Despite slowdown scare, IIT students get better job offers

As the placement process for the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) completes a week, it seems that the economic slowdown has left little to no effect on job

As the placement process for the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) completes a week, it seems that the economic slowdown has left little to no effect on job offers as well as salary packages this year.

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While in some cases, the total number of companies registered for the first phase of placement season has reduced in some IITs, the number of crore-plus packages has doubled, and so have the number of international job offers, as compared to the previous year.

Last year, three IIT-Bombay (IIT-B) students were offered crore-plus package by three different companies whereas this year, Microsoft alone made offers to three students of ₹1.5 crore (base salary plus benefits) each. The company has also offered ₹1.5-crore package to students in IIT-Roorkee and IIT-Madras this year.

On the other hand, Uber has slightly lowered its offer this year at IIT-B. In the past two years, the company had offered USD 150,000 (roughly ₹1.05 crore) package for positions in the US. This year, however, they offered a package of USD 143,000 (roughly, ₹1.02 crore).

Officials at IIT-Delhi said that the current batch witnessed the highest number of placements on the first day itself, surpassing all previous records. On December 1, IIT-Delhi students received 419 job offers, including 175 pre-placement offers (PPOs), compared to 223 job offers received on day one in 2018. “The figures indicate that there has been no effect on employment opportunities to IIT-Delhi students despite the perceived market status,” said V Ramgopal Rao, director of the institute.

The institutes are also witnessing a high number of international job offers. IIT-B received 32 international job offers on day one of placements, with maximum offers coming from Honda (R&D), Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), Optiver (Netherlands) as well as Don’t (Japan), among others.

At IIT-Guwahati, four offers for international posts were made on day one, and on day two, over 20 international offers were made by companies including Microsoft, Uber, Accenture Japan, SOU Japan and BNY Melon USA.

“We are getting offers for profiles such as IT/software, finance, analyst, core electronics and design. Besides domestic offers, we have several international offers this time, and the number of offers made in the first two days is more than the total international job offers received during the phase one of placements in 2018,” said Rakhesh Singh Kshetrimayum, head of career development centre, IIT-Guwahati.

Smaller IITs have also witnessed a rise in job offers this year. IIT-Mandi had 75 companies registering for placements this year, as compared to 45 last year. “We’ve broken all previous records, and this year, our students also received more PPOs compared to last year. We are looking forward to a positive trend in the second phase as well, which will be conducted early next year,” said Varun Dutt, faculty advisor, career and placement cell, IIT-Mandi.