The Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IITB) witnessed a mixed bag of placements last year. While a record number of students were hired at the premier institute, there was a drop in the proportion of students who got placed. The salaries have largely remained stuck even as the average size of the pay package showed a marginal increase.
The institute's placement report for the academic year 2022-23, which was released this month, shows that a total of 1516 students got jobs - the highest ever in a placement season - including 194 students who accepted pre-placement offers. In 2021-22, the recruiters had hired 1441 students, including 201 who got jobs through the PPO route. However, with more students participating in the placement process, the percentage of students who found employment on campus dropped from last year's 89% to 82%.
The average salary in terms of cost to company (CTC) offered to students was Rs 21.82 lakh per annum, slightly more than the preceding year's Rs 21.5 lakh. The highest international package swelled from Rs 2.1 Cr to Rs 3.67 Cr, while the top domestic offer dipped from Rs 1.8 Cr to Rs 1.68. As many as 16 students received annual salaries above Rs 1 Cr. A total of 66 students, one less than the previous year, got placed abroad.
However, the uptick in the average salary is likely the result of a few large packages, with most of the students getting similar, if not smaller offers than previous year. The report shows that, compared to 2021-22, a larger proportion of students figure in the lower salary bands, while higher bands have fewer students. The number of students getting above Rs 16 lakh per annum - the highest salary range - is almost the same as the last year (563 in 2022-23, 562 in 2021-22), but there is a significant drop in the number of offers in 13.5 - 16 lakh range from 284 to 229.
The large-scale job cuts at the Silicon Valley giants such as Alphabet (parent company of Google), Microsoft and Amazon, who often offer top dollar at the premier institute, appear to have an impact on the placements last year, with the number of hirings in IT/software sector dropping from 370 to 302. On the other hand, recruitment by the 'core' engineering and technology companies continues to be on the rise with 458 offers accepted this year, up from 434 and 314 in 2021-22 and 2020-21 respectively.
"The effect of reduced global hiring was observed but was minimized due to strong hiring by Indian companies, especially in the data analysis, green energy and education sector," said Sameer Jadhav, Professor-in-charge of Placements at IITB.
The finance sector also took a hit this year, with the number of job offers sliding from 205 to a mere 76. According to the institute, this is because the students are looking for opportunities elsewhere. "One of the reasons that the numbers look different is the addition of new sectors such as analytics, data science and design. Students also favoured data science and analytics," said Jadhav, adding "More companies are looking to apply AI/ML (artificial intelligence/machine learning) techniques and build automation into their processes which was reflected by substantial hiring in data science and analytics."
