International Firms Make a Splash at IIT Placements

Apple Inc. selected five students from Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur for its Bengaluru office during its first visit to the establishment during the first two days of placement week this year. The United Kingdom-based Halma plc, Dubai-based Dunia Finance and Mercari Japan Ltd. also visited IIT-KGP for placements for the first time.

Besides the unprecedented salaries that some students are being offered during placement offers this year, what is also making news is the number of foreign-headquartered firms looking for the first time at premium Indian institutes for recruitments.

The total number of offers made by international companies is also higher this year as compared to last year. In the first three days of the placement exercise at campuses, 22 overseas offers were made at IIT Madras. Only six students from the institute got offers last year, Business Today reported. At IIT Kharagpur, the figure is over 30 this year as compared to nine last year. The surge is apparent at IIT Bombay too, with 60 international offers, including pre-placement offers, made this year. The figure last year was 50, the report added.

At IIT-KGP, 300 students were given job offers during the recent rounds of hiring from companies such as HSBC, American Express, IBM Research, JP Morgan, Airbus, Goldman Sachs, Deloitte and Walmart, among others. During the first two days, 30 students received international job offers at the campus.

“Data Analytics and software are the two booming sectors this year… So far, we are extremely happy with the response that our students have received this recruitment season,” Debasis Deb, the chairman of Career Development Centre at the institute at Kharagpur, said, the Hindustan Times reported.

At IIT-Madras, Apple was joined by UBS AG, Nasdaq, Country Garden, Rubrik and Sekisui Chemical in the list of firms that came for the first time for recruitment. Among 93 offers made to students, at least nine were reported to have come from international companies, including Microsoft, Uber, Rubrik, Nasdaq, and Indeed. Almost 15 per cent of the companies that went to the campus were first-timers.

IIT-Delhi took the cherry on top this year with the highest package going to its student. Microsoft was reported to have offered an annual package of Rs 1.40 crore, inclusive of bonuses and stock options, for jobs at their Redmond headquarters on the first day of recruitment. Uber, reported to have selected one candidate each from IIT-Bombay and IIT-Madras, has offered a package of Rs 99.80 lakh.

“There have been quite a few offers that with more than ₹1-crore package,” Anishya Madan, the Industrial Liaison officer for training and placement at IIT Delhi, was quoted as saying by the publication. She did not, however, mention how many students received offers that crossed Rs. 1 crore.

Microsoft made offers to students from IIT Roorkee, Bombay, Madras and Guwahati. Of the three recruitments made at Roorkee, two received offshore jobs. The institute also saw 10 offers from Japanese firms, with Mercari, the peer-to-peer marketplace app operator, making nine offers while first-time recruiter Webstaff made one. Eight students from Guwahati were chosen for Indian offices.

IIT-Bombay and Madras have not yet announced details of offers and recruitments made at their campuses.

At IIT-Bombay, besides U.S.-based firms like Uber and Microsoft, 15 Japanese firms are also likely to conduct screening processes. Sony is expected to offer 50 lakh yen per annum while TEX E.G., Murata and Toyo Engineering are expected to offer gross annual salaries in the range of 36 lakh and 27 lakh Japanese yen. Companies from Singapore and Europe have also registered for the first phase of placement at the premier technology institute.

The first round of the placements would end by Dec. 15 but placements would go on until May 2018. IIT final year students wait for placements for months and weeks. For many, the first week of recruitment bears fruits, but there are others who have to wait until the second or later rounds of placements to get a job.

“One student gets a job on the first day, his roommate goes into depression,” an official at IIT-Delhi told Scroll. Students are discouraged from disclosing their offers.