Oh! the age-old question, countless rumors from chachas, aunties and mamies. that some relative somewhere who graduated from IIT is making this or that. well, In this post I am going to demystify all the misconceptions regarding the income of IITans. I graduated from IIT Bombay with a BTech degree in Computer Science and Engineering in 2020. and Joined a big Tech firm in India as a software developer.
Do some of us make Crores?
You might have heard in countless news articles or social media posts, that xyz guy/girl from IIT got 1.5 or 2 crore offers from Facebook/Google/Amazon. these offers are real, some of us do get them. but there are few misconceptions
- These offers are only for living and joining in America or a Europian country. no on working inside india gets these high packages. (so offer will be 150K-200K USD rather than 1.5-2 Crore Rupees)
- the number 150K is not the money you get in your hand, but rather CTC ( cost to company ). which includes base pay, stocks, joining bonus, insurance and other benefits. generally speaking base pay is about half or less of CTC. so about 75K-100K USD (on upper limit ) deduct 30-50% tax (depending on country) and divide by 12 to get your actual monthly payslip. which will be around 5K to 8K USD. this is still not bad even for USA, but not as good as 1 Crore rupees in india as your rent alone will cost you 2-3K in USA.
- And the most important point is, very very few people get these offers. around 10-20 in a whole IIT. because different from before most of these company have branches in india (bangalore or noida/delhi). and they want good talent there too. so abroad offers are only given when company don’t have a branch here or student insists on abroad posting and is too valuable for company to refuse him.
What Big Tech Firms in India Pay?
This is where most graduates ( who don’t have greater than 9.5 CGPA ) will get placed. For fresher software positions ( including mine ) companies located in India offers CTC of 20 to 40 Lakh rupees. out of which your base will be 10 to 20 Lakh. and other parts will be stocks, joining bonuses, insurance, etc. since in India tax rates are low for people with salaries less than 10Lakh and you can get tax deductions by investing in houses, mutual funds, etc. your In hand salary will come anywhere around 80000 to 150000 rupees a month.
Is pursuing IIT even worth considering the actual numbers?
IMO, Yes definitely yes! the package of 20Lakh CTC is very easy to achieve after you get in an IIT. you will get 80K salary in hand starting from month one. if you live considerably and don’t throw away all the money partying and buying gadgets. you can comfortably save 50000 from month one living an upper-middle-class lifestyle. start investing your savings in a diverse portfolio consistently and as much as you can. and In no time you will become a crorepati. and remember this is just your joining in-hand salary. which will increase year by year as you gain experience or change jobs, after few years your stocks will vest ( which will become more than your base yearly income ). you should upgrade your lifestyle as your salary increases but also upgrade your savings accordingly. and the bottom line is if you do things right you can even retire before you are 30 with enough money to live the rest of your life just from bank fixed deposits interests alone. This type of opportunity you will only get by going to an IIT/NIT. So yeah, that’s why I think you should pursue IIT if you are interested in tech.
Conclusion
In reality, IITan’s don’t make as much as portrayed in the news or social media. but they make more than any other field in India. It is not always about money too, it is about having control over your life. you won’t have to sit home because you can’t get a job for 2 years. you will be taken very seriously by every recruiter just because you have an IIT tag on your resume. even if you chose to start a business you will have some credibility in front of investors just by being an IITan. Hope you the best of luck in your journey of achieving the IIT dream.
If you want to know more about work <link to HFT, faang, joining exp posts >
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I think the HFT firms have disrupted the salary structure. They are offering 1cr+ for Indian postings, crazy stuff. Can you shed light on how many people get such offers
Recently these firms have started expanding a lot in India and the number of offers have increased in IITs. For example, quadeye or graviton are hiring around 20 freshers each from various IITs. These along with other HFTs have increased the number of hires to a comparable level to Software firms.