IIT placements back to pre-recession levels

It’s not only the B-schools which are drawing companies on campus. Improved global recovery has brought the companies back on the campuses of Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), too.

So unlike the past two years when IITs feared achieving 100 per cent placements and prompted their students to take up higher studies due to lack of jobs, this year they have placed around 80 per cent of the batch sizes, already. This, after making headlines for receiving record salary offers.

“Overall the sentiment has been more positive. Companies have been bullish both in terms of making offers and presenting the salary packages. In fact, it would not be incorrect to say that offers are better than those made pre-recession,” said SK Srivastava, professor-in-charge, training and placement, IIT-Kharagpur.

IIT-Kgp began its placements in the last week of December 2010 and recorded the highest pay package of about $1,35,000 made by Facebook.

Till the last week of February, more than 600 companies visited the campus, and made over 1700 offers. This, against 360 offers made during the same period last year. “With 80 per cent of students currently placed, things seem to be on the upswing. For departments which did not see full placement last year, have already seen 100 per cent placement,” Srivastava said.

Ditto with IIT-Bombay which as compared to last year, received more number of offers this year. The institute invited more number of companies on campus this year.

The placement season which is still on, has seen participation from over 200 companies across technology, research and development, public sector, financial services, engineering and process ing along with education related sectors.

“In general we have observed a 15 to 20 per cent increase in salary across all sectors as compared to last year. With the increase in packages observed last year, the current packages are generally better than those offered during the pre-recession period,” said Ravi Sinha professor-in-charge, placement, IIT-Bombay.

At IIT-Madras, 80 per cent of students have currently been placed, no mean feat considering that the placement season is still a month from being over. The average salary for an IIT-Madras graduate is at Rs 7.5 lakhs.

“The highest salary this year stands at Rs 38 lakh so far, with the primary recruiters coming from information technology (IT) companies like Google and Facebook, along with consultancies like McKinsey,” said N R Babu, advisor, training and placement, IIT-Madras.

Incidentally, at IIT-Madras too, departments which normally lag in terms of placements, by way of both offers and size of pay packages have done well this time around. Salary levels have picked up more than 25-30 per cent.

A voice of dissent, amidst placement related elation came from IIT-Roorkee, which despite witnessing a rise in overall number of visiting companies has not seen a phenomenal change in salaries offered.

“The highest salary of about Rs 40 lakh is comparable to last year’s packages. While saying that things are back to pre-recession would be over-stepping the line, one can hope that the increase in number of visiting companies will translate into better packages soon,” said PK Jain, professor and coordinator, training and placement cell, IIT-Roorkee.