KOLKATA: Microsoft Amazon and Goldman Sachs are among those setting the pace at the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) with students getting a record number of job offers, bucking the slowdown in the employment market. That’s even before final placements kick off at most of the older IITs on December 1.Pre-placement offers at IITs — both old and new — including those at Mumbai, Kharagpur, Guwahati, Hyderabad and Gandhinagar for the class of 2020, have beaten last year’s corresponding numbers by 19-24%, according to institute placement cells. In the case of Hyderabad, they’ve almost doubled. At some of these IITs, even more preplacement offers (PPOs) are expected in the coming week in the run-up to final placements.At IIT-Bombay, as of early November, the number of PPOs spiked 24% to 163 from the year earlier. They had risen to 37 from 19 in 2018-19 at IIT-Hyderabad, as of November 19. IIT-Guwahati has seen a 19% rise in PPOs to 119 so far. At IIT-Gandhinagar, they-’re up 20% and IIT-Kharagpur has crossed last year’s tally of 261, with more lined up. The premier engineering colleges have remained largely insulated from the slowdown.“It’s all about quality,” said SV Nathan, chief talent officer at Deloitte, a regular recruiter at the institutes. “IITs are among the institutions which have the highest standards of students coming in through the doors. That’s why recruiters will continue to throng IITs for talent, irrespective of any slowdown.”The highest number of PPOs have come from IT software and hardware companies, followed by those from the analytics and consulting sectors, said the IITs. All the IITs said hiring has increased over last year. Microsoft, Amazon, Goldman Sachs, Samsung R&D, Adobe, Qualcomm and Rubrik are among the companies that have issued the maximum PPOs, said the people cited earlier.“We are confident of garnering good numbers and good job profiles despite the so-called slowdown,” said an IIT-Bombay spokesperson. Acceptance of PPOs, which are based on performances during six-eight week internships, means jobs in hand even before final placements.Vidya Lakshmi, head of human capital management at Goldman Sachs in Bengaluru, said it had given 64 PPOs across 10 IITs for students in the graduating class of 2020. The firm visited IITs in Mumbai, Delhi, Kanpur, Kharagpur, Roorkee, Guwahati, Varanasi, Chennai, Dhanbad and Hyderabad.“In 2019, 96 students from these IITs summer interned with us, with approximately 70% receiving preplacement offers to return,” she said. “Recruitment through visiting the IITs will continue to be a focus for Goldman Sachs.”Pradeep Kumar Yemula, faculty in charge of placements at IIT-Hyderabad, said the big jump in PPOs boded well for overall placements. “We are also expecting more placement offers than last year,” said Yemula. DE Shaw and Microsoft have been the top paymasters at IIT-Hyderabad, he said.An IIT-Gandhinagar placement cell member told ET that the number of undergraduate students who have been placed has seen an increase of more than 60% compared with the same time last year. The institute, being a new IIT, has already started final placements.Several companies have made their debuts across campuses in a bid to recruit the best engineering talent through the PPO route. Novartis and Sprinklr are new company additions at IIT-Bombay; Rubrik gave PPOs for the first time at IIT-Guwahati; IIT-Gandhinagar had Tonichi Insatsu Co and Diverta Inc from Japan, apart from Nutanix Technologies and Infostretch. IIT-Kharagpur had Tata Consultancy Services, AB InBev, NTT-AT (Japan) and Philips gave PPOs for the first time at IIT-Hyderabad, according to placement cells.At IIT-Roorkee, which has 140 PPOs so far, Adobe and Microsoft have given the maximum number of offers. Cisco, Cohesity, Cure.fit, Rubrik, Societe Generale, Trident, Western Digital and ZestMoney are among those that made PPOs for the first time this year.