Consultancy firms reap IIT harvest

This year, campus placements belong to financial companies and consultancy firms. Having dominated the summer placement scene at IIMs, companies like McKinsey, Boston Consultancy Group and UBS showed up for the first time for placements at IIT Bombay.

IIT Delhi and IIT Kharagpur also had companies like Barclays Capital, Bain and Company, Opera Solutions, Lehman Brothers for the first time on their campuses this year.

So far, companies in the core industry functions like manufacturing, software and research and development have been the major recruiters at IITs. Adobe, Google, Tata Motors, Maruti, Shell, Infosys, Wipro, Halliburton, Schlumberger, Creidt Suisse, McKinsey, Deutsche Bank, UBS and Deloitte figured among regular recruiters' list.

Moreover, with the IITs just a week into their placements' process, the number of companies making placement offers this year has increased, almost doubling in a few cases. Moreover, these companies have already made huge offers to the students. Besides, while the highest international offer has seen a 11 per cent increase this year, domestic offers have risen anywhere between 20-100 per cent.

For instance, at IIT Delhi an overseas offer of $100,000 (around Rs 45.50 lakh) was made by a US-based speciality fixed income manager Pimco. At IIT Bombay, the highest salary package offered so far is $92000 (around Rs 42 lakh) by Mercer Oliver Wyman -- a Boston-based financial consulting firm.

At IIT Kharagpur, the highest salary package offered for domestic placement is Rs 23 lakh. Kharagpur does not have overseas placements.

Last year, the international offers made at IIT Bombay was $90,000 (Rs 41 lakh) by UBS. On the domestic front, the salary package stands at Rs 12 lakh against Rs 5 lakh last year. So far 180 companies have visited the institute and the institute expects the offers to go beyond 200 companies. Last year the institute had seen offers from 170 companies. IIT, Delhi will have more than 300 companies on campus this year.

IIT Madras saw at least five companies visiting it every day against two companies visiting it earlier. A total of 30 companies have visited it so far. The highest domestic package received is Rs 8.5 lakh against Rs 6.5 lakh last year. "The institute however, has not received any confirmation on offers for overseas placements," said Jaykumar, registrar IIT Madras.

At IIT Kharagpur (Kgp) however, the highest domestic salary package has gone up from Rs 16 lakh to Rs 23 lakh this year. "The institute does not have international placements as it is dedicated itself to the service of the nation, " said G Sinha, Professor in-charge, training and placement.

Among all the IITs, IIT Kgp has the highest student strength with 1,250 students and it is looking at increasing the intake from 5,000-10,000 in the next five years.

At IIT Roorkee, however, a multinational oil major Schlumberger, has made the highest salary offer for Rs 34 lakh. Around 150 companies have visited the campus so far against 118 last year.

The IIT brand has made these companies flock to the IIT campuses this year. "The good word is spreading around. IITs are the store house of intellectual capital with IIT-JEE being the toughest exam in the world to crack. Our students are good at number crunching and thus even financial companies and consulting firms require students with an engineering background," says IIT Kgp's Sinha.

The campus placements however, are on a halt with the inter-IIT sports meet taking place at Guwahati. The process will resume in January and will end by February.