Fat salaries attract engineering students to IT

Fat pay packages of multinational companies are making more and students to pursue Information Technology (IT) branch of engineering. With the growing demand for information technology courses, engineering colleges in the country are increasing their intake capacity for IT. In some cases it has been found that in a city around 25% of all engineering seats are reserved for IT.

Thanks to the annual placements by Forbes 500 companies like TCS, Infosys and Cognizant which are recruiting fresh graduates in large numbers in different parts of the country, re-affirming students' faith in this branch. Such trends have resulted in the allotment of maximum number of seats for computer engineering by colleges and private universities.

The setting up of IT units in special economic zones (SEZs) like Mahindra World and Japanese hub in Neemrana has also generated huge job opportunities in the IT sector in domestic market.

"The most popular branch of engineering is computer science, electronics, followed by mechanical. The choices of students are directly related with placements or high salary package."

Deepak Saxena, head of students' advisory board at Rajasthan Technical University

"The Forbes 500 IT companies are regularly visiting the campuses for placements showing the importance of candidates in this sector. I feel that if I have talent, nobody can stop me from fetching my dream job."

Mayoor Sharma, an aspiring engineering student

The average annual pay package of an IT company was above Rs 3 lakh, until, 2008-09 (recession period) when this branch registered a decline leading to rise in other branches specially electronics and communication.

This year around 60,000 students appeared for Rajasthan pre-engineering exam against 54,000 seats. The newly-opened engineering institutes and universities have given importance to this branch and it is selling like a hot cake.

"Students are applying for those branches of engineering which offer them more lucrative opportunities. But because of this, they neglect their own interests and ends up landing nowhere."

R P Yadav, Vice-Chancellor, Rajasthan Technical University said,

Students should plan their careers according to their own interests, rather than being carried away by job opportunities. They should have good foresight regarding their options, Yadav added.