MUMBAI: Students on the IIT-Bombay campus claim the average annual pay package for graduates this placement season has not exceeded Rs 10 lakh; this is even lower for students taking up core engineering jobs. Students say reports of Rs 80-lakh pay packages not only put them under unnecessary stress because of expectations from family and society, but also present an unbalanced picture to aspiring IITians and their families.
The pressure to get a high-paying job is intense.
A professor from the aerospace department recalled how a parent, after his son cleared the IIT joint entrance exam (JEE), went around various departments asking what the average salary was. "His son wanted to join the aerospace department but the father was put off by the average salary our past students had received. His son finally opted for electrical engineering," he said.
For students, placement is a bigger challenge than the JEE. "It is perceived that every IITian gets multiple offers and is spoilt for choice. Four years ago when I qualified in the JEE, my relatives and family members told me that I would soon be earning in dollars," said a final year IIT-B student from the civil engineering department who has not yet been placed. Along with that is the cold fact that not many students from this department get international offers. "The pressure to live up to their expectations is constantly weighing on me," he added.
For students who hail from smaller towns, the stress on bagging an international offer is a lot more, claim students. A former dean said he had a lot of trouble convincing a parent who was asking his daughter to not take up a job and wait for something better. The student hails from a small town in Andhra Pradesh and was getting an offer in a leading software company in Bangalore. But her parents wondered how she was offered so little. "They asked their daughter why she was being offered so little when other students from the institute were getting offers of Rs 80 lakh," the ex-dean told TOI.
The editors of the institute's in-house magazine 'Insight' have taken it upon themselves to convey the message to all. One of the students on the board said, "We are planning to take the placement details and publish it after the ongoing phase is over. The figures that are perceived are putting undue pressure on the students. Parents expect a lot from their children, when the reality is that only a few students land up the job that pays between Rs 60-80 lakh."
He added, "This year, only one student got the highest offer on the campus. The average is not more than Rs 11 lakh for students from the computer science department and even less for the ones from the core engineering departments."
The institute never reveals the official pay packages of its students.
Source:TOI
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