In an indication that hiring of management professionals is back to pre-recession levels, the graduating batch of the Indian School of Business here got 661 offers, exceeding the previous high of 657 recorded in 2008.
Besides, there is a 10-20 per cent increase in the average pay offered across the sectors.
The B-school, which turned 10 this year, had 569 students in its Class of 2011, of whom 552 appeared for placements.
Announcing the placement results, ISB dean Ajit Rangnekar on Wednesday said the two major trends this year were the "phenomenal success" of women students in placements and its own alumni coming back to recruit from their alma mater.
He said the ISB this year tried to undo the perceived significance of 'Day 1' by introducing a rolling placement process, which ran over successive weekends for two months, instead of four or five days at a stretch. He said the B-school also made it a policy not to disclose the highest salaries since it distorted the overall picture and led to speculative expectations. Instead, it has announced the average for the middle 80 per cent, removing the top and bottom 10 per cent.
| EARLY GAINS | ||
| 2010 | 2011 | |
| Total offers | 541 | 661 |
| Participating companies | 346 | 310 |
| Highest paying sector | (IT) Rs 15.33 lakh | (M&E) Rs 19.25 lakh |
| Least paying sector | (Manufacturing) Rs 12.16 lakh | (Banking and Financial Services) Rs 15.81 lakh |
| Largest recruiting sector | NA | (Consulting) 32% |
| Smallest recruiting sector | NA | (Govt/PSUs) 1% |
| IT: Information Technology M&E: Media & Entertainment PSUs: Public sector Undertakings | ||
This year, the media & entertainment (M&E) sector offered the highest average pay (cost to company) of Rs 19.25 lakh, followed by consultancy (Rs 18.9 lakh), information technology/enabled services (Rs 18.07 lakh), infrastructure (Rs 18.02 lakh), retail (Rs 17.63 lakh), oil, energy and minerals (Rs 17.58 lakh) and pharma and biotech (Rs 17.47 lakh).
At Rs 15.81 lakh, banking and financial services was the least paying sector at this year's placements. But the sector accounted for 12 per cent of all, with only consultancy (32 per cent) and IT/ITeS (21 per cent) ahead. M&E accounted for just three per cent of all offers.
The largest increase in pay was seen in the manufacturing sector, which rose 42 per cent from Rs 12.16 lakh last year to Rs 17.32 lakh.
In terms of functions, consultancy was the most preferred, with 36 per cent of students bagging roles in it, followed by sales and marketing (20 per cent), general management (12 per cent) and finance (12 per cent). Companies founded by ISB alumni made seven offers, of which four were accepted.
Though the number of recruiting companies dropped to 310 (from last year's 346), there was an increase in offers from international companies to 83 (73 in 2010). V K Menon, who heads the career advisory services wing of ISB, said this was a recognition of India as a talent hub.
He said the increase came mainly from emerging economies in West Asia and Asia-Pacific, while offers from US companies remained constant. There were seven offers from African companies, of which four were accepted.
Five students joined the school's entrepreneurship incubation programme to start their own ventures in tourism, retail and mobile applications, among others. Around 25 ventures are at different stages of incubation at the Wadhwani Centre for Entrepreneurship Development.
Menon said the outgoing CTC was an average of 2.3 times the incoming CTC (i.e, the compensation the students were receiving at the time of joining ISB), while for its 160 female students, it was an average of 2.4 times.
