According to Parvinder Singh, a final year student at Guru Nanak Dev University, campus placements in 2008-09 have been dismal. For most students in his batch, getting a good internship in their final semesters is their only hope of getting a job after they graduate. "If we do a good job in the 6 months that we are with the company, they might ask us to come back as full time employees once we graduate" says Singh.

Given the necessity for such programs in India, it is surprising that most colleges have yet to adapt to the concept. Very few colleges have placement cells that help students get placed for internships. Even the ones that do are unable to place all the students in the college. SearchMyCampus is targeted at these students.

"Our interaction with students from across the country has made us realize that internships are the need of the hour. To satisfy this need we are working aggressively towards tying up with companies that are interested in recruiting interns" says Peyush Bansal, founder of SearchMyCampus.com. Along with getting employers on board, the campus based classifieds venture has also set up a network of campus representatives working towards promoting the website in colleges, and encouraging students to apply for listed internships.

Recruiting interns works out well not only for the students, but also companies. They get low cost resources that can work with them for periods of 2 months to 1 year. They can test the capability of the interns before taking them on as full time employees. According to Reema Govil, Public Relations Officer at Pankhudi Foundation, an NGO based in South Delhi "We will be recruiting student interns to teach at a slum in Okhla over the summer and we hope they will be sufficiently interested in our activity to stay on even after the intern program is over. Ventures like SearchMyCampus are the perfect place to recruit since we can minimize our recruitment and advertising expenditure while reaching students directly"

SearchMyCampus began as a concept that was fairly alien to students in India, but due to its usefulness it has grown considerably in the past year. The process is simple. Students log on to the website and upload their resume. They also describe the kind of internship they are looking for to prospective employers. Companies can log on and list their job opening they have in universities that they are interested in hiring from. Over 70% of students listing their requirements on the website tend to be in search of jobs, particularly internships.

Over 55% of job openings are posted by companies that are looking to recruit interns. "We are already seeing a positive response by both students and employers to our efforts towards creating internship opportunities. We are confident this will continue over the next few months" says Bansal.

About SearchMyCampus.com:

SearchMyCampus.com is a venture of Valyoo Technologies Private Limited. The website was launched in December 2007. It is a campus and job classifieds website that serves basic student needs i.e. jobs, housing, coaching, gadgets, books, transport and events. The website presently caters to over 70 universities in India.