Cash and hire

CAREERS

They may not be the cream of the B-schools, but campus recruitment offers have seen salaries rise substantially.

They may not be the first business school most MBA aspirants in India want to get into (let's face it, IIM-Ahmedabad is still what everyone aspires for, followed by Bangalore and Calcutta) but there is no overlooking the fact that these B-schools are among the best in the country.

Places like Symbiosis Institute of Business Management (SIBM), IMT Ghaziabad and T A Pai Management Institute (TAPMI) have made their presence on the Indian management school scene and have, of late, started to register on the radar of companies like Colgate Palmolive and Nestle who earlier only went to the absolute top notch schools to recruit.

And the reason according to Varda Pendse, director, Cerebrus Consultants, an HR consultancy, is pretty clear too. "With IIM graduates preferring foreign companies, (Indian) companies are being forced to move to the next level of B-schools," she says.

But this does not mean that the companies are settling for anything but the best. The top students at these institutes are easily at par with the students at other IIMs, and also, these companies are given the first preference when interacting with the students at these institutes, so in the process end up recruiting the brightest students of the batch.

Most of these institutes have finished their final placements for 2006, and the numbers speak for themselves. The highest salary at TAPMIhas gone up from

Rs 6.75 lakh last year to Rs 7.75 lakh this year and Professor Raghunath, chairman, placement committee, TAPMI, says that one trend visible this year has been the increased recruiting by the IT and financial services sectors.

At IMT Ghaziabad too, it is a similar story. The highest domestic salary offered here was Rs 9.25 lakh by Genpact, substantially higher than

Rs 7.52 lakh which was the top offer last year, says Professor Nilanjan Chattopadhyay, chairman-placements, IMT Ghaziabad.

This is easily at par with the highest salary at Jamnalal Bajaj last year, which will have its round of placements only next month. At SIBM, the top international offer was $64,000, while the domestic one from JP Morgan was

Rs 8.9 lakh. On most campuses, a fair number of companies had to return empty handed with placements being completed in between 5-8 hours for about 150 students.

Pendse points out "While the salary for a particular profile would be the same irrespective of the institute, chances are that the differences in the compensation packages are a result of the difference in the functions."

The salary difference also depends upon whether the student has prior work experience or whether he is being taken at an entry level position. Prof Chattopadhyay says that this year has also seen a marked increase in the number of consultancy firms recruiting from non-IIMs.

"This is, however, primarily driven by the fact that they are not getting enough resources from IIMs alone, and therefore, it is more need driven than anything else." he explains.

Whatever the reasons, the students for one are not complaining about the increased opportunities (and heftier packages) coming their way.