BANGALORE: Indian IT firms have been trying to scamper up the ‘value chain’ in the past few years, and the resultant increase in focus on verticals such as product design and emerging technologies like mobile and cloud is sending these tech giants on a talent hunt to the country’s arts and design schools. With salary offers at a premium of well over 40-50% to engineering students, IT firms are making a beeline to recruit students from the likes of National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT), Srishti School of Arts, National Institute of Design (NID) and MIT Institute of Design.Compared to entry-level salaries of tech graduates at Rs 2.5 lakh to Rs 3.5 lakh per annum, design students are being picked up by companies such as Microsoft, SAP Labs, TCS, Cognizant, Mindtree, Infosys, Wipro and InMobi, as well as e-commerce players such as Amazon, Myntra, and Flipkart for anywhere between Rs 4 lakh and Rs 18 lakh, depending on the institute.At NID-Ahmedabad’s December 2013 placements, Samsung R&D recruited students at a salary of Rs 18 lakh, while Cognizant was the top recruiter with 20 students. Other IT recruiters included TCS, Wipro, Infosys, Naukri.com and Adobe among others. The average salaries ranged between Rs 7 lakh andRs 14 lakh; and the same, say officials at its placement office, was at Rs 4 lakh to Rs 4.5 lakh five years ago. NID-Bangalore, where all students have prior work experience, says its placements are made at an average salary ofRs 10 lakh to Rs 14 lakh. Last year it received 110 offers for 44 students in the interface design course. The institute has post graduate courses in information and interface design, design for digital experience, and design for retail experience.At NIFT, which has specialised IT industrybased electives in place, students used to be picked up start-ups that made mobile apps till some years ago. But now, its recruiters include names such as Myntra, Amazon, Flipkart and Snapdeal in e-retail, in addition to Infosys and Wipro in product design Around 20% of all placements at NIFT are in technology, with average starting salaries ofRs 4 lakh for under-graduate students. While Srishti School of Arts refused to comment, companies such as InMobi, Mindtree, Myntra and SAP Labs have been hiring from the school. SAP Labs, in fact, is in talks with Srishti to launch a collaborative course in design for IT.Explains Yathindra L, faculty member at NIFT-Bangalore, IT firms generally turn to design students for either tangible products or hardware design, and intangible products such as software, websites, and virtual media. Companies have just a few seconds to grab the attention of potential customers or end-users. They need to use a multi-sensorial, audio-visual kind of approach to tell their story or sell their product. “People from a coding background like software engineers might find it harder to connect with their customer base as compared to design students, who have the training to connect companies with customers better,” he adds.According to Anil Warrier, director (talent acquisition), SAP India, “The demand for design students in IT outstrips the supply, which is driving up salaries. This is the price you pay for creativity, not just coding and engineering,” he says. The company has been recruiting freshers from D-schools for the past two years, and is considering ramping up the process.“We have 6-7 interns usually, and we have the appetite to absorb all of them, and more, given that Indian labs are becoming increasingly integrated in global design work. The feedback we have received in terms of creativity is that some of the Indian designers are better than their counterparts in the US,” adds Warrier. SAP Labs has design centres in the US, Frankfurt, Dublin, Istanbul and Tel Aviv.At Myntra, design students are hired to work in conjunction with marketing teams, quality control, user experience and for the online equivalent of visual merchandising.“The big challenge for us,” says Myntra’s vice-president — human resource, Pooja Gupta, “is to find people with technology background, blended with creative or design capability. We hire extensively from NIFT with starting salaries of 4 lakh, and NID at Rs 8 lakh to Rs 10 lakh.” Myntra even hires from art institute Chitrakala Parishath, Bangalore, for creative functions in its marketing team.Microsoft India Design Studio hires designers to work with product managers and engineers from NIDs, IIT-Bombay, Symbiosis Pune, and MIT-Pune. “Hiring from top design schools is certainly a key strategy for us,” says Rohit Thakur, head of human resources, Microsoft India. “Software industry has reached a maturity phase where design and experience are now the key differentiators. Devices and apps today play a big role in enhancing products. This has pushed companies to focus a lot more on design and the need to build robust design teams,” he adds.InMobi, which works in the mobile advertising space, says that it will be entering into formal agreements with D-schools to recruit from this year onwards. “We are working on it, but we are definitely looking at 10-15 people,” says Monisha Tambay, vice-president – human resource, InMobi.According to universities, IT attention on design schools has also impacted the way parents view the prospects of design as a career for their children. “A lot of students and their parents are still unaware of these courses, and working on the aptitude for design. But with higher salaries and global prospects, we are seeing an increase in parents seeking information on design courses,” says Sujitha Nair, industry relations and students’ placement officer, NID-Ahmedabad.