IIT Placements Now in 2 Crore League: Good Days for IITians!

Oracle has offered a package of Rs 2.03 crore to an IIT BHU student. Facebook offered Rs 2.1 crore to a girl from IIT Bombay as well as extended 8 offers of Rs 1.55 crore each. Google doled out an offer of Rs 1.7 crore to IIT Indore student and Rs 1.63 crore to another IITian.

The truth is that a big part of these dream compensation packages include stock options and other benefits. About half of the Facebook’s wonderful offer consisted of stock options. Moreover, HR experts argue that these projected amounts are actually highly inflated. According to the tax policy of California, IITians who will be hired for the social medial headquarters will see about 30% tax deduction, followed by various other deductions (such as those for insurance or 401(k)). Moreover, the cost of living in California is quite high too. When all these factors are taken into account, the salary packages will not seem so rosy anymore.

There are others who are not ready to count this as IITs’ achievement yet. For them, the job offers are result of individual accomplishments, rather than institutes’ expertise.

Whatever one says, the fact remains that IIT campus placements have seen an increase of 40-60% in job offers this year. Companies like VISA have mass-hired more than 100 IITians by offering them a salary package of Rs 22 lakh each. As many as four IITians became media highlights by saying ‘no’ to over-a-crore placements to pursue their dreams, such as opting for higher studies or entrepreneurial jobs.

Aastha Agrawal, 20-year old IIT-B student who got the pre-placement offer worth Rs 2.1 crore from Facebook, was hired based on her performance during third-year internship at the California headquarters. The offer she received was as much the result of her hard work and excellence, as much it is on the chance IIT provided her to prove her worth during the internship.

Gaurav Agrawal from Bhilai, Chhatisgarh received Rs 1.7 crore offer from Google. But he is not from any of the older and more established IITs. Instead, he is studying at IIT Indore. He was not hired through campus placements. He appeared for the online test conducted by the Google and appeared for the on-site interview held by the company for shortlisted candidates at Gurgaon. He, then, went to Bangalore for more interviews where he received his offer letter to join Google in the US as software engineer. Gaurav was also part of the ‘Paradigm Shift’ team of IIT Indore that bagged the top rank in India in the World Informatics Olympiad – ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC) held in Russia. Of course, it was his hard work and his interest in computers that helped Gaurav get the job but one cannot ignore the opportunity he had at IIT-I.

The opportunities offered by IITs to engineering graduates are certainly numerous enough to vouch for.