Here's Why IIT Grads Aren't Getting As Many 1 Crore Plus Salaries As They Used To

The ¡®crorepati club¡¯ at the Indian Institutes of Technology has shrunk to its smallest size in three years, with the number of students bagging Rs 1 crore plus compensation packages in the final placements plunging to less than half of that in 2014.

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This has happened due to a combination of reasons, said NP Padhy, professor-incharge for placements at IIT Roorkee, including a sharp decline in international offers from US firms, a cutback in stock options offered by overseas firms and big companies such as Google choosing to stay away from campus recruitment.

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Estimates suggest that the number of students who have bagged Rs 1 crore-plus packages ¨C including base salary, ESOPs, joining bonuses and relocation allowance ¨C has fallen 30-40% from last year¡¯s levels. In all, students at IIT Madras, Roorkee, BHU, Guwahati and Kharagpur, for instance, received 15 Rs 1 crore plus offers this year, compared to about 27 last year.

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¡°Crore-plus packages in 2014 would have been upwards of 60 across IITs. They are down over 50% since then,¡± said Professor Kaustubha Mohanty, head, Centre for Career Development at IIT Guwahati.

¡°When we ask companies now, they say that their international requirements have gone down because of the current economic uncertainty.¡± This is a far cry from the placement season of 2014.

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The year was the high point across IIT campuses in terms of Rs 1 crore-plus offers, when international recruiters such as Facebook, Oracle, Google and Microsoft competed with each other to bag talent.

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According to earlier ET reports, in 2014, Oracle offered up to 4,800 stock units worth $200,000 (Rs 1.24 crore), besides a $125,000 (Rs 77.5 lakh) cash component; Google, for Mountain View postings, rolled out a salary of $130,000 (Rs 80.4 lakh) and 250 stock units worth nearly $134,500 (Rs 83 lakh); and Facebook made offers of $250,000 (Rs 1.55 crore, all-inclusive) to students at top IITs.

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Facebook has stayed away from IIT campuses since then.

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This year, even Google opted out of the traditional placement drive to recruit students directly.

Top Offers

As a result, Uber, Microsoft and Oracle were among the only international recruiters offering Rs 1 crore-plus packages (all inclusive) at IIT campuses this year.

Of them, Microsoft and Oracle cut down on international offers, according to placement officials at IITs.

Uber offered the highest base package of $110,000 for an overseas posting, followed by Microsoft ($106,000) and Oracle ($100,000).

Cost to company among the international offers barely crossed Rs 1.2 crore this year (inclusive of bonuses and stock options), compared to Rs 2 crore-plus in 2014.