Although 2021 experienced some nuances of being a post-pandemic year, it envisaged an overwhelming placement season. With industry transitioning to a completely new dimension, its requirements and expectations from the freshers have changed and so has the lens of the recruiters. With the year 2021 soon to be over, most of the professionals have termed it as one of the successful hiring seasons so far having witnessed some jaws dropping offers and packages. Especially the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) have beholden an exemplary gush in the mammoth job offers during the placement season this year, as the top-notch institutions like IIT Delhi, Bombay, Roorkee, Madras among others have conveyed a significant rise in not only the number of recruiters but also around the pay-packages that has increased many-fold. Also, when we take a look at the most premier management schools, there hardly exists any B-schools that can outshine the placement drive of IIMs across the country and the industry has also witnessed some amazing recruitment stories during the placement session of 2021.

An Overview of IIT Placements in 2021

Owing the ongoing pandemic situation, The IITs have conducted the placement drives via online mode for the second consecutive year. As per some sources, the IIT final placement which continued till mid-December saw over 45% hike in the number of offers and over 35% upsurge in the payments offered by companies. Securing more than 400 jobs including the pre-placement offers, students of IIT Delhi have managed to grab the eyeballs of the industry. Meanwhile IIT Roorkee got 13 international placements as well as the highest international salary of a whooping amount of Rs 2.15 crore on the first day of placement session 2021-22. While IIT Madras witnessed an overall hike of 43% in placements, a total of 200 offers were made by 38 companies at IIT Guwahati.

IITs also witnessed a significant upsurge in the pre-placement offers this year, when almost 227 PPOs were bagged by IIT Madras students during the entire 2020-21 academic year as against 186 offers. Also, IIT Guwahati received 179 offers, which was highest in last three year.

An Overview of IIM Placements in 2021

Every year, the IIM placement drive welcomes both domestic or international companies such as Walmart, Accenture, E&Y, Deloitte, JP Morgan Chase, Barclays, and many more to recruit young and prolific talents for various job profiles in accordance to their firm.

This year the highest international salary was Rs 1.32 crore per annum and the maximum domestic salary offered was Rs 55.88 lakh per annum. Reportedly, total 153 companies took part in the placement drive of IIM Ahmedabad offering approx. 182 job roles to the partaken students. Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Lucknow has secured 100% placement where the highest stipend offered was 2.5 lakh per month during the 2021 placement session. The highest domestic package offered at IIM Indore was 50 LPA with an average CTC of 22.92 LPA which is approx. 10.24% more from the package offered in the previous year. Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Calcutta also recorded 100% placements for its 55th batch where the institution saw participation of 150 recruiters raising 498 offers for the batch of 444 students.

Placement Records across Other Colleges in 2021

If we consider the private institutions, Sri Sivasubramaniya Nadar College of Engineering of Tamil Nadu aces the list with the highest package of Rs 61 lakh per annum. The college was visited by numerous key recruiters of present industry including TATA Chemicals, TVS Group, L&T, Bosch, Dell, Infosys, Oracle, Hyundai, Nissan, and so on. Situated in Ranchi, Birla institute of Technology and sciences was visited by companies like Aditya Birla Fashion & Retail, Accenture, Amazon, Deloitte, Adobe Systems, ICICI bank, Paytm, and so on. Birla institute of Technology and sciences received the highest package of Rs 40.63 lakhs P.A. Vellore Institute of Technology, which is considered as one of the top-notch technological institutions of the country, received the highest package of Rs. 39.5 lakhs P.A. The institution was visited by companies like Myntra, PayPal, eBay, and so on, during the placement season of 2021.

Skills That Attracted the Attention of The Recruiters

Based on the above-mentioned figures, it is quite safe to assume that while gearing up to resume its lost vigour, the post-pandemic industry is relying on the fresh talents who can navigate it towards the future. The recent placement session reflected the zeal of the candidates, who proved themselves to be at par with the recruiters’ expectation and succeeded in getting some of the high-salaried placements during the 2021 session. Honing their skillsets as per the requirements of the industry the students were able to prove themselves the right match for the present market scenario. Some of the skills that remained in demand for the 2021 placement session are mentioned below:

Coding and Software languages

Renowned Tech and IT firms are ready to pay huge salaries to people who are equipped with excellent coding skills. The notion behind hiring such individuals lies in developing amazing products and provide the best of services and almost all top-notch IT companies who are recruiting students through placements are framing questions around coding and software languages. One of the most sought-after skills of 2021, coding has emerged as a perennial competency that will ascertain a promising career if you can become an expert in it.

Networking

As the entire world has become a unified entity owing to the power of the internet, the present-day top-notch firms are looking for talents who can keep the world wide web up and running. Skilled in networking development and administration, these professionals often hold industry-specific programs such as JNCP, CCNA, CCIE and start their career as network engineers, administrators, and architects. Considering the ongoing market trends, it can be predicted that, computer networking shall continue to remain a vital skill not just in 2021, but in the future as well.

Cloud Computing

Recently, a large number of businesses have managed to alter their entire physical infrastructure to cloud services like Microsoft Azure, AWS, and Google Cloud, creating a significant demand for individuals familiar with cloud computing skills. Cloud-related technologies have become quite important these days, as a result of which recruiters are widely looking for candidates who possess prolific skillsets around this domain. Not only one of the top skills in demand for 2021, Cloud Computing aces the list as one of the highest-paying skills of 2021.

UI Designing

With numerous mobile and web apps being released almost every other day, the requirement for UI designers remained at an all-time high during 2021. Besides providing access to the features and functionalities of an application, a well-designed UI allows customers with the ease of use and connects with them at an intimate level. Very well-paid, UI designers are regarded as creative professionals who are passionate about designing. They know how to use tools like Adobe After Effects and Sketch like a pro, meanwhile understanding a consumer's perspective. Owing to the diversity it offers, UI designing remained one of the most in-demand technical skills of 2021.

Soft Skills

Organizations have always remained in need of employees who can balance strong technical competencies with dense soft skills comprising of your mannerisms, speech delivery, communication skills, and body language. While technical expertise remains of no use if cannot explained verbally to others, having a good grasp over soft skills enable the candidates to connect with the audience much effectively. Soft skills have always remained one of the important traits that recruiters often look in the candidates and in 2021 as well, the charm of this particular skillset is not lost.