The season of placements has started in the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT). Meanwhile, on Thursday, high-frequency and quantitative firms hired several top talents from IITs. Meanwhile, a company named Jane Street Capital has offered a job package of more than Rs 4 crore to a student of IIT-Kanpur.

This information has been given by the student member of the placement team of IIT-Kanpur. He said, ‘Jane Street has offered a package of more than Rs 4 crore to one of our students.’ However, till now no response has come from IIT-Kanpur and Jane Street regarding this news.

Not only this, apart from IIT-Kanpur, Jane Street has created a new record by offering a salary package of more than Rs 4 crore to 2 students from Delhi and Bombay campuses of IIT. Placement officers of IIT Kanpur, Delhi and Bombay said that these offers from Jane Street are the highest till date.

Amid this new record offer from proprietary trading firm Jane Street Capital, many bluechip companies have stayed away from hiring amid the economic slowdown. And high-frequency trading (HFT) and quant companies hire candidates who can analyze markets using mathematical and statistical models. Despite the global recession, this segment has managed to hire students from IITs offering salaries in crores and more.

Prashant Singh, Founder and Managing Director, Quantbox Research, said, “HFT firms generated healthy revenue last year. However, growth in 2023 may not be as high as in 2022. Nevertheless, growth is expected to be good in 2023. We are hiring for the India, Singapore, Chicago and Amsterdam offices.

Prashant Singh said that HFT companies offered offers of Rs 1.3 to 1.4 crore for domestic postings and Rs 1.6-2.4 crore for global placements. “The salary includes a bonus of Rs 80 lakh, but new hires have received more than 100% bonus in the last few years,” he said. He further said that his company will hire 10-15 students this year at the same salary as last year.

“These HFT profiles require analytical skills and logic thinking and that’s why companies come to IITs for placements,” said Sathyan Subbaiah, advisor (placements), IIT-Madras, one of India’s oldest IITs. A total of 25 offers have been made to the students with a salary package of more than ₹1 Crore per annum including pre-placement offers on the first day of placement.

According to the placement teams, Squarepoint, Tibra, Quadei, Graviton Research Capital, JPMC Quant, Maverick Derivatives and Da Vinci are some of the companies that have visited all IIT campuses.

A placement team member at IIT-Kanpur said, “Maverick Derivatives and Da Vinci have offered packages of €1,50,000. International roles have also been offered, out of which packages of more than Rs 1 crore have also been given for some profiles.

IIT-Madras said that companies like Texas Instruments (14), Bajaj Auto Limited and Chetak Technology Limited (10), Qualcomm (8) and JP Morgan Chase & Co (9) have hired students from here.

However, according to the placement teams at several IITs, there has been a drop in the number of global offers as many companies are on a hiring freeze. Last year, ride and food delivery firm Uber was the top recruiter, offering a high salary of Rs 2.16 crore per annum.

This year the pre-placement offer has become a favorite for companies that have made offers to students at the end of their internship. The immediate impact of the downturn was seen in companies such as Microsoft not offering global roles. It has given offers of around Rs 50 lakh for domestic roles.

Google has also made offers in the same range as Microsoft. However, Accenture offers packages of Rs 85 lakhs for roles based out of Japan. Flipkart is offering Data Science and Product Manager roles in Rs 26-33 lakhs among startups and e-commerce firms.

A Flipkart spokesperson said, “We are associated with several colleges for campus hiring for various roles including SCM, Analytics & Product and Business Development. Which includes many business schools and engineering campuses across the country including IIT Bombay, Delhi, Madras, Kanpur, BHU (Varanasi), Roorkee, Hyderabad and Guwahati.

The placement season in most of the IITs starts at midnight. Oracle has come up with 11 offers for IIT-Guwahati students. Out of this, one student has been given a salary package of Rs 2.4 crore for global roles. Whereas, another student has been given a package of Rs 1.1 crore for a domestic role.

IIT-Roorkee said that a student has got a package of Rs 1.06 crore for international posting. And another student has been given an offer of Rs 1.30 crore for domestic posting. AppDynamics, Bajaj Auto, BCG, Cairn Oil & Gas, Da Vinci, Flipkart, Graviton, Intel Technologies were some of the recruiters.