College placements beat Covid blues, companies continue to hire large number of undergrads

Placements at leading undergraduate colleges across the country are beating the pandemic blues for the second year in a row.

St Xavier’s College, Mumbai, said it has received the highest salary ever of ₹30 lakh per annum, double that of last year’s top offer of ₹15 lakh per annum, without disclosing the name of the company. Similarly, Adobe has handed out the highest offer of ₹21 lakh per annum at Chennai’s Loyola College, up from ₹10.5 lakh last year.

At Delhi’s Shri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC), American financial services company Morgan Stanley offered the highest salary of ₹ 25 lakh in the first phase of placement. At Bengaluru’s Christ (deemed to be a university), Belgian multinational drink and brewing company AB InBev has offered the highest pay packet of nearly ₹15 lakh.

According to placement officials and students at these colleges, the Covid-19 pandemic has hardly had any impact on the placements this year.

Consulting, financial and fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies are hiring in large numbers this year from undergrad colleges to on-board fresh campus talent with out of the box and analytic thinking.

“The college has received the highest ever offer this year. There is certainly no slump in intake of students by companies and the placements are largely driven by consultancy firms, followed by financial services companies,” said Soni George, placement cell convenor, St. Xavier's College (Autonomous) Mumbai.