Hyderabad: It’s raining lucrative jobs at NIT Warangal which has had the best placement season so far. The 51-year-old institute started its recruitment drive on August 15 and already has a 21-yearold fourth year BTech computer science student securing the highest ever pay package of Rs 45 lakh per annum. The offer, made by Facebook, has created a record of sorts here.

    The institute confirmed that the student will be joining the technical wing of the social networking giant, as soon as he completes his course in March next year.

    This has set a new benchmark at NIT Warangal in that the highest salary any student from the institute had bagged so far was Rs 20 lakh per annum. From the 2010-11 batch as many as three students had got jobs that paid them Rs 20 lakh per annum, sources at NIT said.

    It is not just the 21-year-old whizkid who has bagged a hefty package this year. According to sources, the salaries offered to students so far range anywhere between Rs 5 to Rs 12 lakh per annum. The recruitment process for this year that started on August 15 is expected to last till March 2012. Sources said that most of the recruiters so far are IT companies. About 30 students from computer science stream of the institute have already been recruited. Eight companies have come in for recruitment in the first round so far.

    According to NIT officials, this year other than the usual brand of companies several new ones have expressed interest in hiring. “Companies have now shed the recession blues completely and are looking for fresh candidates to recruit. Many of them like Microsoft, Amazon, Oracle and Google could recruit more number of freshers than they did last year,” said a senior professor from the institute. Last year, 92% students from the B Tech batch of the institute and 50 % students from M Tech batch were recruited by companies. The average pay package offered by companies last year was between Rs 6 and Rs 7 lakh per annum. The institute officials are expecting a considerable increase in the pay packages this year.

    NIT professors said that this year, several companies have been vying for the first interview slots with students. “Most of the IT companies are willing to pay really well to bright students who get absorbed in the first or second interview. The companies who come for interviews later could offer bigger packages to students. We’ll have to wait and watch what the salary trend this year is,” said an official from NIT.