CHENNAI: Salaries handed out by non-IT companies are fast catching up with, and sometimes sneaking ahead of, the IT sector if the recent campus recruitment patterns at Great Lakes Institute of Management (GLIM) are any indication.

GLIM managers overseeing placements for the B-School's third batch found that while entry level salaries in the IT sector were around Rs.7 lakh annually, many leading non-IT companies offered more.

Plum jobs

However, the highest gross salary recorded at the conclusion of a successful recruitment campaign (100 per cent placement), that saw 63 companies present over 244 job offers, was offered by IT major Cognizant Technologies — a neat Rs.17 lakh as annual pay.

The plum job went to a candidate with around seven years in the IT sector.

All the 154 students who participated in the drive received more than one job offer and the median annual salary (cost to company) was around Rs.8 lakh.

Last year, the average salary was Rs.7.4 lakh, and Rs.5.5 lakh the year before that.

Addressing a press conference on Tuesday, GLIM executive director S. Sriram and Swaminathan Murthy said they anticipated an overhaul in the dynamics of campus recruitments with opportunities opening up in newer avenues such as retail and real estate.

The top companies that visited GLIM included British Petroleum, Frost and Sullivan, HSBC, Accenture and Langham Capital.

Though 61 per cent of candidates chose IT offers, there was no dearth of good offers from sectors such as FMCG, manufacturing, banking and finance and consulting.

Attractive packages

"There is now a determined bid among leading companies to attract the cream among MBA candidates by handing out pay packages that are on a par with, or even better than, those offered by the IT segment," said Mr. Sriram.

GLIM is considering apportioning a few seats of its annual intake for candidates committed to becoming entrepreneurs.

The modalities are yet to be worked out, said Mr. Sriram.

GLIM's new campus coming up on the East Coast Road is expected to have basic facilities in place before the commencement of the 2008 batch around April next year.

The B-School plans to increase its intake to 250 students.

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