in recent years. — Neeti Sharma | CEO, TeamLease Digital
