Covid-19 pandemic, slowdown hits IIT placements

Microsoft, which was known to offer the highest packages and international job offers for three consecutive years, offered only domestic roles to candidates this year

The economic slowdown due to the pandemic seems to have hit the total number of jobs offered as well as salary packages offered to students at the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) this year. It has been a week since the placements at IITs commenced.

As per the placement report for the first couple of days shared by IIT-Bombay (IIT-B), several companies offered jobs across sectors. (Satish Bate/HT Photo)

While the overall pay packages for domestic job roles have witnessed a rise this year, several companies known to offer international job profiles to students every year, have offered either domestic roles or missed out on offering jobs altogether in some IITs compared to 2019-20 placement season.

As per the placement report for the first couple of days shared by IIT-Bombay (IIT-B), several companies offered jobs across sectors and the highest annual package of ₹46.41 lakh was offered by Qualcomm. Last year, the highest domestic package received by a student of the institute was ₹32.59 lakhs, by the same company. The highest international package this year was offered by proprietary trading firm Optiver of 1.57 lakh euros per annum (roughly, ₹1.39 crore), slightly lower than the ₹1.54 crore package offered by Microsoft to a student last year.

Surprisingly Microsoft, which was known to offer the highest packages and international job offers for three consecutive years, offered only domestic roles to candidates this year.

At IIT-Roorkee, 671 students have been offered jobs, both domestic and international, in the first week of placements. The number, however, stood at 747 in the same week last year. As per information shared by the institute, the highest number of jobs were offered by Microsoft India Pvt Ltd, Societe General Global Solution Centre, EXL Service, Goldman Sachs and Oracle India Pvt Ltd. “Higher jobs have been offered in the finance as well as for analytics field this year,” said a spokesperson for IIT-Roorkee.

According to a statement shared by IIT-Hyderabad, students of the institute received 222 job offers, including 30 international offers in the first phase of placements which ended on December 6 this year. Last year, the institute had received 36 international job offers in the first phase and 295 jobs overall in the 2019-20 academic year. This year, 116 companies had registered for placements at the institute compared to around 150 in phase one last year. Not a single US-based company registered to offer international posts to students of the institute this time.

“We had anticipated a slowdown due to the pandemic and accordingly strengthened our student teams to adapt to the changing scenario. We are glad that the first phase of placements started on this positive note,” said Pradeep Yemula, faculty in-charge (placements) at IIT-Hyderabad.

The overall domestic pay packages were on the higher side this year across IITs, especially on the first couple of days. At IIT-Roorkee, the annual package for a domestic role witnessed a rise with a student of the institute being offered Rs 80 lakh per annum, almost 29% higher compared to ₹62.2 lakh offered to a student last year. The number of international job offers, however, witnessed a dip with only three job offers made in the first half of the day compared to 10 and seven that were made last year and the year before last respectively.