ISI Kolkata student bags $100,000 offer from Google

The student who received the offer is a 24-year-old fresher pursuing his Master of technology (MTech) in Computer Science.

 In what is touted to be the first international placement in the 82-year history of Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata, an M-Tech student has received an offer of $100,000 ( Rs 62.7 lakh) from Google. "This is also the highest salary offered to any of our students till date," says Pradipta Bandyopadhyay, dean of students, ISI.

The student who received the offer is a 24-year-old fresher pursuing his Master of technology (MTech) in Computer Science. Although the college was reluctant to disclose company's name, a placement team member said it was Google.

The offer is a milestone for the institute. "We were known for our academic programmes in the international community but now, will be known in the job market too," he added. Last year's highest offer was Rs 28 lakh fromGoldman Sachs. ISI has 100 students inKolkata besides branches in Bangalore, Chennai and Delhi.

"Last year, 43 companies came to our campus and the average was Rs 12 lakh. This year, the average should be around Rs 14 lakh (excluding the international offer) and we expect more than 50 firms," says a placement official who also added that the minimum salary offer accepted is around Rs 8 lakh for the 2014 batch.

As for Google, this is not the search giant's first big-ticket recruitment this year. It has hired a student from NIT Warangal for Rs 84.6 lakh and Delhi Technological University for Rs 93 lakh.

Companies that have visited the ISI campus this year include ICICI, HSBC, Morgan Stanleyand Microsoft. Global retailer Walmart will be a first timer and is expected to hire students for its analytics wing for a salary of Rs 15 lakh from the statistical department of ISI.

Placements at the institute typically begin in August and continue till February-March.

This international placement will propel the institute to look at their recruitments the way IIMs and IITs do. "Thus far, we have concentrated only on academics and not placements. But today, every student cross-checks the employability factor of an institute," says Bandyopadhyay. ISI provides an MTech degree in computer science, quality reliability and operations research, Masters of Science in quantitative economics and a degree in Masters in Statistics.

Students do not have to pay fees as the courses are funded by the Ministry of Planning.Indian Institute of Technology (IITs) too offers Mtech courses that fetch similar salaries for their students. Campus placements for IITs start from December 1.

Last year Microsoft, Google, Facebook and Samsung hired students from IITs with salaries ranging from $120,000 to $150,000 for positions based primarily out of the US and Korea, for both their graduates and post-graduate programmes.

Source : By Devina Sengupta, ET Bureau