AHMEDABAD: The year 2020 would arguably be one of the most challenging years for students. While the pandemic disrupted routine classes and coursework, passouts stared at uncertain career prospects as institutes struggled to get recruiters on board for placements.
In such a scenario, computer/IT/ICT engineering courses in top institutes have bucked the trend with an enviable 80-85% placements. In fact, the IT firms have emerged as top paymasters -- an Information & Communication Technology (ICT) student broke a five-year record and won an annual pay package of Rs 51lakh recently.
Prof Yash Agarwal, placement convenor at DAIICT, told TOI that while the placement process is ongoing, a girl has bagged the highest package of Rs 51 lakh per annum so far offered by Australia-based Atlassian LLP. “It's the highest package offered to a B.Tech (ICT) student in the past five years. The highest package in 2016-17, 2017-18, 2018-19 and 2019-20 were Rs 40 lakh, Rs 29.3 lakh, Rs 39 lakh and Rs 39 lakh respectively,” he said.
Some of the top recruiters included Amazon (25 offers), Tekion Corp and Sprinklr (15 each) and Microsoft (11) - all associated with technology.
The tech ‘Gold Rush’
The offers were for the roles such as software/ app development, data analytics, artificial intelligence/ IoT apps, ASIC verification and full stack developer. Ever since the outbreak of Covid pandemic, technology is driving almost all aspects of life-- education, shopping, banking and even work. No wonder then, institutes across the state are witnessing the tech ‘Gold Rush.’ Dr Rajul Gajjar, principal of LD College of Engineering, said 15% more recruiters came to the campus for IT/Computer engineering students as compared to past years.
At Institute of Technology, Nirma University, the highest package of Rs 30 lakh was offered by tech firm Media.Net. Dr Anup K Singh, director general of Nirma University, said that students had seven preplacement offers (PPOs) from Amazon alone with a pay package of Rs 30 lakh.
Jaydeep Ruparelia, CEO of a city-based cyber security firm, said, “We recruited 22 students from various universities post April as we saw unprecedented demand.”