Surge in recruitment at Indian School of Business

The Indian School of Business (ISB) saw a huge leap in the number of placement offers and average and highest salaries this year.

The average annual domestic offer for the 2004 batch was Rs 9,05,000, while the highest domestic cost-to-company (CTC) per year was Rs 20,55,000.

The average international offer was $90,000, while the highest international cost-to-company was at par with US counterparts at $151,768.

There were a total of 20 offers from various foreign companies based in US, Europe, Dubai and Singapore.

There was also a considerable increase in the lateral placements with several companies like Novartis, Goldman Sachs, Coca-Cola, Hindustan Levers and HSBC.

The 2004 batch had 219 students, of which 192 participated in the placement process. The students received 273 offers of which 221 were lateral offers, up by 41offers from last year.

Novartis chose ISB as the only B-school for recruitment along with other international B-schools. HLL recruited laterally for the first time. While Goldman Sachs and Coca Cola made offers for "Associate" positions.

The class of 2004 had an average work experience of five years in several industries and over 25 per cent had international experience.

There were about 18 per cent women in the present batch and they received a total of 52 offers, of which five were international.

The highest CTC for female graduates was Rs 13,00,000, while the average was Rs 8,86,000, annually.

ISB also follows a rolling placements process which assists recruiters in making hiring decisions for the middle-level and senior management positions.

The period is spread over three-months and allows students to understand requirements. This model is increasingly being followed by various companies, while recruiting.

There have also been higher number of career shifts this year with many students choosing to change the industry or functions.

There were unusual career shifts like deep-sea diving professionals getting offers from oil exploration consulting firms and media professionals being offered positions by FMCG firms.