IIT Salaries
The headline in today’s economic times screams - some IIT guy got a $100k offer and quotes another guy as saying “IIMs are for second rate IITians”. I can’t seem to find a better example of the vulgarity I was alluding to in my earlier posts and the extent to which Indian media stoops to cater to the starry eyed kids who want a decent life and ready to pay Rs 10 to read this kind of crap.
Somewhere down on line 43 you’ll find that the average salary is only around Rs 600k ($13k). I tend to think that the guys who are trained in computer science are doing a big disservice to their profession and education by throwing away their skills and doing unrelated work for some oil drilling company or a stock broker.
Economic realities of today’s India can’t be ignored and one can’t be a hermit and work on a theoretical computer science problem at Rs 4000 per month. But a better compromise is possible and I think the media needs to highlight better role models - people who take good care of themselves, create job opportunities for others as well and do something for the advancement of technology.
I’m sure most reasonable people will see that it’s the advancement of technology that holds the key to true economic success - not low cost IT outsourcing or financial engineering.
Aditya Singh Said,
April 21, 2007 @ 4:05 pm
I am a B.tech comp science student at one of the IITs. And I plan to pursue a career in Finance. (hence I might be a wee bit biased, but I’ll try to be reason)
A B.Tech is an undergraduate course; not exactly preparation of a career in cutting-edge research, unless followed up by a PhD. I can’t see why you think ‘advancement of technology’ would be achieved by ‘a better compromise’ of joining Infosys instead of Goldman Sachs.
Your comparison between domestic salaries (6 Lakhs, which are more around 8 lakhs this year) and Foreign placements that offer $100k, is flawed on two counts:
1. The concept of ‘Purchasing Power’, which is not the same as the exchange rate of currency; or more simply, you can buy more apples with 45Rs than you can with $1.
2. You are comparing the highest package against the average domestic salary.
Also, economics dictates that the pay is higher in industries where demand is more for people. If finance requires people with quantitative backgrounds more than IT does, and is willing to pay more to get them, it defies logic to state that ‘illogical work with a stock broker’ is imprudent. The stock broker requires those math skills more. NIIT can train people for infosys. (I am being a little cheeky here)
If you did come down here you would notice that the top rankers most often do not head for the IIMs but for masters or PhDs abroad or for investment banks directly. So the fellow who said “IIMs are for second rate IITians” was not completely wrong.
Aditya Singh Said,
April 21, 2007 @ 4:09 pm
Pardon the grammatical mistakes, i was a bit groggy when i typed that out; I meant reasonable not reason (of course). And there is other stuff that an editor could have a field day with. My Bad.
arun Said,
April 26, 2007 @ 7:07 pm
> You are comparing the highest package against the average domestic salary
My point exactly. I was accusing the media of not doing enough to highlight the difference between average and peak.
> Also, economics dictates that the pay is higher in industries where demand is more for people
Well, there is pursuit of individual liberties eg: financial independence and then there is what is what is needed from the individual for improving the quality of life for the society. I was arguing that there has to be a balance between the two.
Using math skills at an investment house doesn’t necessarily do much for humanity - other than converting the super rich into insanely rich.
On the other hand, if you look at where the wealth that is flowing into the investment banks is originating from - it’s unmistakably from the advancement of science and technology.
I understand your argument that working at Infosys and the likes is intellectually worse. That’s just the way things are right now. That doesn’t mean that we have to give up the ideal of advancing technology AND making money.
Untill 30 Said,
August 7, 2007 @ 7:28 am
I am so called a DEsigner doing my bachelors at one of the IITs. Its a nice topic that he been written and commented above by two nice gentlemen.
I would like to say things from two perspectives. It depends a lot from which background one comes and what he desires to do. Indians mainly come from middle class people and thus many tend to create a safety net around them. When young lads passing out of the college get to know of the fields like financial engineering, Mfin… then the interest is created not by the value they will be adding by going into that particular field, but by the salaries they will be earning on the first count which of course is not a bad thing. But the point is, did some take computer engineering, sat for Jee, worked strenuously for two years just because he had a passion for solving problems or writing algorithms. I guess, again the game was of building a safety net around us. So its been a basic instinct that we try to specifically pursue those professions and study those areas which tend to bring economic prosperity running on the capitalist model.
I don’t know will any of the Indian parents will be happy to hear when their kids tell them” Dad, I want to be an artist, or I want to be a sculpture, the same way they get happy when they see son/daughter preparing for JEE or becoming a lawyer/ doctor. Its only because media, has put into the minds of everyone that economic prosperity can be only with following these professions. Imagine a business model where along with economists, artists/ designers/ sociologists/ humanists also sit in the boardroom and decide upon the business strategies. I guess that will be period when people will make their decision totally loving what they love to do rather than loving to do something which was progressed by media as something that can give economic prosperity.
What if I can earn, 200,000$ per annum, and after some years, very easily 1million$. A part of it will be used for buying villas, holiday tours, and family comforts and rest will be lying in banks. Recently I was in a European country, and the salary of the CEO of one of the pharmaceutical firms in the city where I was staying was 21million francs per annum(13 million $). Now what actually he is doing with this money, when there is immense poverty in the countries, where these companies actually do the manufacturing(India, China, Thailand…) Possibly these CEO’s are also not investing this money to create more value like VC’s(in some cases they can).
The point that I want to mention is that there is no dearth to reach the pinnacle but to realize that till what level what we want to grow. Why don’t the companies start out with a view point that they year we will reach x million dollar of profits, we will just thrive to stay there and invest into culture and create something that has more value rather than creating more money. This system is soon going to evolve and I highly sure about this. Daily we see acquisitions worth billion dollars and soon we are seeing that money is discussed more often then it was discussed 10 years before. Recently I asked my dad, Dad, when you were of my age what was in the mind of youth when they used to talk. The answer was, youth was far more relaxed and they used to give time to society, self growth. Today the notion is that I will do something philanthropic after I become like Bill Gates or be like Azim Premji who is running several schools in South India. This is not the way things are going to work and soon there will be a change needed, not less than 40 years, we will see our kids totally into a dark future or be a witness a changing system that will be much more culture centric, people centric, human centric, environment centric rather than economic centric.
I bet, that the country with more art value rather than technological value will be valued far more than by the time, all the three writers of this post become grand parents. The only justification to this is that a system can’t grow on indefinitely because there is a limit to the resources harnessing which it is growing. Soon that will be realized globally and a paradigm change is going to be witnessed.
I didn’t know what I have written. Its highly unstructured, try to figure out what I want to say. If you can’t, then just do one thing. Just think, how much money and fame you want to earn by the time you reach 35. If you can think that, I wish all you the good luck to achieve what you just dreamt. But when you achieve all that, I request you to please write one more post on this page, describing what you will be feeling.