Fresh grads see more jobs as recession ends

Bangalore -Engineering colleges in the city are getting better employment offers for their pass-outs this year indicating the job market skies that were so far overcast with clouds of recession are slowly clearing.

While big IT firms are yet to line up to the campuses, the total number of offers fresh graduates of engineering colleges is getting is more than what their seniors got when they passed out.

"Nearly 16 companies have visited the campus this time. There is a two-fold increase in the number of students who got hired in the first few weeks itself," says Jawahar Doraiswamy, chairman of the PES Institute of Technology, where about 110 students have bagged job offers.

Some of the multinational companies that have turned up on the campus are Cisco, Net App, L&T and TVS.

Though bulk hirers and tier III companies that pay more than Rs 5 lakh per annum are yet to reach campuses, tier I and tier II companies have visited most of the premier colleges in the city and recruited in trickles.

A trend noted this year was of the entry of more hardcore engineering firms for recruitment offering pay packets almost at par with IT firms. Due to this, Electrical, Electronics and Mechanical Engineering students got better offers.
R V College Engineering has had many of its electrical engineering students well placed in the placement weeks. "Due to NASSCOM guidelines, bulk hirers are yet to reach the campus. However, 25 companies from core technology area have already recruited about 170 students," says B S Satyanara-yana, principal of the college.

Despite the job market getting better, pay packets have not gone back to their pre-recession scales. The entry level pay package at PESIT is close to Rs 4 to Rs 5 lakh per annum. The highest pay package is close to Rs 10.5 lakh.
DH News Service

Fat pay packet
* BMS College of Engineering: Average pay package-Rs 5 lakh; maximum pay package-Rs 8 lakh, companies visited ; Goldman Sachs, National
Instruments, NETAPP
* RV College of Engineering : Average pay package Rs 4 lakh; maximum pay package up to Rs l0 lakh, names not disclosed
* MS Ramaiah Institute of Technology: Companies visited Schneider, NetApp, nCube, Schneider Average Rs 3.5 Rs 6 lakh, highest Rs 6.5 lakh
* PES Institute of Technology: 16 companies, CISCO, L&T, Goldman Sachs, Average-Rs 5 lakh, highest Rs 10.2 lakh

DHNS Arunima Rajan, sep 24,