Start-ups queue up at IITs in search of the best coding talent

Coders, those who design, write and test the computer programs, are in high demand.

As e-commerce firms, flush with funds from recent investments, seek to expand, they are willing to pay top dollar to hire software development graduates from Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs). Start-ups and the online retail firms, like Paytm, Grofers, OYO Rooms, TinyOwl, UrbanClap and CommonFloor have already lined up for the upcoming IIT placement season that starts in December.

According to members of the placement cells at these institutes, some of these companies are willing to double their salary offers from previous years and pay starting salaries of up to ₹ 25 lakh per year, if they get coding talent that meets their requirement.

At present, most of the starts-ups and established technology firms pay between ₹ 8 lakh and ₹ 15 lakh a year to coders from top technology institutes including the IITs. Now, larger e-commerce firms, such as Snapdeal and Flipkart, are ready to pay upwards of ₹ 20 lakh as annual pay, along with stock options, to software engineering graduates from top institutes, said hiring consultants.

“As the competition to attract the best programming and technical talent intensifies, most of the start-ups, backed by large funding, are willing to go the extra mile to attract and retain talent,” said Anuj Roy, partner (digital) with TRANSEARCH, a recruitment agency.

“This reflects in the changes across employee policies, work environment and compensation levels.”

Members at campus placement cells at the IITs in Mumbai, Delhi, Kharagpur and Roorkee said start-ups and e-commerce firms make up about 20-30% of the firms that have approached them for the placement season, so far. Most are looking for engineers with coding skills.

At IIT Delhi, about a third of the 100 companies that have registered for the placement season are start-ups looking mostly for coders, said Shubham Grover, a student coordinator at the placement cell. Grover said the cost-to-company (CTC) being offered for coding professionals is in the range of ₹ 25 lakh.

Atal Ashutosh Agarwal at the placement cell of IIT Kharagpur said technology start-ups have indicated that they are willing to offer annual packages in the range of ₹ 15 lakh to ₹ 20 lakh for engineers with software development skills.

This could go beyond ₹ 25 lakh after negotiations, he said. A representative at IIT Bombay agreed that coding professionals are in demand, this placement season, but declined to give out names of companies or salary packages being offered.

The trend extends beyond just engineering graduates.

According to global executive recruitment firm, Antal International Ltd, there has been a 70% jump in the demand for coding professionals in last six months, particularly from the big e-commerce firms and the technology start-ups.

“Every new-age start-up needs web, iOS or Android developers besides the skills needed at database level,” said Joseph Devasia, managing director of Antal International’s India operations.

“Unfortunately, we don’t have enough talent needed to meet the demands of the industry; hence the good ones with some amount of experience are in extreme demand,” he added.

Devasia said that salary packages for experienced coders in India have crossed ₹ 35 lakh per annum.

The total engineering graduate output from Indian universities stood at 1.45 million in 2014-15, up from the 300,000 in 2005, according to a report by Kotak Institutional Equities released in June this year. However, human-resource (HR) consultants say a small percentage of these graduates have the coding skills required by online commerce firms, resulting in the surge in salaries being offered to those who do.

Among the companies that confirmed plans to hire from the IITs this year is Paytm, which recently received funding from Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. Paytm will look to hire around 200 software engineering graduates from the upcoming placement season at the IITs, said Amit Sinha, vice-president, business and people, Paytm.

Paytm’s strong pipeline for new products and efforts to augment their financial transaction network is pushing the demand for software developers rapidly, Sinha said.

Sana Nayyar, head of human resources at UrbanClap, said the mobile services market place is planning to double the number of software engineers it hires to 60 this year.

Hyperlocal delivery firm Grofers said it plans to hire around 92 software professionals this year. The firm’s co-founder Albinder Dhindsa confirmed that the firm plans to hire from the IITs, and current salaries for coders range between ₹ 8 lakh and ₹ 14 lakh with a ₹ 3 lakh bonus.

“IIT graduates are a great talent pool for e-commerce firms and start-ups like us. In the last two years, there has been an upswing in hiring from IITs. Last year, hiring from IITs accounted for about 30% of our total hiring, and this year, it will increase up to 50%,” said Shilpi Pandey, vice-president of human resources at CommonFloor, an online real estate listing firm.

Pandey declined to say how many professionals the company intends to hire this year but said it is paying fresh software graduates between ₹ 12 lakh and ₹ 18 lakh.