HYDERABAD: Despite the initial speculation over the second wave of recession cutting into the placement scene, the year seems to be auguring well for students of engineering. With overseas organisations scouting for hires among fresh graduates across the institutes in the city, the stakes have gone up.
“The golden figure touched US dollars 137,000 per annum (roughly Rs 68.27 lakh) — the highest offer ever made to a B.Tech student at the International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad (IIIT-H),” confirmed head of placement TV Devi Prasad. The offer was made by a California-based company Pocket Gems which develops games for mobile phones, though there was no official confirmation of the same. Last year, the highest offer was made by Google which made an initial offer of US dollars 130,000.
“The placements began on December 6, 2011 and there has been a cent per cent placement of the 93 B.Tech students in both CSE and ECE streams within 20 days. The average offer made this year has been around Rs 9.5 lakh per annum for B.Tech graduates,” said TV Devi Prasad. The average offers made by overseas companies and domestic organisations put together stood at Rs 15 lakh, according to student placement coordinator, Saikiran. The second best offer this year at IIIT-H was made by Facebook USA at US dollars 100,000.
DRDO: Surprise recruiter
Compared to IIIT-H, the Indian Institute of Technology, Hyderabad (IIT-H) recorded a highest offer of `35 lakh per annum by Tokyo-based company, Works Application in December 2011 during the initial rounds of placement. “Around 135 job offers have been made so far and the average annual remuneration for B.Tech students was around `6-7 lakh per annum. Of the 130 eligible students, 115 have been placed so far,” said Pranitha Avvuru , placement coordinator at IIT Hyderabad. Surprisingly, the Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO) under the Ministry of Defence made the maximum recruitments at the institute. “The DRDO made 22 job offers and students are enthusiastic about joining a government organization. Both B.Tech and M.Tech students have been offered the designation of Scientist at the organisation,” said the placement coordinator at IIT-H which is conducting the first round of placements for its B.Tech students this year.
The first campus-placement for Birla Institute of Technology and Science Pilani, Hyderabad campus has been positive. “We have a two-phase campus recruitment setup where the first batch of B.Tech final year students completed placement procedures between August and December 2011 and the rest were involved in the internship programme. The recruitment for the second batch will continue till May 2012 and 380 students will appear for the process. In the first window, 220 students were placed and the highest offer made so far was by Microsoft at `16 lakh per annum for hiring B.Tech graduates,” said the faculty in-charge of placement Dr M G Prasuna of BITS Pilani Hyderabad campus. The average salary offered to the fresh engineering graduates was `6.5 lakh per annum.
OU maintains consistency
With MNCs calling the shots, the University College of Engineering Osmania University maintained the highest offer of Rs 10 lakh per annum made by Microsoft. Last year, the highest offer was made by Morgan and Stanley.
“The average pay package has been around Rs 4.2 lakh per annum for students at the college and there has been no fluctuation in salaries offered though the number of job offers made by companies have gone up.,” said placement and training officer V. Uma Maheshwar. The round of campus placements is likely to continue till the end of April in most of the colleges in the city.