INR 1.13 Cr Package Secured By Non-IIT, Non-IIM: A Look At His Journey Of Competitions & Internships

Is a dream package scripted only into the destiny of students from legacy colleges like IITs and IIMs? Though most people might believe this, it’s not always the case. And a shining example of this is Saahil Ali, a non-IIT, non-IIM student who secured a package of INR 1.13 crore after studying at Devi Ahilya Vishwavidyalay University (DAVV). 

Ali, who hails from Indore in Madhya Pradesh and calls himself an “open source enthusiast” on his LinkedIn page, completed his M.Tech (IT) from DAVV in 2023. He was offered a job by the Netherlands-based software company Adyen during campus placements. He started with Adyen as a Software Engineer in February, this year. 

A quick look at Ali’s journey to landing a job at Adyen makes it clear that he looked beyond the classroom to prepare for a career in software engineering. 

The Long Prep To Placements

As per reports, Ali was always a meritorious and hardworking student who started prepping for his placements in the first year. He credited both, his parents and professors, for helping him prepare for the placements. 

His preparation is evident in the many internships he undertook during his five-year-long course, starting with a year-long internship at Eatburp Developers from 2018 to 2019. Following this, between 2019-21, he worked as a Machine Learning intern with three different companies - Codenscious, Cliff.ai, and Greendeck. 

Not one to rest on his laurels, Ali continued to build his professional capabilities. In 2021 he completed a four-month-long internship with the not-for-profit Python Software Foundation as a Google Summer of Code 2021 student developer. Following this, he worked as a GitHub and SDE intern with CRED. 

Learning From Competitions 

While his many internships, six in four years to be exact, certainly helped polish his professional skills, Ali was also a regular participant in competitions. 

Between 2018-2020, he participated in and won four major competitions. Three of these, namely HackVento 2k18, HackVento 2k19 and RE.T3CH 2.0 were organized by the college. He secured the first position in all three. 

Additionally, he also participated in and won the Udacity Technology Scholarship Program. ​​As per Ali, after successfully completing the 3 months challenge course, he was selected out of the 15,000 students who participated in Phase 1 to continue with the Deep Learning Nanodegree Program in Phase 2. 

It’s not unfair to assume that competitions helped improve Ali’s capabilities and bettered his chances of securing a higher package. In fact, even the Unstop Campus Employer Branding Report 2023 which garnered responses from 9,810 students this year, revealed that participating in competitions can increase the chances of students bagging higher CTCs by 300%-500%. 

Securing A Record-Breaking Package

On LinkedIn, Ali states that his passion lies in solving business problems with tailored data and algorithms and communicating complex ideas to non-technical stakeholders. Clearly, he translated that passion into securing a record-breaking package of INR 1.13 crore - the first student from DAVV to secure a package as high as this.

Interestingly, prior to the offer from Adyen, Ali received a job offer with an annual package of INR 46 lakh from a Bengaluru-based company - which, at the time, was the second-highest package ever received by a student from DAVV. 

As per reports, the students of the University have received packages of about INR 6 lakh annually. 

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