Placements 2024: Even BTech computer science struggles with 60-80% placed in IITs, NITs; AI jobs rise

By Sheena Sachdeva & Aeshwarya Tiwari

NEW DELHI: Even computer science engineering, arguably the most popular branch among engineering aspirants, is having a difficult time with placements this year. Data obtained from 11 premier engineering colleges, including several Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) and National Institutes of Technology (NIT), shows placement rates between 25% and 80% at most of them by the end of April and early May.

Statistics received in early May under the Right to Information (RTI) Act show that by around mid April, none of the 11 had managed to achieve 100% placement. The highest rate was at IIT Jammu, which had placed 92.5% of its registered BTech Computer Science Engineering graduates. The other IITs to respond, IIT Palakkad, IIT Bhilai, IIT Hyderabad, IIT Ropar and IIT Kharagpur, all reported lower levels of job placement. That said, the placement process is still on. IITs Delhi, Kanpur, Bombay, Bhubaneswar, and Guwahati did not furnish 2023-24 data citing this.

Among the 11, the lowest was at Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) Pune which saw just 25.43% of its BTech CSE students placed. The average salary packages also appear to be slim with IIT Hyderabad the only one reporting an average CTC higher than Rs 20 lakh per annum.

These figures track with previous Careers360 reports on the difficult placement season this year and the large number of jobs culled in the information technology sector. Headcounts reported by IT companies have shown that over 50,000 IT jobs were cut over the past few months. A large number of IITs have reported overall placements, taking all branches together, between 50% and 60%.

“While IT companies after mid April have re-started their hirings again, we expect all the CSE students to get placed by June before the convocation of the batch,” said Thivyaprakash A, training and placement officer, IIT Palakkad.

BTech CSE: Over 20% without jobs

Around 20% of graduating computer science engineering students are without jobs at 10 colleges. At IIT Bhilai, close to half the students are yet to be placed; at IIIT Pune Given below are the placement rates and average CTCs of the responding engineering institutes. Where the institution did not furnish data, the field has been left blank.

B.Tech Computer Science Engineering placements 2023-24

The highest average package for CSE branch in 2023-24 academic year was at IIT Hyderabad with Rs 30.34 lakh per annum. IIT Hyderabad is a second generation IIT that started its operations from 2008 along with Jodhpur, Mandi, Gandhinagar, Indore, Bhubaneshwar, Ropar and Patna.

NIT, IIIT Placements: BTech CSE

Of the four NITs to respond, the highest placement rate thus far was at NIT Raipur, 75.96%. At the other three – NIT Durgapur, Patna and Uttarakhand – more than 30% students are yet to be placed. Careers360 had earlier reported that the number of companies participating in NIT and IIIT placements, the number of offers and the salaries have all shrunk this year.

The lowest placement rate by the end of April was at IIIT Pune with only 25% of students from CSE branch placed in 2023-24 academic year.

That said, The placement rate in computer science engineering is higher than that of BTech Electrical Engineering and BTech mechanical engineering in most colleges. In electrical engineering, IIT Jammu has placed less than a third of the students; IIT Bhilai less than a fifth; and IIT Palakkad has placed just over 40%. All were outdone by the four NITs. IIT Hyderabad is the only one to have a higher placement rate for BTech EE than BTech CSE. Three of the four NITs reported a higher placement rate in mechanical engineering than in computer science.

Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology (MANIT) Bhopal and IIIT Allahabad have not shared data by branch. IIIT Allahabad has said its overall placement rate stands at 90% and MANIT Bhopal has given a range – 60% to 85%.

AI, data science jobs

Just two of the 11 respondents have programmes in artificial intelligence (AI) and data science and in both, graduates of these specialised branches have fared better in job placements.

At IIT Hyderabad, which offers a BTech in AI, the programme has recorded 88.89% placement – more than 10 percentage points higher than in CSE. The average salary is also higher.

IIT Bhilai’s “data science and artificial intelligence” programme has a placement rate of 68.18% – more than 15 points ahead of CSE – and once again, the average salary is higher too.

Computer science engineering salary

After IIT Hyderabad, IIT Jammu saw the highest average package for CSE students – Rs 19 lakh per annum, followed by IIT Palakkad with Rs 18.85 lakh per annum of an average package. Last year, IIT Palakkad had placed 100% students and had an average CTC of Rs 20.74 lakh per annum.

IIIT Pune’s average package for the branch is Rs 13.25 lakh annually.

However, amongst the NITs, Durgapur witnessed the lowest average salary package of around Rs 8 lakh per annum. The highest average salary package was found at NIT Raipur of Rs 14.61 lakh annually, followed by NIT Uttarakhand and Patna – Rs 13.38 lakh and Rs 11.3 lakh per annum.

Note: This is the first in a series of three stories on placements in popular branches of engineering. The second is on electrical, electronics and communication and related branches; the third is on mechanical, civil, metallurgical and materials engineering.