IITH student bags ₹2.5 crore offer, institute’s highest ever package
HYDERABAD: A final year computer science student of the Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad has secured a ₹2.5 crore annual package from a Netherlands-based trading firm, marking the highest salary ever offered to a student of the institute since its inception in 2008.
Converted internship leads to record offer
Edward Nathan Varghese, 21, will join Optiver as a software engineer from July after converting a two-month summer internship into a pre-placement offer (PPO). IIT Hyderabad officials said this is the highest package in the institute’s history.
“This was the first and only company I interviewed for. I was ecstatic when my mentor indicated that the firm would be extending an offer. So were my parents,” Varghese told The Times of India on Wednesday.
Competitive programming background helped, says student
Born and raised in Hyderabad, Varghese later studied in Bengaluru from Class 7 to Class 12. He said he remained confident of securing a strong offer despite the market slowdown.
“I knew the IIT tag would draw companies to our campus and that the impact of the present job market would be minimal. Since my first year, I have been into competitive programming and was among the top 100 in the country,” he said, adding that the institute’s flexible curriculum also helped him crack the interview. His parents are both engineers.
Average pay jumps sharply in 2025 placements
While two students were selected for the internship at Optiver, Varghese alone received a PPO. The internship included two weeks of training and a six-week project. He will work full-time at the firm’s Netherlands office.
Apart from Varghese, another computer science student secured a ₹1.1 crore package this year. Until now, the highest offer at IIT Hyderabad was about ₹1 crore, recorded in 2017.
The 2025 placement season also saw average packages rise by about 75% compared to 2024 from ₹20.8 lakh to ₹36.2 lakh. A total of 24 international offers were secured in Phase 1 of placements, which concluded in December.
“More than packages, our focus is on ensuring that all students who want placements get good offers,” said Mayur Vaidya, faculty-in-charge, Office of Career Services. He added that the institute is giving public sector undertakings and core engineering companies early slots to improve opportunities for non-tech students.
Currently, 196 postgraduate students out of 650 have been placed, with an average package of ₹22 lakh. Among undergraduates, 62% of the 487 students who registered for placements have received offers.
