PSUs beat private cos in IIT-M recruitment

CHENNAI: Public sector giants hogged the limelight at the ongoing placement season at IIT- Madras this year. As in the past, major recruiters were global investment banks, MNCs, leading Indian corporates and some private universities from West Asia and north India.

IT-M academic affairs secretary Karthik M said: "Thanks to pay commission revisions, PSUs were able to compete with private sector companies and offer good packages."

Top PSUs that visited the campus this time include ONGC, DRDO, BHEL, NTPC, Mazagon Docks, Bharti Shipyard, Pipavav Shipyard, deputy registrar and placement offer Lt Col( retd) Jayakumar said, adding HAL too was slated to visit soon.

Apart from core engineering companies, that took in as many as 70% of students, finance (7-10%), PSUs (10%) and FMCG (rest) sectors were the other big recruiters. The highest offer, though, came from Tower Research Capital at Rs 28 lakh pa. The company has taken in four students. Incidentally, all offers this year have been for Indian postings. The biggest offer last year was from oilfield services provider Schlumberger at Rs 22 lakh annually for Indian posting and Rs 44 lakh for overseas.

Put together, PSUs took in aound 100 candidates — nearly 10% of the 1,077 students who had registered for plaecments — compared to 35 last year and offered annual packages ranging from Rs 5 to Rs 7.6 lakh. BHEL alone has offered 20 jobs, making it one of the biggest recruiters, next only to Delloitte which has hired 23.
While the number of students placed so far, in absolute terms, is similar to that placed last year towards the end of January, average package has gone up 25% at around Rs 8 lakh pa. compared to Rs 6-7 lakh pa. during the 2008-09 session.

So far, like last year, half the number of 1077 registered students have been recruited under the placement season that began on December 2, 2009, and will continue till the first week of March. The recruitment got off to a brisk start with 10 companies giving out offer letters to 28 students, against five companies making 13 offers last year, Jayakumar said.

Some of the first-timers on campus this year were World Quant, Boston Consultancy Group and Dolat Capital. Others on Day 1 included Morgan Stanley, McKinsey, IBM, Tower Research and Goldman Sachs. The Indian Navy too visited the IIT placement session, making five job offers for naval officers in specialised ship-building role.

No IT company had come calling so far, but Karthik says Wipro is set to visit the campus soon and they were in talks with a couple of other IT biggies too.

For all the talk of recovery in economic activity, there was no big rush for recruitment this year. At 134, the number of companies that visited had actually gone down compared with 163 last year.

"Though there is lot of enthusiasm among the visiting companies, their managers don’t have the freedom to hire as many number of hands as they want," observed Col. Jayakumar, adding this had not dampened students’ spirits, who were happy with the offers made.

Top private companies that visited this time were L&T, Reliance, Ashok Leyland, Caterpillar, Daimler India, Tata Motors, TVS Motor, Mahindra & Mahindra, Hero Honda and GE. Nissan Motor is also scheduled to visit later this year coinciding with its inauguration of its plant near Chennai.

Some students also took up teaching slots at varsities, both Indian and foreign. These include King Abdulaziz University (Saudi Arabia), Mewar University ( Rajasthan) and Lovely Professional University (Ludhiana).