Core-sector companies are valued for their level of expertise and professionalism in the respective area of operations. These companies offer jobs in core areas of engineering such as mechanical, electrical, infrastructure sector. While over the years, most B.tech grads have ditched the jobs that core sector companies offered, M.tech students have usually preferred them. When start-ups got into the fray of placements, most B.tech students ditched the core sector companies. Better pay-package was a major reason why jobs in a start-up were a preferred job opportunity over the core-sector. After the clear lack of enthusiasm from the B.tech students, a lot of core sector companies decided to recruit by prioritising M.tech graduates. Some core-sector companies have recruited only M.tech students and, this is a deviation from traditional placement trend. And they have their reasons for their preference.

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For starts, M.tech student have greater and in-depth knowledge about the branch they are pursuing. Academically,M.tech students have at least 6 years (4 years of under grad, plus 2 or 3 years of M.tech) depending on their stream and choice of course. “M.tech students are more academically inclined. Their in-depth knowledge makes them a better candidate for hiring. Although, the B.tech graduates have a fresh perspective with regards to dealing with technology, having greater theoretical knowledge is beneficial,” says an HR manager at IBM. They recruited only M.tech students from IIT Bombay.

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M.tech students also have more work experience over the B.tech students. “Many of us who pursue M.tech have prior work experience. This is because a lot of us work while we prepare for GATE. Hence, our work experience adds to our advantage during placements,” says Hussain Manaswala, an alumnus from IIT Bombay. Kushagra Goyal of IIT Delhi also says, “While B.tech graduates have internship experiences, having prior work experience is an added advantage to working with core sector companies.” Companies like Qualcomm, Cisco have all preferred to have M.Tech graduates over the B.tech grads.

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An HR official at Tata Communication says, “Hiring M.tech student is far more viable than the B.tech grads for the reason that they are more committed to the job. Most under-graduate pass-outs quit within the training period which is a loss for the company. It is a waste of time, energy and company resources. In my experience M.Tech students are far more committed to their job.”

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It is not just the M.tech students who ditch the glamorous pay-package to work in core sector industries, but the companies too, have a preference for M.Tech students, keeping in mind the long-run needs of the company.

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