Attractive offers to Computer Science grads

The number of companies homing in on Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (IIT-M) for campus placements have almost doubled this year, while foreign corporate houses are also showing greater interest in scouting for talent on the campus.

Several companies have been visiting the campus for pre-placement talks and have made presentations on company profiles to the students with a view to attracting them when the interviews begin around December 1 (in all IITs).

“From the time the pre-placement talks began on August 16, eight foreign companies, including Facebook and Sumitomo Chemicals, have registered with us for recruitment with technical and research job profiles,” says Prashanth Pinnamaneni, Academic Affairs Secretary. There are two companies from Japan, three from the United States, one each from Dubai, Malaysia and Singapore.

B.Tech (Computer Science) students have quite a few attractive offers. Pocket Gems, a mobile game developer, has not only offered a whopping $ 1,37,000 per annum, but also extra benefits such as sponsoring holidays, outings and Friday parties. “We also have start-ups including Inmobi, which is offering Rs. 14 lakh per annum in hand with fewer additional benefits,” says S. Divyesh, a B.Tech (Computer Science) student. Things are still uncertain, because these are just talks. For instance, Facebook came up with offers last year but did not recruit.

M. Tech graduates

Interestingly, this year, students observe that there is equal importance given to M.Tech students and research scholars. “Financial companies including Goldman Sachs have started considering M. Tech students on a par with B. Tech graduates, which is a good sign,” says Srujan Kumar, an M. Tech student at IIT-M.

While research-oriented institutes such as Amrita University are seeking research assistants with renewed rigour, core companies including CISCO and Juniper are offering M. Tech students more for the same work profile.

Most software companies have relaxed their eligibility from eight to seven CGPA this year. Financial companies, however, have insisted on at least a CGPA of nine. The wait is not over, as expected bigwigs including Google that offered Rs. 23 lakh last year, are still to come for the talks, say students.

The selection procedure will have as many as three technical rounds, after two written tests. Financial companies such as Morgan & Stanley that offer nearly Rs 25 lakh per annum are likely to focus on GATE and JEE scores too, to ensure that only the best are roped in.

“Higher the pay, more difficult gets the selection,” says a student. “These companies recruit just around four or five. Last year, Intel did recruit around 30 students but that happens only occasionally,” he adds. The packages have increased significantly too. “Yahoo that offered a package of Rs 9 lakh per annum last year is offering Rs. 13.5 lakh,” says Divyesh.

The campus placements at IIT-M are co-ordinated by a team of students working in tandem with the placement office. Each branch has a counsellor and there are M.Tech and Ph.D counsellors also and the team is confident that the last year's average salary of Rs 7.40 lakh per annum would go up this year. The committee is now trying hard to convince companies such as Facebook that want only B.Tech (CS) students to consider other interested candidates too.

Humanities doing beter

The humanities and arts are also doing better this year. “More companies have shown interest with offers of research associates and editorial jobs,” says Kavitha Narayanan, branch counsellor for the three streams of M.A. degree offered at the IIT-M.

Over 1,100 B.Tech, B.Tech (dual) and research scholars have registered with the placement office for taking part in recruitment drive. Of the 1,146 registered students last year, 82 per cent of B.Tech and 73 per cent of M.Tech students were recruited.