Offers at IIMs up despite global downturn

The final placement process on day zero for this year's batch of IIM-Calcutta (IIM-C) saw 100 students already placed across the country and abroad in firms of their choice.

IIM-C this year stood out as the only IIM across the country to see students joining Morgan Stanley for its London office.

The salaries have shot up significantly this time with multiple offers crossing the Rs 1-crore mark. The highest offer so far on campus has been Rs 1.36 crore made by a leading international investment bank.

The recruitment coordinators this year are expecting a 18-22 per cent hike over the last year's salary. The 2008 batch at IIM-C will also be the first to send students from campus to the companies such as Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and AD Little.

The day-zero this year also saw students choosing strategic consulting roles in a big way with the major consultancies such as BCG, Bain, McKinsey, AT Kearney and AD Little, who hired 40 candidates at the end of the first day.

There has also been a tremendous interest shown by investment banks with students from the outgoing batch receiving offers from the top notch firms such as Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Lehman Brothers, JP Morgan and ING, Merrill Lynch and Credit Suisse.

The recruitment process has seen a jump in the number of offers made to the students by leading corporates with 153 offers being made in the lateral placements. This coupled with almost 90 pre-placement offers (PPOs), which meant over 240 offers have been made to the 290 students well before the final placement process began.

According to S D Moitra, the chairperson of the placement committee at IIM-Calcutta, "The long-term relationship that we have nurtured with companies has meant that recruitment at IIM-C will always be exceptional."

"This strong show by IIM-Calcutta on the day zero itself has put to rest all fears of the global downturn affecting recruitment, with both consulting and investment banking firms hiring good numbers," pointed out Parijat Tiwari, recruitment coordinator at IIM-C.

The recruitment process at IIM-C is likely to be completed by Wednesday.

IIM-Lucknow: Placements at the Indian Institute of Management (Lucknow) could have not got bigger. For the first time, IIM-L secured a vice-president position for its student. The offer came from a telecommunication company.

The premier institute saw 100 per cent placement of its 256 students, which began in November last year, with companies awarding PPO to their summer interns. The number of PPOs was 90, up from the last year's figure of 65.

The higher-end placement process (HEPP) for relatively higher work experience students saw offers coming from the companies such as Standard Chartered Bank, TSMG, Aditya Birla Group, KPMG, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Ernst and Young, Headstrong Consulting, Cap Gemini, Yes Bank, Infosys, Cognizant, IBM, Hinduja and Essar.

Following the past trend of adding new names to its list of recruiters, HEPP saw companies such as Lehman Brothers, Barclays, Deloitte, Citibank, Unitech, visiting its campus for the first time for lateral candidates. Consulting firms also made their mark by offering good job profiles to IIM-L graduates.

The companies making these offers include Deloitte, Ernst and Young, KPMG, PricewaterhouseCoopers, TSMG, Cap Gemini, Headstrong Consulting, Hewitt Associates, Cognizant and IBM making large number of offers.

To help the students in making a career in financial, banking and financial institutions, companies such as O3 Capital, Avendus Advisors, Lehman Brothers, JP Morgan Chase, Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, Standard Chartered Bank, Calyon Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, American Express, ICICI Securities and ICICI Bank, Lehman Brothers, Barclays, Yes Bank, among others, were offered the choicest job profiles.

The standout achievement was the number of i-Banks that participated in the process this year, marking the rise of IIM-Lucknow as a recruitment hub for the investment banks, brokerage houses and trading firms.

Enam Securities, Kotak Securities, ICICI Securities, Avendus Advisors, Edelweiss Capital, Angel Broking and O3 Capital were such firms that chose IIM-Lucknow for their requirements.

Pankaj Kumar, chairman (placement) attributed successful placements with competencies and values that students acquire at IIM-Lucknow.

"With the economy on a high, these students are bound to make the best out of it and lead the way towards a progressive nation. With this year's placements, IIM-L has yet again proved its standing as one of the top B-schools in the country and has proven to be a preferred destination for organisations. Instead being a part of big corporate houses, six IIM-L students preferred to start their own venture as entrepreneurs and business leaders. These students were not the part of placement process, for they aim at developing their own endeavors in various sectors such as financial services and hospitality.

IIM-Bangalore: According to sources, most of all the students have managed to get offer letters, and are in a celebration mood.

Placement officers say they are in the process of finalising the list of the students who have got offer letters, recruiting companies and compensation packages among others. The details will be announced on Monday.