Bhubaneswar: The Institute of Technical Education and Research (ITER), faculty of engineering and technology of SOA Deemed to be University, has maintained its dominant position in the domain of technical education with 91 per cent placement for its 2019-20 batch of students involving major companies.
Thirty per cent of the students have received job offers from Day Zero— first day of recruitment—high paying companies with an average annual salary of Rs. 6.5 lakh and above. Altogether 104 companies visited ITER extending job offers to 2264 students this season with the highest salary offered being Rs. 31 lakh per annum.
ITER, an AICTE approved institution which was ranked 32nd in the country among engineering colleges by the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) in 2019, had received the highest number of offers in eastern India from major companies like Microsoft and Infosys. Similarly, Cognizant came up with the highest number of offers to ITER students in Odisha.
ITER’s engineering programmes have been accredited by NBA as also by the prestigious Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) of USA. The institute got another feather on its cap when it was placed in the 601 to 800 category of the Times Higher Education World University Ranking 2020 while its Computer Science programme also figured in the 600 plus category. SOA was ranked 24th in the country among universities by NIRF in 2019.
Incidentally, ITER was one of the only three institutes in Odisha visited by Microsoft this season, the other two being IIT, Bhubaneswar and NIT, Rourkela, for campus recruitment.
The season which began with global brands like Microsoft and Amazon stepping into the ITER campus in June, continued with Day Zero slot hiring by companies like Rayputa Robotics, Informatica, Deloitte, Tek Systems, Capgemini Digital, Infosys Digital, Mu Sigma, Robert Bosch, MAQ Software, Global Logic,
OPTUM, Reliance Industries, SIGMOID, ODESSA Inc, Valuelabs, Kloudgin and Hyundai Mobis with an annual average pay package of Rs. 6.5 lakh and above.

The Day One hiring witnessed heavyweight companies like Infosys, Wipro and Cognizant making 1164 offers which is considered to be the best in eastern India in terms of student intake ratio. The recruitment continued with other major companies like Capgemini, IBM, MINDTREE, NCR Corp, IBS Software, Expansion, Sear Holding, Ramky, Infogain, Jade Global, CGI, Voltas, DXC Technology, ITC Infotech, Hexaware, Value Momentum and HP visiting the campus.
SOA, known for its excellent teaching methodology and academic excellence, has already launched an action plan to counter the challenges arising out of the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak. The university’s Training and Placement wing has started its placement oriented programs for the 2021 batch of students with full vigour, aiming for Day Zero session slated to begin in June next.