- Online Gurukul

Computer Science, Electrical, and Mechanical students at IIT Bombay land the majority of high-paying professions: A Placement study

Share on whatsapp
Share on facebook
Share on twitter
Share on linkedin
Share on telegram

A comparative cluster study of income packages of highperforming students in specific departments at the IIT Bombay reveals that engineering students predominantly from the Computer Science, Mechanical, and Electrical departments gain the high-paying employment. A placement is typically given as compensation for strong academic achievement, according to a study that examines placement data from the five years between 2014 and 2018. 

The Cumulative Performance Index (CPI), a weighted average of performance throughout all programme courses, is used to determine placements. Nevertheless, a high CPI does not guarantee a job with a high income. 

According to the study, things including the engineering branch and sector one works in determine one’s pay.

The study was undertaken by Namit Agrawal, Sailakshmi Sreenath, Shishir K. Jha and Anurag Mehra from the Centre for Policy Studies at IIT Bombay. It observes that students with a high CPI are eligible to apply for most companies and owing to this, the sector they get placement offers from is likely to reflect their choice.

Explaining the cluster analysis of CPI and salaries across core and non-core jobs, Mehra said, “When placements of high CPI (8-10) students from select branches were studied, it was observed that in all departments, apart from Computer Science, Electrical Engineering and Mechanical Engineering, high-paying jobs were few even for high CPI scorers. This is in addition to the general observation that there is a positive correlation between CPI and salary as high CPI students are eligible to apply for most companies.”

The pattern of non-core jobs having high salaries is reflected in the study too. “We see that non-core recruiters reward higher CPI than core recruiters, but this effect is likely because of the high salaries that non-core jobs offer to CSE students,” the study says.

Comparative analysis of the study’s “high-scorers,” “medium-scorers,” and “low-scorers” categories of industries and employment reveals that non-core jobs are a top preference. The distribution for medium and low scorers tends to become more equitable for the years 2016, 2017, and 2018. According to data, more than 60% of students who scored low or in the middle preferred non-core employment in the majority of years. On the other hand, core and non-core preferences are distributed nearly evenly among high scores, at a ratio of 50:50.

Computer science makes a significant contribution to the core basket, and the paper claims that by leaving it out of the data, “the preference for non-core jobs is further skewed.” Statistics excluding CSE reveals that more than 70% of students in the low and middle scorers category had preferred non-core careers in the majority of years. More than half of those who performed well in this category chose non-core positions.

“According to the distribution pattern, Computer Science is the field with the highest CPI. The distribution of Electrical Engineering is the broadest. The batch strength of the five departments being studied here is comparable. Also, we observe just a slight variation in the median CPIs among departments, with all values falling between 7 and 8, according to the paper.

The founders of PracBee are senior IITians, passionate about education in India and ensuring high performance of students.

Contact us