Adversely affected by the ongoing global recession, the campus placement process in the pioneer institute has witnessed a drastic dip in recruitment figures.

Till last session, the campus placement process at the institute (starting in the first week of December) got over by February-end and around 98 per cent of aspirants got their desired job. This session, only 58 per cent of aspirants have managed to secure a job in over three months.

The placement started on December 1, 2008 and a mere 47 per cent of the aspirants managed to get a job in the first month. Of the 860 job aspirants at IIT-K, till date only 503 have found a job.

The authorities and students were optimistic that the scenario will change in the first quarter of 2009. But that is yet to happen. In over three months, only 52 per cent of MTech students have secured a job through campus placements. Of BTech students, 65 per cent have been employed, 76 per cent of Dual Degree students have got a job and so have 90 per cent MBA students.

This time, many students opted for public sector companies. In the current placement session, 55 IITians have been recruited by public sector companies like BHEL, BEL NTPC and others. As for the private sector, companies which have recruited includes Edwin TT, ANX, Qualcom, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, Microsoft, INTEL, ITC, CITI Group, Yahoo and Oracle. “We all were aware of the tough time the students were likely to face this year. Hence, the preparations were started well in advance,” said Bharat Lohani, Chairman, Campus Placement Office at IIT-K. Lohani said possibilities are there that a majority of the aspirants would get employed by April-end.

According to a faculty member, around 98 per cent of the aspirants were recruited by 130 companies in the campus placement conducted in 2007-08. “This time, we have invited 180 companies, of which 110 have turned up and the possibilities are that 20 more will come for campus recruitment in the third and fourth week of March,” he added.

In the last three years, there has been a constant increase in the salary package. This time, the salary structure is identical to that of 2007-08.

The salary package being offered to IIT-K students is a decent one, said Lohani. “Our average this year has been between Rs 6 lakh and 6.5 lakh, which is similar to what was offered to our students last year,” he said. He did not fail to mention that among all this, there was one IIT-K student who was successful in securing an annual package of Rs 22 lakh.