Tuesday, July 29, 2003
About Placements in IIT......
Hello reader. I am back again today to talk about something that happened yesterday. A friend of mine appeared for this test conducted by Oracle India, and he performed well through the two stages of the interview. The company was looking for people with a CGPA of 7.0 and above; my friend had 6.99. He could not get through. He feels that his CGPA is the only reason for this. Seeing the general rush among companies to hire people of high CGPAs, I also feel it to be true.
I don't understand why the companies come to IITs and look for high CGs and branch toppers. I have nothing against the toppers..in fact, all of them are really good.....but, what I don't understand is that the companies take these toppers, who go on to do MS and/or PhD at the best damn schools in the US ditching the jobs. The companies then crib saying that the number of people joining jobs from IITs are low and everyone is up in arms against the brain drain. Look at the situation of average to below average performers in IIT. They are definitely sure of not getting into the top universities, with aid, unless they have some papers published. So, effectively, the best options for such people are the jobs they get. They are definitely more likely to join a company after the BTech than the toppers are.
If you say that the companies are right in hiring the best among the students in any institute, not just IITs, I think that you are unfairly generalizing and that one cannot simply club IITians and ordinary engineering college students together. I am not saying that we IITians are damn better than anyone and everyone else. I am all for taking the toppers of ordinary engineering colleges and treating them on par with IITians. But you simply can't compare a 6.0 CGPA guy from IIT with a 60% student from other colleges. The IITians have definitely proved their abilities in JEE, which I feel is the toughest entrance test at the under-graduate level in India.
Let me quote the statistics from the year in which I wrote my JEE: 2000. Over 1,25,000 students all over India took the exam, and just around 2,700 got into IITs. That is like the top 2.5% of the test takers. The number of students appearing for JEE has increased very much since then, but the seats are now around 3,000, whcih is still around the 2.5 to 3% range. Now, isn't that enough display of we being better? I accede that there are deserving candidates who did not get through JEE: I have friends from school like that. But, they are usually in the top bracket of their own colleges now. That is why I said that it is not too wrong to treat these guys like IITians. But, comparing lower-scoring IITians to similar scoring non-IITians is simply too big an injustice on the IITians who have already shown that they are better.
Why should a software firm want the CGPA of a person in, say, civil engineering or metallurgical engineering to be above certein range when he/she did well in their own tests and interviews? Is it that they feel that the rating system in IITs suits the needs of their company better than the hiring systems that they themselves evolved? And how does my performance in any other branch show upon my skills as a programmer? I personally feel that the companies take a better look at their hiring procedures before going through all the expenses of holding campus interviews, etc. If the person does suit my needs, why should his CGPA matter? I know it might sound cliched, but, Bill Gates still has no college degree; isn't he good at what he is doing now? And it holds not just for the IITs!
I don't understand why the companies come to IITs and look for high CGs and branch toppers. I have nothing against the toppers..in fact, all of them are really good.....but, what I don't understand is that the companies take these toppers, who go on to do MS and/or PhD at the best damn schools in the US ditching the jobs. The companies then crib saying that the number of people joining jobs from IITs are low and everyone is up in arms against the brain drain. Look at the situation of average to below average performers in IIT. They are definitely sure of not getting into the top universities, with aid, unless they have some papers published. So, effectively, the best options for such people are the jobs they get. They are definitely more likely to join a company after the BTech than the toppers are.
If you say that the companies are right in hiring the best among the students in any institute, not just IITs, I think that you are unfairly generalizing and that one cannot simply club IITians and ordinary engineering college students together. I am not saying that we IITians are damn better than anyone and everyone else. I am all for taking the toppers of ordinary engineering colleges and treating them on par with IITians. But you simply can't compare a 6.0 CGPA guy from IIT with a 60% student from other colleges. The IITians have definitely proved their abilities in JEE, which I feel is the toughest entrance test at the under-graduate level in India.
Let me quote the statistics from the year in which I wrote my JEE: 2000. Over 1,25,000 students all over India took the exam, and just around 2,700 got into IITs. That is like the top 2.5% of the test takers. The number of students appearing for JEE has increased very much since then, but the seats are now around 3,000, whcih is still around the 2.5 to 3% range. Now, isn't that enough display of we being better? I accede that there are deserving candidates who did not get through JEE: I have friends from school like that. But, they are usually in the top bracket of their own colleges now. That is why I said that it is not too wrong to treat these guys like IITians. But, comparing lower-scoring IITians to similar scoring non-IITians is simply too big an injustice on the IITians who have already shown that they are better.
Why should a software firm want the CGPA of a person in, say, civil engineering or metallurgical engineering to be above certein range when he/she did well in their own tests and interviews? Is it that they feel that the rating system in IITs suits the needs of their company better than the hiring systems that they themselves evolved? And how does my performance in any other branch show upon my skills as a programmer? I personally feel that the companies take a better look at their hiring procedures before going through all the expenses of holding campus interviews, etc. If the person does suit my needs, why should his CGPA matter? I know it might sound cliched, but, Bill Gates still has no college degree; isn't he good at what he is doing now? And it holds not just for the IITs!
