Pay package up by 20%

Chennai: The national economy must be on the mend if one goes by the successful placements by deemed universities in the state as more companies came forward not only to recruit freshers but also offered higher pay packets to them. VIT University vice-president Sekar Viswanathan points out that with the positive outlook in industry, salary packages have gone up by 20 per cent this year. The university started its recruitment process last month, which would continue till October.

“This year, companies have a positive outlook, which comes as good news for higher education institutions. We placed 260 students by this time last year and this year we hope the number will cross 300 by the end of this month itself,” he said. A multinational software company that recruited a student from VIT has offered the highest salary of Rs 24 lakh per year and he would undergo training at Bengaluru before moving to the US for work.

“This year, a total of 4,200 students have registered for placementand major companies, including LinkedIn, Microsoft, Ebay, PayPal, Flipkart and McKinsey, have visited our campus. Mass hiring by bulk recruiters will start next month when you can see more students getting placed in top companies,” Mr Sekar Viswanathan said. Pointing out that their university had already placed 200 students, Prof S. Vaidhyasubramaniam, dean (planning & development), Sastra University, Thanjavur, said promising recovery of the IT service companies had necessitated this aggressive talent pick from such companies before the bulk recruiters.

“This year, the highest pay offered by a company is Rs 17.25 lakh per annum and the lowest Rs 4.5 lakh per year. Last year, we had 150 students getting placed before bulk recruiters started placement and this year the number has gone beyond 200,” he said.  Sastra saw companies like Amazon, PayPal, Microsoft, Zoho, Freshdesk, MuSigma and Bosch recruiting students before bulk recruitment season starts next month.

The city-based SRM University has also reported good placements. Echoing the views of his counterparts in other deemed universities in the state, Prof S. Ganapathy, dean (placement), at SRM University, says that a few top software companies had projected big numbers for recruitment this year. “Several IT companies have big project requirements this year, which shows positive signs of recovery in the job market this year,” he said.

Prof Ganapathy noted that it was not only the IT companies that showed positive signs but also the manufacturing sector. “We expect recruitment by manufacturing sector to go up in the coming days as we see positive signs. This year, we expect 15 to 20 per cent more companies to recruit our students,” he added. Asked about the job outlook this year, Dr Sandhya Chintala, executive director, sector skills council, Nasscom, portrayed a positive picture stating that IT sector placements would be better this year as industries are growing and so providing more job opportunities.