Union labour secretary TK Chaturvedi (in blue) at ISM on Tuesday. (Gautam Dey)

Dhanbad, Oct. 26: The placement season at Indian School of Mines (ISM) began at the executive development centre of the institute today with 151 students appearing for interviews for jobs in three premier companies, including British-Australian mining major Rio Tinto.

The two other companies included first-timer on campus Yahoo Software Development Limited and consulting giant PricewaterhouseCooper (PwC).

Providing details, associate professor in the department of computer science and engineering at ISM Dr Chiranjeev Kumar, who is also the training and placement officer, said 56 students appeared for Yahoo’s written test of whom 25 were short-listed for the programming test and two rounds of interview which would follow.

Rio Tinto, which visited the campus last year to study the facilities available, this year short-listed 21 students for selection through telephonic interviews and an online test held earlier. The 21 appeared before the mining giant’s interview board today.

However, the highest number of 74 students from different streams like BTech, MTech and dual degree engineering programmes, appeared for PwC’s placement interview.

Speaking to The Telegraph, Chiranjeev said oilfield services company Schlumberger would visit the campus tomorrow, while Indian public sector giant Coal India Limited — a bulk recruiter — would conduct interviews on the campus on Thursday.

Tata Motors will follow on Friday, while other companies like British Gas, Tata Steel, Hyundai and Jindal Steel would be visiting over the next one month.

The process is expected to conclude on November 20, though the timeframe could be extended depending upon response from recruiters.

Altogether 753 students from different courses including 314 from BTech, 157 MTech, 81 MSc, 71 MSc Tech, 42 MBA, 29 M Phil, 37 dual degree programme, 12 Integrated MSc and 10 Integrated M Sc Tech students would appear for the interviews this year.

According to Chiranjeev, of the 622 students who passed out last year, 416 were placed through campus selection. Of the BTech students, 93.38per cent were recruited from the campus.