Last September, a few students of the Indian Institute of Management-Bangalore (IIM-B) — who had accepted job offers from traditional dream recruiters like Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch — were shell shocked when the banking sector started collapsing with Lehman Brothers being the first to pull the plug.
Their jobs in jeopardy, these students frantically started approaching friends and acquaintances for help. But jobs were not for the asking. It was then that concerned alumni members of the institute stepped in to help the IIM-B placement committee (which was under no obligation to place these students) find alternative employment for them.
“We had a pool of nearly 30 students who were worried about their future following the collapse or acquisition of their recruiters. Alumni members immediately contacted the placement committee and helped them find alternative financial recruiters like ICICI, HDFC Bank and a few consultancies using their contacts,” recalls Rakesh Godhwani, head of the IIM-B Alumni Association.Although the exercise was done on an ad-hoc basis, it gave Godhwani and his friends the idea of launching something on a professional level to leverage the strong relationship the institute has with recruiters. Consequently, based on the success of this partnership, Godhwani and his colleagues have formed a trust ‘IIM Bangalore Alumni Association’. Godhwani expects to start operations within around six months.
The newly-registered trust plans to offer career management services for the first time to help ex-IIM-B students get a recruitment platform. Godhwani admits the alumni association does not have the resources required to run the new initiative. The association, hence, plans to hire a professional outfit to deliver career management services. “We will hire professionals for this new service who will be based out of our campus. We will look at creating an up-to-date database of all alumni and recruiter contacts over the next few months,” says Godhwani.
Only students who have studied in the institute for programmes of more than eight weeks’ duration and who have been alumni members for a certain period will qualify for the recruitment services. Students, or those who recently graduated, and come under the purview of the institute’s placement committee will not be a part of the new initiative. The association plans to charge a nominal fee for the service.
Sankarshan Basu, chairperson of the IIM-B Alumni Association, reminisces that the initiative was an extension of the ‘informal’ placements that occurred at times where job openings were often put up on the alumni portal. “Instead of opting for head-hunters, alumni members can avail of this service at their alma mater, whom they trust. Our strong relationship with recruiters for many years will be our strength,” asserts Basu.
The trust would also welcome news for the institute’s Post Graduate Programme in Software Enterprise Management and certificate programme in business management for defence personnel, who will be able to use the career management services since these programmes do not have a formal placement structure.
