Fresh engineers who are keen to get into IT product and design sectors however seem to end up doing maintenance and upkeep. 

In the campus offers that the students are bombarded with, it is the brand of the recruiting company that takes prominence while salary takes a back seat.

These are findings from a nation-wide study conducted across more than 110 technical institutions including IITs, NITs and involving more than 1,300 students and 30 IT companies.

The “Compensation Survey & Student Perception” survey conducted by Campus Connect, revealed that at the campus level, 45 per cent of students prefer IT product companies followed by semi-conductor, high end computing and VLSI segments.

This is followed by the financial services companies and BPOs. The IT services companies are the least preferred, being the choice of just 10 per cent of candidates interviewed.

Least preferred

But the irony, as the survey revealed, is that 65 per cent of the companies which arrived for campus recruitment were IT service based. 

According to the survey only 17.3 per cent fresh engineers land up in jobs of their liking. 

The findings of the survey will be released to coincide with the two-day event, “Continuum-2007” an interface between industry and academia on technical education scheduled to be held Nimhans Convention Centre in Bangalore from June 28.

“The survey revealed that despite their actual preferences, students go for big brand names during campus placements. Within six months, most find themselves unhappy with the assignments handed over.

As many as 40 per cent students quit before the end of first year while another 20 per cent leave in the second year”, pointed out Mr Rishi Das, Co-Founder of CareerNet Consulting.

Higher studies

Another interesting finding of the survey is that 45 per cent of the students interviewed said they were interested in pursuing higher education after their BE.

Finally, the survey revealed that students from Grade A college (IITs, NITs) are able to obtain offers of their choice in the ratio of 2:1 while the ratio is 3:1 in Grade B colleges (reputed local engineering colleges) and it is 5:1 in Grade C colleges.