IITs attract 9,000 jobs in first phase of campus hiring, including 160 offers of Rs 1 crore plus annual salary

India’s top eight Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) have attracted almost 9,000 jobs for their students, including around 160 offers with an annual salary of Rs. 1 crore each, in the first phase of the placement season. The average salary hike at the older campuses this year has been in the range of 15 percent to 35 percent so far, making it one of the most successful years of campus placement for the elite engineering schools. Companies vied to hire IIT students with attractive packages amid a fierce corporate battle for top tech talent. To be sure, IIT placements are not a barometer of the broader labour market, which is quite complex and layered. Even so, it indicates the hiring appetite of recruiters for key talent to fill specialised roles. “This year, IIT-Madras students have received 27 Rs. 1 crore+ offers,” said C. S. Shankar Ram, advisor (training & placement), IIT-Madras. “The institute did not have any (Rs. 1 crore + salary offers) last year. And this includes both domestic and international offers,” Shankar Ram, also a professor at IIT-Madras, said in an email response on December 23 to queries from Moneycontrol. IIT-Madras students received some 1,327 offers in the first phase of the placement season this year compared with 1,017 last year, indicating the high demand from recruiters for tech talent. As of now, at least 77% of the students seeking placements have received job offers. Other campus placements At IIT-Kanpur, over 1,330 offers have been made in the first phase and the average compensation leapt almost 35%. IIT- Kanpur is compiling granular detail and may release a formal statement in the next week or so, a placement coordinator said. At IIT-Roorkee, 1,243 offers were received in the first phase of the placement season, including 32 international jobs. Some 281 companies participated in the first phase and recruited over 80% of the students seeking placement in this hiring season, according to a spokesperson for IIT-Roorkee. Similarly, at IIT-Kharagpur, over 1,600 jobs were offered to its students. IIT-Delhi students received 1,250 offers. At IIT-Bombay, a record 1,382 offers were accepted in the first phase, Moneycontrol reported earlier this week. IIT-Guwahati, where the first phase of placements is still underway, said 843 students had got job offers so far and more were in the pipeline. “The phase-1 placement is still going on. So far, a total of 843 students of IIT-G have been placed. Last year by this time, a total of 610 students were placed,” said Abhishek Kumar, head of the Centre for Career Development at IIT-Guwahati. Likewise, at IIT (Banaras Hindu University), Varanasi, over 1,100 offers were made including pre-placement ones. “We are far ahead of recruitment this year as compared to the recent past. The companies are keen to hire more and technology firms are making good offers,” said a placement coordinator at IIT (BHU), Varanasi. Rs. 1 crore club The Rs. 1 crore salary club of IIT graduates seems to be getting bigger and bigger. By the end of December 22, at least 160 students from various older IITs had attracted Rs. 1 crore annual salary offers from both domestic and international recruiters. While IIT-Madras said 27 such offers were made, at IIT- Kanpur, the number was 49. Students of IIT-Delhi, which did not officially divulge salary packages, have bagged at least 30 such offers, according to people familiar with the development. IIT-Delhi’s placement cell declined to confirm or comment on high-value salary numbers, but said: “The response has been very good, and as a principle we won’t comment on this”. The overall average compensation at IIT-Delhi has jumped over 20% compared to a year ago. At IIT-Roorkee, at least 11 students have attracted over Rs. 1 crore offers and at IIT-Guwahati, this number so far is five. And at IIT (BHU), Varanasi, two received the magic figure. The number is over 20 at IIT-Kharagpur, and 12 at IIT- Bombay. These packages need to be seen in context because they typically include employee stock options, bonuses, variable pay, cost of living allowances, and other add-ons beyond the take-home salary.