Mid-career execs at IIM-A get 5-times-salary

It wasn't an easy decision for mid-career executives, in their 30's and 40's, to quit stable careers with the government and public sector undertakings, and get back to studies.

However, with a month-and-a-half to go before their coursework ends, participants from the first batch of Post Graduate Programme in Public Management and Policy (PGP-PMP) at the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad are already flooded with offers from the corporate sector, where the average salary is between Rs 20 lakh and Rs 35 lakh a year.

Companies such as DLF, GMR Group, IL&FS, ICICI Foundation, ICICI Lombard, RPG, Arshiya International, Centurion Bank of Punjab, SBI Caps, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Yes Bank have visited the campus to recruit these executives, some of whom have as much as 17-20 years experience in the public sector. They, after the completion of the course, now expect their pay packets to increase 4-5 times.

Moreover, job profiles offered are all in the higher echelons of management such as vice-president, director, associate director, general manager and vertical heads for India.

The PGP-PMP is a one-year programme targeted at those looking to take on senior management positions in public management and policy.

For the first batch of the programme, the institute had shifted through 330 applications from which 33 participants were selected. Around 58 per cent of candidates from the batch were from government departments, 18 per cent from public sector units, 12 per cent from banks, 6 per cent from NGOs and the remaining 6 per cent from private organisations.

The participants in the programme include a chief manager from a large public sector bank with 17 years of work experience, an assistant director general from a government telecom department, a deputy collector and IT officer with the Gujarat government with 12 years of experience and a deputy manager with a public sector bank with 13 years of experience.

Before they joined the programme, those in the government and public sector companies drew salaries of around Rs 5-7 lakhs a year. By jumping into the corporate sector, these executives will see their pay packets go up to over Rs 20 lakhs.

IIM-A sources said that nearly 11 participants have already accepted offers while the rest are in the process of doing so.

Meanwhile, seeing big corporates houses approaching them, even some sponsored participants are planning to resigning from their organisations and take up these offers.

Elective subjects such as infrastructure development, financial regulation, public policy & governance and technology management, have managed to earn brownie points with recruiters, who are looking for people to head their PPP (public-private partnership) projects, said a participant, who has 17 years of experience with the Gujarat government.

The response to the first batch has already alerted the IIM-Ahmedabad decision-makers, who are now contemplating an increase in the intake of the batch from 33 to 45 or 50. As with all other programmes at the institute, the PGP-PMP is also expected to see a fee hike from Rs 8.5 lakhs to Rs 12 lakhs for the next batch.