Not only has the number of offers risen this year but students are also being offered multiple choices by recruiters this academic year.
While average pay packets offered to students are yet to reach 2008 levels, the sheer rise in the number of offers made by recruiters has brought cheer to Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) and other premier business schools in the country.
Consider this. IIM Ahmedabad, which is conducting a cohort-based placement process this year, has seen an increase in the number of offers from companies this year. “The placements are going on smoothly and there has been a rise in the number of domestic and international offers across sectors this year,” a placement committee member said.
IIM-A has reportedly been offered a record Rs 1.44 crore plus package from Deutsche Bank while IIM Lucknow has bagged the highest offer of Rs 75 lakh from Olam International.
IIM-A saw regular biggies like HSBC, CitiBank, Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and McKinsey & Co, with BCG and McKinsey making eight offers each, including pre-placement offers during Cluster 1. Deloitte made 10 offers (including lateral offers) for consulting roles during Cluster 2. Other regular recruiters like TAS and Feedback Ventures offered general management and consulting roles and hired 6 students each. The campus also saw HUL, P&G, American Express, Standard Chartered and Nestle making several placement offers to students.
In 2008, IIM-A received a total 415 offers, which consisted of 336 domestic and 79 overseas offers as compared to 2009 when the institute got 303 total offers, of which 225 were domestic while only 20 were overseas offers.
A week into placements, the IIM Lucknow has already received 300 offers, mostly by IT and finance companies. “We are seeing a positive response from recruiters this year. There were 100 lateral placement offers across sectors and now there have been 300 offers across all sectors since February 17. Most companies that have made the most offers this year belong to the IT and finance sectors,” says Sharat Chander, Member, Placement Cell at IIM Lucknow.
While the students are being offered better packages this year compared to last year, when domestic salaries were around Rs 12.17 lakh while the international salary average stood at $83,000, they are more upbeat about the fact that they have a lot of options to choose from this year.
“The salary figures are incremental and have seen slight variations as compared to the period before the slowdown. However, what is interesting is that the number of offers has definitely gone up this year. Besides, a lot of students are seeing multiple offers,” says Chander. The institute, which had 100 lateral offers, began its final process with 220 students and has received offers for around 290 of this year’s batch of 320 students, according to sources.
At IIM Indore the placement process is underway and IT is the flavour of the campus with IT companies making multiple offers during lateral placements. Students who have around 2-3 years of work experience are usually eligible for lateral placements. Around 30 per cent of the 235 student batch is learnt to be eligible for lateral placement. Rishi Pathak, secretary, student placement committee of IIM Indore maintains that apart from IT, banks, finance companies, marketing firms, even NGOs were registering their presence on campus. While international offers are being made by both domestic and international firms, offers in India and emerging nations seem to be the preferred choice among students.
Similarly, companies are making multiple offers at IIM Calcutta. While the final placement week is scheduled for March 6, lateral placements are on-going at the campus. Nearly 170 out of 280 students are eligible for laterals at the institute. “The placement scenario is looking much better than last year but has not reached the levels of 2008 yet. We are seeing first time recruiters as well,” says Samyukktha Thirumeni, external relations secretary, IIM-C. Nearly 100 students are learnt to be holding offers on hand. “We have also had international recruiters like Daeyang Shipping for laterals this time, which is a first, as laterals generally see only domestic firms visiting the campus,” she adds.
XLRI Jamshedpur will conduct its final placement for the one year full time General Management Programme (GMP) at Mumbai from March 3 to 6, 2010 at St Xavier’s College. Companies like Apollo, SAP, TCS, Mahindra Satyam, Tech Mahindra, Biocon, Wipro Infotech, Daimler and few Tata group companies have already visited the campus. Over 25 students have already been made offers that range between Rs 11 lakh and Rs 28 lakh per annum. Soumya Ranjan Mahakul, secretary of the placement committee, says: “The average experience of the batch of 100 students is around 7 years with half of the batch having average international experience of 3 years. The diversity caters various sectors in the market.”
The institute is optimistic of placements this year and expects increased recruitment in all the sectors. Rajiv Misra, chairman placements at XLRI said, “The response from companies is definitely looking better. With economy slowly regaining its steam, companies are looking forward to these MBAs with substantial industry experience to become their growth drivers. This is evident from the upward trend in the number of companies registering for the placements and also salaries offered. For example, the leading Super Specialty hospital chain in the country has made 5 offers to the doctors in the batch.”
