Placement season kicks off in Chennai. Here's how city colleges fared

The placement season has kicked off with a bang in Chennai's Arts and Science Colleges. Despite the fear of recession and a slump in the global tech market, students are bagging a good number of job offers from corporates and at higher pay packages than last year, reported TNIE.

Colleges are upbeat as the placement season has started on a high note and is expected to record a significant rise in placements this academic year. At least 153 undergraduate students from Madras Christian College (MCC) have bagged job offers so far. "An IT company has recruited over 100 students from the college in one go. This is for the first time that any company has recruited such a large number of students in a single batch. The highest pay package received by our students so far is Rs 10 lakh per annum," Principal of MCC, Paul Wilson, told TNIE.

Students from MOP Vaishnav College for Women have also bagged similar attractive pay packages. Companies like BNY Mellon, Caterpillar and McKinsey have offered packages up to Rs 12 lakh per annum to the students. "This is for the first time that our students have been offered such high packages. Apart from professional courses like MBA, students from general streams like BA Economics and Master in Commerce have bagged Rs 10 lakh annual packages," Lalita Balakrishnan, Principal of MOP Vaishnav College, told TNIE. 

So far, over 75 students from the college have received offer letters. College officials said that this year many IT and Finance companies have expressed a desire to conduct placements in MOP. At least 78 students from Women's Christian College (WCC) have been placed so far and the pay package ranges from Rs 4.30 lakh to Rs 8.5 lakh. "So far, eight companies have visited our college for campus placements and it is very good to see that so far there has been no impact of the global slowdown in the IT sector," Principal of WCC, Lilian Jasper, told TNIE. 

Also, 105 students from Gurunanak College have received offer letters from companies. "Students mostly from Computer Science and IT branches have bagged jobs so far. However, the placement season has just begun and more companies will come forward to recruit students from other departments also," MG Ragunathan, Principal of Gurunanak College, informed TNIE.