There are mixed reviews about the placements of the chemical department of IIT BHU and IIT

Roorkee. Students of IIT BHU thinks they have good placements than IIT-R and vice-versa. A

senior professor of Chemical Department T IIT Roorkee, who is an alumnus of IIT BHU, visited the campus of IIT BHU last year. According to him, students at both of the institutes believe that grass is greener on the other side. The fact is placements in both the departments are almost equal.

Following are some of the examples for the same:

1. ITC, which offers 18L CTC, visited IIT-R and not IIT BHU, while HUL (Hindustan Unilever Limited), offering 22L CTC, visited IIT BHU, but not IIT Roorkee.

2. Core companies for Chemical Engineering like Aditya Birla, Reliance visits both the campus.

Now coming to branch change, in IIT BHU, a maximum of 10 percent of students can move from one branch to another, while in IIT Roorkee, it’s only 2 percentage. So, in the case of branch change, IIT BHU is more liberal for change in the branch, i.e. if there are 120 students at IIT BHU chemical department, 12 students can move for branch change while in case of IIT-R in the strength of 120, approximately 3 students would be able to do the branch change.

The answer to this question depends on what you aim for after 4 or 5 years of your college degree. If you just want a placement and not particularly interested in a branch then you could go for any of those two branches as placement statistics are good for both in IIT BHU. There are enough opportunities in the non-core sector which generally comprise IT, developer, analytics, product management, business analyst, etc. These sectors don't look for a specific branch and rather require good communication and analytical skills. 

Coming to the core sectors, both civil and chemical provide diverse opportunities in these areas. If you are someone who finds chemical processing and chemistry interesting, then go for chemical engineering. If you are the one who gets amazed by the interesting and defying structures, civil engineering should be your choice. According to 2019 placement statistics, 77 students from Civil Engineering and 104 students from Chemical Engineering got placed from IIT BHU.

Opting for civil engineering would open doors to exams such as IES, UPSC, GATE, and other state engineering exams. There are ample opportunities for civil engineering majors. And if you choose chemical engineering, you can go for higher studies or work for PSUs. So, both these branches at IIT BHU would provide enough opportunities to grow and explore and the end decision should be based on your interest.

Chemical Engineering at IIT Gandhinagar (IITGN) is decent and underrated, but it is an extremely diverse engineering course one could opt for. As in India, it is difficult to grab your hands on a chemical engineering job because of the supply factor. The supply is greater than the demand itself. It is the quantity that is neglected and the quality which is regarded more. 

The companies/corporations are profited by hiring candidates who are experienced and not freshers. And since the projects you would be working on would be concerned with chemical plants, it is obvious why they require people who are good with their knowledge and have prior experience. 

The companies here would also not accept people who are highly skilled like chemical engineers themselves, as they would demand a high salary. But considering the kind of projects they work on, they have people like chemists and mechanical engineers who are responsible for running the organisation. But if they have an installation and design provided by chemical engineering companies, that is when they would require chemical engineers. 

Lastly, why people don't take chemical engineering seriously is because of how unaware the people are of the basic facts concerning it in general. On the other hand, if you look at IT and service sectors, people are aware because they either have a friend/family/neighbour working in that sector. This isn't with chemical engineering, So, to capsule whatever I have mentioned, it is simply how people carry misconceptions that cause a shortage of jobs for this position.