Slowdown clouds skip top engineering schools

Early signs in placement season show more firms signing up and increase in salaries

Early placement trends at the country’s leading engineering institutes appear to be defying the general economic slowdown. According to institutes, not only has companies’ response been positive across functions, even salary packages have doubled in many cases. An average increase of at least 10-15 per cent is expected in pay packages this year.

At the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay (IIT-B), for instance, 100 companies have so far registered for placements — 10 per cent more than that in the corresponding period last year.

Companies from across functions — consultancy, banking, finance and core engineering — have registered for placements. The formal recruitment process at the IITs will begin in December.

“The response from companies has been very good so far. We have recently begun the process. We think it will get even better by December,” said a placement committee member at IIT-B, which has a total of 1,179 students to place this year.

“While some companies have doubled salary packages, many have indicated they would recruit in good numbers,” the placement committee member added.

As part of pre-placement offers (PPOs) at IIT, Kharagpur (IIT-KGP), Google has made an offer of Rs 93 lakh to a student for summer internship at the search engine giant.

“Slowdown hasn’t been evident in so far as PPOs are concerned. As regards the final placements, we will get a better idea by next month, when recruiters’ registrations are completed,” said Sudhir Barai, head of training and placements, IIT-KGP.

For recruiters, too, slowdown has hardly been a concern area — especially for the companies in the core engineering and IT sectors.

“Since we engage in high-end research, we continue to need technical graduates and post-graduates every year. The slowdown has, therefore, not impacted our recruitment planning. We will continue to offer packages of Rs 6-7 lakh a year, the same as earlier,” said Girish Mudgal, director at TimeTooth Technologies, a regular recruiter at IIT-KGP, IIT-Kanpur, IIT-B, IIT-Gandhinagar and IIT-Ropar.

“We will start going to the campuses by October. We plan to recruit graduates from the newer IITs and MTechs from the older ones,” Mudgal added.

At IIT-Roorkee, 100 companies have confirmed participation so far. These include majors like Qualcomm, Adobe, Schlumberger, Google and Microsoft. The institute has already received PPOs from Google.

“To make our placements successful, we have changed our strategy this time. We are conducting alumni meets and hosting events on the campus to connect with companies and reach out to more potential recruiters,” said Tarun Goel, placement committee member, IIT-Roorkee.

Last year, the highest among pay packages offered to IIT-Roorkee students was from Facebook — of Rs 80 lakh. The institute has around 1,600 students to place this year.

At Delhi Technological University (DTU), a 21-year-old computer engineering student last week bagged a pay offer of Rs 93 lakh a year from Google Inc. The highest annual package at DTU last year was Rs 58 lakh.

“Though there is an economic slowdown, the response from companies has been good so far. We have not invited mass recruiters like the IT companies, which pick students in good numbers. The university will take a call on inviting these firms shortly,” said a senior DTU official. The university has a total batch size — BTech and MTech — of 1,100 students. Around 40 companies have so far made 265 job offers since the placement season began on August 1.

The second highest international pay package offer at DTU has come from US-based software company EPIC — of Rs 73 lakh to two MTech students. The company has also offered nine BTech students packages of Rs 70 lakh each.

Among domestic offers, the highest pay package has come from Goldman Sachs, which is followed by Amazon, which has offered eight students pay packages of Rs 19 lakh each.

At Ahmedabad-based Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information & Communication Technology (DAIICT), too, the placement process has sprung surprises.

“Last year, we didn’t have any international offer. But this time, Google has made an offer — first and the highest international offer so far. We have already seen some of big industry players coming to our campus,” said a placement committee member at DAIICT.

On the domestic offers front, Amazon has made offered five students Rs 19.5 lakh each. Among the first-time recruiters are Google, Amazon, HP, Deloitte, Morgan Stanley, Samsung, Flipkart, and Yahoo. The institute has so far placed 90 of the 220 students in its BTech programme.

Among sectors, IT, core engineering, e-commerce, analytics and consulting are some of the sectors recruiters from which have come to DAIICT so far.

The institute has seen its domestic average compensation package going up to Rs 7.5 lakh, from last year’s Rs 5.3 lakh. Compared with 50 companies last year, 20 companies have already visited the DAIICT campus for placements so far this year and many more are expected to come in the days ahead.

However, the impact of the slowdown is likely to be seen in some sectors, such as manufacturing, which could make students look at alternative industry segments.

DEFYING THE DOWNTURN

* Package: Institutes see 10-15% rise in pay packages on an average; many companies double pay

* More firms: Institutes invite more companies on their campuses; conduct alumni meets to rope them in for better placements; hosting events help connect with companies

* Recruiters: IT, core engineering, e-commerce, analytics and consulting firms have been major recruiters so far this year