Does IIT always guarantee jobs, huge salary packages?

KAKALI DAS

For many, it was their childhood dream to crack a seat in IIT – it is still the one thing middle class families wish for.

Cracking the IIT exam means professional success, money, respect and demand in society, etc. Undoubtedly, IAS has a special repute, but IITians get placed in the US based jobs, mints crore plus salaries.

However, the opposite may be true – as recent reports suggest – IIT graduates from non-computer science streams receive job offers with pay packages of less than Rs.10 lakh/annum, IIT graduates laid off after 6 months of joining, hundreds of Indian employees to be fired, and the unfortunate suicide cases in IITs.

What seems to be the problem? Is there a formula for success in IIT? What of the crushing pressure on students? What is the real truth of the IITs and the engineering degrees?

Every story has two sides – while we see glamorous headlines – what about the shortcomings and failures that cannot be ignored?

IIT = Job Guarantee?

Engineering degree, especially from IIT, is still the number one choice for thousands. But there is more to it than on the surface. Does getting into IIT guarantee jobs? An analysis by Maheshwer Peri of Careers360 has shown shocking results. 21% IIT graduates were unemployed after 4 years of hard work even after the placement season. They still had an IIT tag to carry for life – but why didn’t they land a job in the placement season?

Answer lies in their opted courses – here are some data of unemployed:

In IIT Roorkee – 60% of Engineering Physics, 35% of Civil Engineering, 33% of Industrial Engineering
In IIT Kharagpur – 55% of Biotech Engineering, 33% of Aerospace Engineering, 30% of Civil Engineering
In IIT Hyderabad – 77% of Metallurgical Science, 57% of Civil Engineering, 41% of Chemical Engineering
In IIT Kanpur – 48% of Material Science & Engineering, 44% of Bio-engineering

The graduates of the above mentioned courses find it tremendously hard to get placed during the placement season. IIT Madras, a prestigious institution could not secure jobs for 23% students in 2021.

Moral of the story – pure engineering does not guarantee job (even if it is IIT). Tech sector is where the best offers are, but core engineering, say in manufacturing sector may go without jobs. This shows that jobs in the manufacturing sector are scarce. Or is it that companies are favouring students from non IIT colleges for lower salaries?

One thing is clear – in this age of cut-throat competition, specialization matters more than institution. Even an IITian tag may not be of help against skills or specialization. Companies are checking core competency, specialization and skills rather than which college you graduated from.

IIT = Humongous Salary?

Is salary of an IITian as grand as in the headlines? Suppose, you’re not in the 20-25% who did not choose the right specialization, and you get the job offer. Recruitment experts’ study in The Economic Times shows that 960 students got the salary of 50 lakhs in 2022. But, these 960 students constitute merely 5.5% of the total pool.

What about the other students who don’t make it to headlines? The analysis revealed that nearly 54% of total students in the top tier of IITs (7,020) and 50% of students in the next tier of IITs (2,250) receive job offers with salary packages in the range of Rs10 to 16 lakhs per annum. This amount per annum is considered reasonable – so, 50% of the IITians draw this much salary.

The conclusion of this study is that only a small fraction of the IITians receive large compensation packages.

Devina Sengupta of the Mint wrote a shocking article citing cases of IITians getting package of 6-8 lakh/annum. These figures never make it to the headlines. Of course, there are cases of crore plus packages – several financial companies are hiring at these salaries. But salaries of 10 lakh or less is also a truth. Students from the computer science batch are wooed by many suitors, followed by those from electronics, electrical and the like. Whereas civil engineering, chemical engineering aren’t too hot.

IIT has 90 programs – all courses cannot bag good salaries, but what’s surprising is the packages one with the IITian tag is getting these days. Shockingly, there are companies even today who are offering candidates packages of Rs7-10 lakh/annum. IT services companies are one step ahead – focusing on smaller engineering colleges, for cheaper placements.

After 4 years at college, placement season is the real test for the IITians – we make heroes of engineering students who turned to business, but many students don’t have that option – there are loans, family responsibilities etc. – they cannot refuse the engineering job offer.

Another important roadblock for many students sitting for placements is communication and presentation skill. Somewhere our education system is at fault as we are taught grammar and vocabulary but not how to use them in real conversations.

IIT- Job Security?

Suppose you crack a seat in IIT and get desirable courses – you make a great presentation in the interview – now, what of the job guarantee? IITs are expanding nationwide, there are 23 IITs in the country today – the latest being IIT Dharwad, IIT Jammu etc. However, new campuses may not have modern facilities or attract recruiters – plus there is global recession round the corner.

Once booming tech Start-up sector is struggling at the moment. Byjus, country’s most valuable Start-up, prestigious name like Goldman Sachs and the richest Amazon are laying off employees. Being an IITian won’t save you in the company.

Recently, IITian Himanshu’s story went viral – having worked at well-known companies like Adobe, GitHub, Flipkart, he then joined Meta in the US, but was laid off in just 2 days. It again shows that skills are more important than the IITian tag.

man and woman near table — Photo by fauxels on Pexels.com

IIT = Equality?

Getting into an IIT is considered most difficult in the country (UPSC is still harder). Preparation starts at class 11-12 or earlier, a gap year is common, then 4 years of hard work at the college – this journey is extremely tiring and unpleasant. Suicidal cases in the IITs are drastically increasing year after year. Recently, Kota decided to change fans in a bid to reduce suicides.

Last year, 9 lakh students sat for JEE mains for 16,598 seats at IITs – half are reserved for disadvantaged sections in society. Meaning, coaching, fees, living expenses, etc. cost 10-15 lakh for a degree – even then, not getting a good job seems unfair, doesn’t it? In fact, many who don’t get into IIT find reservations unfair.

Even, for argument’s sake, if you set aside reservations – 9 lakh aspirants for 16,598 seats don’t make the ratio better. Most importantly, there is a rule that once you get an offer letter from a company, you cannot sit for an another interview – is this equal opportunity?

Students bagged great job offers from the Ed-tech sector in the last few years’ placement season, but now, due to funding crunch, there are massive layoffs in the Ed-tech industry, including those who are IIT graduates.

Equality has always been scarce at IIT (for ex-salary packages are highly unequal). In Feb, there are protests at IIT Madras after students committed suicide – similar incident at IIT Bombay. IIT Madras recorded 14 suicide cases in 10 years – some because of pressure and some because of discrimination on campus.

After a Dalit student’s suicide at IIT Bombay, chief justice Chandrachud expressed disappointment wondering what’s wrong in our institutions, that too with the most prestigious students.

But, why am I asking questions to IIT – what’s my agenda – and who am I to question them? I deeply respect the students and alumni of IITs. But, if this happens at such premier institutions, then what is the situation at thousands of other colleges? Niti Aayog studied and found that 48% engineers in India are unemployed. Also, found that the higher education has stagnated.

computer tied with a black and yellow tape — Photo by Ron Lach on Pexels.com

Suggestions for improvement

IITs must

Revaluate their courses to cater industry needs
Focus on new-age skills
Stress on soft skills in the age of AI

IITs need to start job oriented courses like Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Deep Learning, Robotics etc. to meet the industry needs. Course content should be revised every year or every term. Niti Aayog has said that India spends 0.8% of GDP on R&D – one of the lowest in the world. In comparison, South Korea spends 4.55 of GDP making it innovation leader.

Manufacturing sector will demand less engineers due to automation and 3d printing. That is why, engineers in this sector need to expand their skillset. Importance of soft skills will increase as automation increases – these are jobs which a computer cannot do.

The prestigious IIT will not be the only gold mine of talented students – other institutions will produce quality prospects; they won’t be doctor or engineer, but still valuable to society.

[Images from different sources]

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