Bhubaneswar: Three students of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bhubaneswar have bagged the highest annual pay package of Rs 43 lakh during the ongoing recruitment drive.
Also, the average salary offered has also gone up by an impressive 30 per cent, institute Director Prof RV Raja Kumar told Education Bytes.
The first phase of the campus placement, by no yardstick, reflects the slowdown in the economy. IIT Bhubaneswar too, like the other IITs, has bucked the fear of a sombre placement season as leading corporate names such as Microsoft, GE, Amazon, Goldman Sachs and Samsung made a beeline to the campus for the best and the bright talents. Start-ups also recruited well.
“Over 70 per cent of the students have already been placed during the first phase and we are confident that after the conclusion of the recruitment exercise, the overall placement will surpass the previous year’s figure,” Prof Kumar said.
Last year, the placement rate was 90 per cent while at the end of the first phase, it stood at 55 per cent. The second phase started this week.
Students who bagged the highest salary of Rs 43 lakh per annum are: Ankit Pradhan (Computer Science & Engineering), Methuku Preetham (Computer Science & Engineering), Abdul Azgar Taj (Electronics & Communication Engineering)
The average annual salary, the Director said, stood at Rs 15 lakh vis-a-vis Rs 11.5 lakh last year. While 30 blue-chip companies participated in the first round, Prof Kumar said they are expecting another 22-25 companies to participate in the second round.
“We have laid a lot of stress on quality and academic excellence. Recently our students have also bagged the first prize at the smart hackathon at IIITDM Kancheepuram. All these are a testament to the overriding objective of IIT Bhubaneswar to remain at the top and among the best institutes in the country,” Prof Kumar said.
The Bhubaneswar institute recently became the first among second-generation IITs to host the prestigious 54th annual IIT sports meet in association with IIT Kharagpur. The high point, however, has been its sustained attention to learning outcomes and research activities.
Experts Proved Wrong
The overall campus placement at IITs in 2019 has, in fact, proved several human resource experts wrong. While the slump in the market weighed heavily in the minds of the recruitment officers, the positive vibes belayed many fears.
In just two days of the beginning of the placement season, 4,000 jobs were bagged by the IITs put together. The offers came with significant rise not only with the highest salary on offer but also with the average salary.
Talking about the trends on his campus, Prof Kumar said the core sector placements dominated the proceedings. While there has been an exponential rise in the demand for business analytics professionals, IT also remained a major factor in campus recruitment, he added.