Fewer hirings, stagnant pay, as IITs brace for grim season

HFT and quant firms are ready to roll out crore-plus offers but with very few vacancies

- Devina Sengupta

The Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) are bracing for a sobering placement season. For the thousands of to-be engineers in the class of 2024, the number of hirings is likely to taper, even while salaries may not fall much.

“This year, we added more companies, but there is a 20% dip among the regular recruiters since many say they had over-hired last year. The compensation has not changed much, but the number of positions available per role has reduced," said a placement team member of one of the top three IITs on condition of anonymity.

According to placement team members in IITs Delhi, Kanpur, Bombay and Roorkee, high-frequency trading (HFT) and quant companies Quadeye, Graviton Research Capital, Maverick Derivatives and Da Vinci are ready to roll out crore-plus offers (including joining bonus and variable payouts). They say that pre-placement offers (PPOs), which are rolled out to selected students who have interned earlier, will see higher salaries, but the number of PPOs overall being offered by firms would be lower.