HYDERABAD: The pandemic may have slowed down the global economy, but it hasn’t slowed down emerging technologies and their demand. If anything, Covid-19 has pressed the fast-forward button for engineering students all set to graduate and looking for a job. Companies that reached the IITs and other top engineering colleges in the country for campus placements increasingly asked for students who could tackle data science, machine learning (ML), internet of things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI), deep learning, blockchain and design thinking.
“Emerging technologies are growing at a fast pace and so do human resources requirements in these fields. This year, placements for students with a profile in emerging technologies have been better than last year,” said Pradeep Kumar Yemula, faculty-in-charge, office of career services at IIT, Hyderabad (IIT-H).
With the phase 2 recruitment process still going on, the training and placement officers at top institutes said that the final job offer numbers are expected to grow further. Some institutes, in fact, have already crossed last year’s figures when it comes to offers in emerging technologies.
While 21 job offers in emerging technologies were made to students of IIT Guwahati during the year 2019-20, this year students have already received 23 offers — 18 in data sciences, three in ML, and two in AI. The average salary in emerging tech has increased from approximately Rs 22.3 lakh last year to Rs 24.2 lakh this year.
“Emerging technologies showed growth and we expect this trend to continue in future,” said Abhishek Kumar, head, centre for career development, IIT Guwahati. C S Shankar Ram, advisor (training & placement), IIT Madras, said, “Phase 1 placements at IIT Madras went on well with good participation from companies in the AI/ML/data science sector. We expect this trend of active participation from companies in this sector to continue in the next few years,”
With placements going digital, institutes like Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani- Hyderabad campus, even hired expert trainers from the industry to help students to gear up for digital mode interviews and interactions.