Median salary for IIT-Bombay graduates crosses ₹10 lakh for the first time
The annual package has risen Rs9.3 lakh to Rs10.2 lakh, the institute’s annual placement report said.
In a first, the median salary package offered during the 2017-18 placements at the Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay (IIT-B) has touched the seven-figure mark, after seeing a dip during the 2016-17 placement season.
The median salary — the annual package offered to the average IIT-B graduate — rose from Rs9.3 lakh to Rs10.2 lakh in 2017-18, the institute's annual placement report revealed.
The median salary is considered a better indicator of placement trends than the average salary, as it represents the middle-most package offered at the institute. Average salary, on the other hand, is often skewed by a few very high or very low salary figures. The hike comes a year after the institute recorded a slump in the median salary for the first time in six years — between 2011-12 and 2016-17, the median salary offered to IIT-B graduates rose from Rs7.6 lakh to Rs9.8 lakh, but dropped to Rs9.3 lakh in 2016-17. There was also an uptick in the average salary, which increased from Rs11.41 lakh an annum in 2016-17 to Rs12.69 lakh in 2017-18.
In terms of cost-to-company (CTC), the average salary rose from Rs13.38 lakh to Rs16.25 lakh during this period. The latest placements took place between December 2017 and May 2018.
In 2017-18, IT giant Microsoft offered the largest annual package of $2.14 lakh, while financial services firm Blackstone offered the largest domestic package of Rs45 lakh. However, most offers are much smaller.
While the institute didn't provide an explanation for the increase in salaries, experts said the growth was normal. “I can't think of a particular reason [for the hike]," said Tom Mathews, the placement head of the institute.
Rituparna Chakraborty, executive vice-president at TeamLease Services, a human resource consulting agency, said, “It's a quite a normal average hike, if one takes inflation into consideration. It’s a continuous trend at the institute. If the salaries had not risen to this extent, then it would have been a departure from the trend.”
Meanwhile, the number of job offers made by core engineering and information technology (IT) sectors at IIT-B continued to dip. In 2017-18, 80 engineering and technology companies made 324 offers — down from 345 offers in 2016-17 and 381 offers in 2014-15. The number of job offers by the IT sector dropped to 177, after witnessing a spike, at 270, in 2015-16.
Chakraborty said the lack of job opportunities in core engineering firms was worrying. “There are two reasons for this trend. First, th~e core sectors are not really expanding the way they should, And second, engineering graduates may not possess the necessary skills.”
She added that due to automation in the IT sector, companies no longer hire students in bulk, instead are looking for more experienced candidates.
Around 65% of the students got jobs during the institute’s placements, the same as the year. Of 1,689 students who registered for the placements, 1,101 got job offers.
