IIM tagged defence guys bag plum jobs

The respect and protocol accorded to officers on the basis of their ranks appears to have found favour at the boardroom levels too.

Armed with the IIM brand name "� or that of top institutes like MDI Gurgaon and XLRI "� retired defence officers are managing to rake in packages that are more than comparable to packages offered to the institutes' flagship post-graduate programme (PGP) course students.

The officers are pass outs of the six-month Certificate Course in Business Administration which has been initiated by the Directorate-General of Resettlement, Ministry of Defence (DGR-MoD) in association with the IIMs at Ahmedabad, Indore, Kolkata, Bangalore, formerly Lucknow, XLRI, MDI and Narsee Monjee Institute of Mgt Studies.

The programme aims at providing management education to the officers of the Indian Armed Forces (whether in short or regular commission) "� who are due to retire shortly or have retired recently "� and has already seen close to 400 applications for around 60 seats offered.

For the first batch of defence officers passing out from Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad (IIM-A), a major general (retd) has bagged a package of around Rs 30 lakhs while his classmate, a former brigadier has received a package of around Rs 25 lakhs.

Not only have the senior ranked officers across the institutes received the best packages, the positions offered have been at the top level as compared to their younger counterparts who have been offered middle and lower-middle level positions by corporates.

As for the average salaries, surprisingly, they have been much higher than the PGP students from the institute who recently completed their courses and touched the Rs 1 crore bracket.

Average packages for the defence officers across IIM-Ahmedabad, IIM-Indore, MDI Gurgaon and XLRI have showed a healthy range of Rs 15-20 lakhs.

Compare this to the average domestic salary at other IIMs "� IIM-A saw a hike of 40 per cent in its domestic salary average taking it to Rs 13.6 lakh, IIM Calcutta and IIM Indore witnessed average salaries of Rs 12.35 lakhs and IIM Kozhikode averaged Rs 11.76 lakhs.

Candidates have also received an impetus from a job website called forcesofindia.com launched by a former defence officer called Nitish Pandey who passed out from the armed forces course at IIM-Lucknow in 2006.

The site stores the CV and other vital information of students passing out of these courses held at IIMs and other institutes. Companies that have recruited students from campus and the website include DLF, ICICI Prudential, ICICI Lombard, TCS, Akruti Nirman, Tech Mahindra, Aditya Birla, Adani, Pepsi, Citibank, ABN Amro and Infosys among others.

The DGR-MoD's dream of ensuring a smooth transition to civilian life for officers of the armed forces seems to be headed in the right direction however, not everything has been so easy going.

So far over 600 officers in more than 13 batches have completed the course but unlike the traditional courses, students for the course do not have the advantage of a placement cell and are responsible for their own placements.

In an analysis of the certificate programme in management for the armed forces, Group Capt Rajesh Sobti, DirectorTraining, DGR, believes that while officers below 45 have been placed even before the course gets over, those above 50 have been at a disadvantage.

"Officers in the higher age group accept the necessity of looking at self-employment or entrepreneurship as more viable options. This choice must be made by them early so that they can opt for suitable electives in which they need to specialise." he noted.