Placements update

Allaying fears that the IIMs may not be a big attraction of global firms this year in the wake of the US subprime crisis and slow down in the global economy, about 20 companies participated on the first day of the IIM-Bangalore final placement that started on Tuesday.

Consulting companies dominated the scene, with some of the global consulting firms, such as Oliver Wyman, participating in the final placement of IIM-B for the first time.

"Even though the final placement at other IIMs is yet to start, the surge in the number of consulting and investment bankers participating in the IIM-B final placement, indicates that the companies are well on track as far as their recruitment plan is concerned. This, most probably, is going to be replicated at other IIMs," said a student there. The final placement at other IIMs are starting on 6th of this month.

Although the placement office is tight-lipped about the recruitment process this year, sources say that over 100 companies will be participating in the final placement which is expected to continue for five days. This number is said to be more or less the same, as compared to the previous year final placement, said another student.

The 2006 batch of IIM-B who are passing out in 2008, have secured in grabbing 110 pre-placement offers based on their summer internship programme, which is the highest across all the IIMs.

IMT Ghaziabad
The campus recruitment process at Institute of Management Technology (IMT), Ghaziabad this year has seen an increase in its average salary to Rs 10.87 lakh per annum as compared to Rs 10.36 per annum in 2007.

The highest domestic salary offered at the institute was Rs 17 lakh by Abhishek Industries "" Trident Group, whereas the highest international package offered was $ 85,000 offered by Olam International, Singapore.

"This was the first time IMT Ghaziabad made conscious efforts to call recruiters from abroad. There has been a substantial increase in the number of international offers from companies like HSBC Hong Kong, Protiviti Risk Consulting, Sharaf Group, Olam International and Jumbo making a total of 15 offers, compared to, 7 last year," said Prof Nilanjan Chattopadhyay, chairman, placements, IMT Ghaziabad.

Around 522 offers were made for 340 students. Only one student opted out of the placements to get into entrepreneurship. Companies who recruited from the campus include Mercer, AT Kearney, Cerebrus, Synovate, Perfetti Van Melle, Vodafone, Aviva, Yes Bank, Schneider, SKF, SEBI, ORG-IMS, Aptivaa and Moser Baer.

Indian School of Business
A number of top companies from diverse sectors are participating in the placement process at the Indian School of Business (ISB) this year.

As many as 200 top of the line national and international companies are visiting the campus enabling the process of final placements to 425 graduating students.

Goldman Sachs, British Petroleum, Deutsche Bank, Tishman Speyer, McKinsey and Co, BCG, Barclay's Bank, Google, Microsoft, DRL, CB Richard Ellis, Apollo Hospitals, Johnson & Johnson, Unilever, Bharti Group are some of the leading companies that are visiting the ISB campus this year with more companies slated to come in, according to a press release.

M Rammohan Rao, dean, ISB, said, "Placements at the ISB have commenced and we are greatly encouraged by the strong response from the corporate world. An interesting trend this year is that the real estate and healthcare companies, both in India and abroad, are recruiting students for senior roles."

"Our focus has always been to increase the diversity in our student body. These efforts have been rewarded with both national and international companies coming to recruit the ISB graduates in a wide variety of domains and roles in India and 20 different countries across the globe," Savita Mahajan, associate dean, admissions, career services and strategic initiatives, said.