WHAT WAS THE FIRST
For learning to code, C is
39.5%
30.5%
14.1%
10.7%
7.1%
C Java
In MNC tech centres, big premium
for niche skills & higher degrees
Electrical,
electronics and
mechanical engg
streams also see
spike in salaries
Sujit.John@timesgroup.com
M
NC IT and technology cen-
tres in India today have
about a million employees,
a quarter of the total tech sector
workforce. They are among the big-
gest hirers, including from educa-
tional institutions, and the best
paymasters in the country.
The latest study on fresher com-
pensation by these centres by con-
sulting firm Zinnov, shared exclu-
sively with TOI, confirms that
fresher salaries in this segment
are among the highest, and they
are getting better especially for
those in certain niche streams.
The average fixed salary for a
BE/BTech employee in these com-
panies is Rs 7 lakh, significantly
higher than in the IT services com-
panies, mainly because they hire
more from tier-1 institutions. Given
that India produces a large number
of engineers every year, this aver-
age salary in the MNC centres has
grown at a compounded annual rate
of only 4.3% between 2014 and 2019.
But the Zinnov study finds
there’s a good premium for those
who have completed a Master’s in
engineering (ME) or MTech. Fixed
salaries for them are 30% higher, at
Rs 9.2 lakh. As centres in India ma-
ture, they are demanding talent
with deeper skills.
Pradip Dutta, MD for India at
semiconductor tools company Syn-
opsys, says earlier, it was mostly
students of tier-2 institutions who
would do a Master’s immediately
after their Bachelor’s. “Now, even a
student in a good college will stay
on for a Master’s,” he says.
Women have to
work harder than
men in careers
Arpita.Misra@timesgroup.com
W
omen have to work more
than men to stay in their
careers, says professor
Manjula Reddy, chief scientist at the
Center for Cellular and Molecular
Biology (CCMB) in Hyderabad. “The
glories will come your way, even if
a bit late in life,” says Reddy, who
won the 2019 Infosys Prize in life sci-
ences for her discoveries on the
structure of cell walls in bacteria.
The journey for women, she be-
lieves, is tough mostly in the initial
years. “But once you stabilise, you
learn how to manage. Once the fam-
ily responsibilities are taken care of,
women can concentrate much better
on their job. And they often do very
well after that,” observes Reddy. She
says a lot of women themselves
choose not to compete and go for less
HEAR THE PROF
stressful jobs instead, mostly because
of domestic responsibilities. She
doesn’t see men having that option.
The professor says women face
two challenges – biological and so-
cial. While the social barriers can
be broken, she says, it’s not the same
with the biological ones. “And this
is where focus matters. It’s impor-
tant to be able to make a comeback
in your career with some amount
of passion. And the passion has to
compensate for all the time
lost,” she says. Focus and
perseverance are key here.
There were times, she
says, when she wanted to
give up, but persisted.
Research, she says,
isn’t like any other job.
One needs to have a
strong sense of the kind of
commitment it calls for.
“You should do your home-
work.” Reddy, who has been
in research for the
past 35 years,
suggests go-
ing for an
inter nship
at a research
lab before
making that
final call. Manjula Reddy | CHIEF SCIENTIST, CCMB, HYDERABAD
Gen Z
But that began to change in TECH I’D LIKE TO SEE
overtaking BASIC 1972, when Bell Labs invented
LANGUAGE YOU LEARNED Millennial Under the age of 39? Odds are C, allowing portability of the
How humans will reinvent themselves
45.3%
32.9%
TO CODE IN? that most of your peers learned to Unix operating system. Though
I
Gen X code in C it wasn’t an instant hit, the know I am breaking tradition that we do not need to focus
language rose to popularity here, but what I am keen on science and technology for
Baby Boomer Most Baby Boomers
in the late 70s and early 80s
and Gen Xers – or, to see is how man reinvents a living help us pursue what we
16.0%
alongside the growth of Unix
14.5%
those between the himself in the time of AI. truly love? We also cannot take
13.5%
12.6%
Today, the language is
ages of 40 and 74 in What we have discovered and AI to the next level without
celebrated for its longevity,
8.3%
2020 – learned to code invented has always gone on truly understanding how our
8.1%
7.1%
5.4%
in BASIC. Developed flexibility, and ease of use – just
to reinvent us – think about brain functions. So, having
3.5%
3.8%
3.2%
some of the reasons it’s still
1.3%
1.3%
for educational use in 1964, fire, wheel, Industrial understood the brain and
BASIC was a popular instructional popular for Gen Zers learning to
code today
Revolution, Google… ourselves better, will it
language in college classrooms So how will the era become possible for us
C++ BASIC Pascal Source: HackerRank Developer Skills Report 2020; based on 116,648 developers around the world of machines reinvent to attain our true po-
us? When machines tential? Will we, like Ni-
manage jobs, what will etzsche’s übermensch,
man engage himself create a new morality,
with? Will he return to purpose and direction
some of his earliest for the new man?
interests, like Maybe, move
arts and the a step up
humani- the evolu-
ties? Will tionary
the fact ladder?
Atul Jalan | FOUNDER & CEO, MANTHAN
MOST ATTRACTIVE: AI/ML AND DATA SCIENCE Specialised streams are
preferred for niche skill job
AVERAGE ANNUAL FIXED SALARY Mainstream Skills (` THOUSAND) Niche Skills
functions (which get the highest
ACROSS DISCIPLINES (` THOUSAND) salaries). Such specialised
streams include the BTech in
Technical Support Cloud mathematics & computing
920 935 463 1,194
(Non-Engineering)
812 offered by many of the IITs and
Application
NITs, the Chennai Mathematical
Bachelors
Network &
760 Development 724 1,259 Institute’s BSc in mathematics &
Cyber Security
705 computer science, IISc’s product
Quality & Testing 851 design & engineering course, and
(Non-Engineering)
Data Science 1,363
courses like industrial
ME/MTech
450
BE/BTech
Software Product & systems
Masters
Development 1,037 AI/ML 1,476 engineering, and
MBA
PhD
production &
industrial
(` THOUSAND) Automotive Industry Semiconductor Industry Software & Internet Industry engineering
EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS
Tier 1 1,071 1,281 1,292 — Mohammed
Faraz Khan |
Tier 2 PRINCIPAL, ZINNOV
Established 703 777 948
A common trend until last
Tier 2
You are never
year was startups hiring
502 635 689
Emerging top tech talent by offering higher
remuneration than big
Tier 3 413 446 486 companies. Although this trend
has been declining, it has led to
too old to learn
Source: Zinnov Campus Compensation Study 2019
several MNCs offering twice the
Zinnov studied 50 MNC tech cen- years, higher than the IITs. – such as joining and retention bo- entry-level
tres. The company said it could not D Ranganath, dean of place- nuses and restricted stock units remuneration to
name them. India has over 1,250 ments at RV College of Engineer- (RSUs) – have soared. These rose by freshers out of
today’s tech
MNCs with such centres in India – ing, Bengaluru, says they have 18% year-on-year during 2014-2019. fear of losing out
the biggest such base in the world integrated AI/ML into all their The joining bonus averages Rs 4 on top talent
– and includes the likes of Intel, courses because employers now lakh for hires from tier-1 colleges,
SAP, Cisco, Boeing, Walmart, Ama- expect freshers to be well versed such as the IITs, and Rs 2.5 lakh for — D Ranganath | DEAN
zon and Shell. in them regardless of their course, established tier-2 colleges. Good can- OF PLACEMENTS, RV
The study finds that freshers and often extend higher remuner- didates in tier-3 institutions get an COLLEGE OF Akhil.George@timesgroup.com
Upskilling is not just to
with niche skills – like cloud, net- ation to such students. average of Rs 40,000. Retention bo- ENGINEERING,
E
provide opportunities to
work & cybersecurity, data science Zinnov says electrical, electron- nus in tier-1 is an average of Rs 3.5 BENGALURU very company is a tech
the engineers of the late 1990s
and AI/ML – receive a salary that ics and mechanical engineering lakh, and in tier-2, Rs 2.2 lakh. company now, thanks to
or early 2000s to learn new
is 65% higher than mainstream streams are also seeing a spike in Walmart Labs is said to be Earlier, the BTech graduates the ubiquity of connectiv-
skills, but also to add immense
skills like application development overall average compensation, giv- among those that offer attractive were sharper, interested in ity, automation and AI. This is
value to the organisations by
and quality & testing. The highest en the increasing number of auto- joining bonuses. The company de- doing high level work. Now a lot of a godsend for engineers who
using their engineering
salaries are for AI/ML, with the motive, semiconductor and aero- clined to comment on that, but Su- students have may want to make a switch late
knowledge base in
average at almost Rs 15 lakh. space centres that are moving up deep Ralhan, head of human re- realised that a in their careers into the IT sec-
conjunction with
IIIT-Hyderabad’s research work the maturity curve. Tejaswini sources, said they hire 100-300 higher degree is a tor. Though the transition is by
an understanding
in AI, ML and computer vision is Pokle, executive officer-placement graduates from campuses every career choice. no means without challenges.
of IT
enabling its students to get fabulous at IIT Bombay, says many tech com- year, many of them engineers from Even a student in a If someone who had done me-
salaries. The National Institutional panies hire students from the non- the IITs and NITs, and data science good college will chanical engineering in the 1990s
Sabih Ahmad Kidwai
Ranking Framework (NIRF) report coding departments at the same professionals from IISc. stay on for a and worked in the core manufac-
| DIRECTOR OF LEARNING
released in 2019 shows that the aver- salaries as the coding ones. Master’s turing sector for 20 years, wants
SOLUTIONS, HR, SCHNEIDER
age pay packages of its BTech The overall compensation of (With inputs from Shilpa to dip his feet into AI/ML, most
graduates jumped from Rs 10.3 lakh talented freshers has gone up sharp- Phadnis, Swati Rathor, Arpita — Pradip Dutta | MD, would advise him to stick to his ELECTRIC INDIA
to Rs 23.6 lakh over the last five ly also because long-term incentives Misra & Ardra Shankar) SYNOPSYS INDIA role and let the youngsters han- Only domain
dle the IT. But, Krishna Kumar, experts know
NIHILENT’S LC SINGH HAS A PASSION FOR WILDLIFE
CEO of skilling firm Simpli-
how to implement
learn, says only people who have IT, AI/ML in ways
a deep understanding of a par- that can benefit an
ticular domain, such as the organisation
manufacturing sector, would be
able to envision how tech like AI Krishna Kumar |
can be implemented in the spe- CEO, SIMPLILEARN
cific context to boost productiv-
ity or cut costs. “Without the in handy. One of the best ways
to jump into the bandwagon
IGNITE YOUR CAREER would be to join coding boot
camps like Masai School and
domain experts, the IT guys The Valley Bootcamp, which of-
would be at a loss as to where fer full-time and part-time
MEN ARE CHANGING they should implement it, or courses with rigorous engage-
what tech to design in the first ment programmes to build cod-
Men too are changing place. In supply chains, there ing skills. These types of boot
now. Compared to our might be a myriad ways to deploy camps are very common in the
own fathers, our husbands do a AI, but without knowing the nu- US, and a lot of people from
lot. Compared to our husbands, ances of the supply chain itself, other engineering streams use
our sons do a lot for the family. it would be impossible to them to switch to coding,”
Younger men today don’t do it in a way that in- he says. As Times Te-
typically talk of wanting a wife creases efficiency,” he says. chies reported recently,
who can take care of the child. Kumar says this trend some of these camps of-
They want their better halves to in transitioning from a fer an option where you
Those pictures that you see Singh, a graduate of Banaras Hindu University core sector job to a tech pay for the course only if
be of the same intellectual level on the walls of Nihilent’s Pune (BHU), worked at TCS for
sector job has happened you get a job that offers a
and they are willing to share facility aren’t paintings. They are 17 years, and then at Zensar Technologies for
before. “When companies imple- minimum annual salary of Rs
domestic responsibilities too. photographs taken by LC Singh, the almost two years as CEO. He founded
mented enterprise software like 6-7 lakh, and pay it in instal-
Researchers want to have technology consulting and services Nihilent in 2000, soon after leaving SAP’s and Oracle’s, they needed ments as a percentage of the
time of their own just to company’s founder Zensar people who understood the nu- salary for 2-3 years.
clarify their thoughts. You ances of the business. So, indi- Mayank Kumar, MD at skill-
Singh has been particularly He’s also a playwright and a member
cannot be and don’t want to be viduals who worked on the shop ing firm upGrad, says that for
passionate about wildlife of the Film Writers’ Association. He
very social. People are not going floor in the manufacturing sec- older employees, there’s always
photography, and many of the wrote and produced the Hindi feature
to take up research for any tor would get trained in enter- an inertia, the inability to man-
wildlife pictures are from locations film `Banaras, a mystic love story’ prise software and join the tech age work and study together. “To
other reason except for their
like Kruger National Park and the companies as functional con- tackle this, we have a separate
passion for science. It’s the
curiosity factor that draws you
wildlife preserves of Pretoria
in South Africa
sultants,” he says.
Anurag Jain, co-founder of
team of mentors who focus on
handholding learners to adapt to
to research
invoice discounting platform the new way of lifelong learning.
People are more drawn Some of his other favourite
KredX, says engineering is a These new-age technology fields
to computer science photography locations have been field of science that exposes require certain acumen and un-
today because they dream of a the Kaas plateau in Maharashtra, people to logical reasoning, derstanding, and older employ-
good job and a good life. It’s a Ladakh and Munnar problem-solving, and analytical ees would need to break their
perspective which is changing More than 200 of his photographs skills. “For someone to make a psychological barriers,” he says.
all over the world are displayed across Nihilent’s offices career in IT, these skills come It’s just a matter of willpower.
Nimisha Mukherjee was once told not to smile
From her student days to now,
she has seen a vast change in wom-
en. “Capability-wise, men and
women were always the same. But
women tended to lag men in
aw a r e n e s s . T h a t h a s
changed. Girls today are
Ardra.Shankar@timesgroup.com
INSPIRATION barrier. That’s one of the key
aspects of the project,” she says.
In August 2016, Nimisha
joined Red Hat as the principal Women tend to be
E
increasingly becoming arly in her career, Nimisha galuru office of software giant Nimisha developed an inter- software engineer. After almost more emotional
confident and vocal. Mukherjee was told off by a Red Hat, she works with teams est in computers at a young age. 15 years of working as a devel- than men, but that’s what
Even in villages, they senior male colleague for her across the globe to deliver a sim- “It always fascinated me that I oper with several companies, she our strength is. We bring
are more aware and cheery demeanor. “He told me I plified developer experience for could write a few lines of code decided to take it up a notch and
empathy to the table
s e l f - a s s u re d , ” s ay s shouldn’t smile so much,” she building cloud native applications and make the computer respond accepted the managerial position
Reddy. says. It’s a suggestion women in on Red Hat’s flagship platform to it,” she says, adding that she last year. “It’s an interesting role Nimisha
She believes women male-dominated workplaces know OpenShift. “It’s a hybrid cloud always aspired to be a developer. that integrates both technology Mukherjee
bring much more focus, intimately well, only second to enterprise Kubernetes platform,” She went on to pursue a bache- and people, that are key to any | PRINCIPAL
discipline and patience to ‘you should smile more’. “Women she explains, “which helps in lor’s degree in computer science innovation,” she says.
SOFTWARE
their work. “Do what you are always subjected to such crit- making the process of building from Mount Carmel College, As one of the few female tech
ENGINEER,
want and excel icism,” she says. “Initially, I used applications better and faster.” graduating in 2001, around the leaders in the industry and also
in it,” is her to get all riled up about these “At Red Hat, we have a global same time that the dotcom bub- a mother, Nimisha stresses on RED HAT
simple ad- things. But over the years, I’ve team. Our teams are spread ble popped. It was not easy to find the need for women to build
vice to learned to avoid negative com- across the world, from Australia a job, she recalls. “I eventually mental resilience. “Women tend
e v e r y ments and focus on my work.” to Canada. And as a manager, I got my break as a UI (user inter- to be more emotional than men,
woman Over nearly two decades, Ni- make sure there’s a fast and ef- face) developer at a small firm. but that’s what our strength is.
wanting misha has worked her way up to ficient system that enables each It was my first-ever work experi- We bring empathy to the table,
to make the top, smiling all along. An en- member of the team to contact ence, and I immediately knew which is intrinsic to any organ-
a mark. gineering manager at the Ben- another member without any that this is what I wanted to do.” isation.”