The maximum International offers were made by NEC Japan, Microsoft, Optiver, Rubrik and Uber. 9photo: IE)

Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay kickstarted its placement session on Friday at a high note, after 150 final-year students were offered jobs on the first day itself. While the number of students placed on the first day is itself huge, the packages offered to them are even more than what was offered to the students last year. Reportedly after last years placement session, students had claimed that the placements were poorer than the previous year as around 20 students were placed by the 7 pm on the first day. According to the press release issued by the placement cell this year, “IIT Bombay’s placement season has started off well. Day one witnessed the participation of 34 companies. For the domestic roles, the highest number of offers were made by Goldman Sachs, Qualcomm, IBM, Microsoft, BCG, Cairn, McKinsey Knowledge Centre & Tata Steel while the maximum International offers were made by NEC Japan, Microsoft, Optiver, Rubrik and Uber.”

The placement cell release added, “Prominent hiring was done by core engineering, IT/Software, Finance and Consulting. We are expecting more PSUs to participate during the rest of the placement season.” While a total of 29 companies had visited the varsity last year on the day 1 of the placement session, this year the number had increased to 34. Companies that usually pick 8-9 students, had made fewer offers to the students last year, as compared to the mammoth offers made this year. American Investment Banking firm Blackstone, that has offered the highest package at Rs 35 lakh per annum last year, increased the offers to Rs 45 lakhs this year. The company made the offer to students for posting in India. Technology giant Microsoft topped all the offers made to the students, at Rs 1.39 crore per annum salary package for posting overseas. Microsoft’s offer for posting in India this year stands at Rs 39.02 lakh per annum.

Other international offers were made by NEC Japan that was amongst the biggest recruiters this year. NEC Japan which is an IT company offered a package worth Rs 26.29 lakh per annum (Rs 45.70 lakh Japanese Yen per annum). WorldQuant, which had reduced its offer from Rs 41.1 lakh in 2014 to Rs 25.2 lakh, upped its offer this year to Rs 39.6 lakh. IIT Bombay’s phase 1 of the placement session that commenced on December 1 will end on December 16. The second phase of the session will begin in the month of January 2018.