Job windfall for IIT-D B-school graduates

In what could be a sign of happy times for B-school students, the Department of Management Studies at IIT Delhi saw its entire batch of 54 students get placed on the first day of the placement week.

The highest salary has been offered by Accenture at Rs 8.5 lakh. This is lower than last year's Rs 9.3 lakh, given by Maersk. However, the average salary this year was Rs 5.85 lakh -- up 10 per cent compared with last year.

With 65 offers made by 34 companies like McKinsey, Infosys, GE, Maruti and Accenture, each student had nearly 1.2 offers.

"We certainly weren't expecting such a good response. We were faced with the rather unpleasant task of declining many a blue-chip companies on the second day," said Rajat Baisya, director, DMS, IIT Delhi.

After moving down the popularity charts at B-school campuses, IT recruiters seem to be back in favour.

"A majority of students opted for companies in the area of Enterprise Resource Planning and IT architecture. Consumer durables marketing and consulting were the next best choices," said Surjo Sen, the much-elated placement co-ordinator who netted a job with GE at a salary of nearly Rs 6.5 lakh per annum.

"The placements this year have shown that DMS is consistently moving up in recruiters' perception. We are certainly in the top league if you look at the average salary," added Baisya.

The department was started in 1997 and the first batch of MBAs passed out in 1999. "This is the first time in the last five years at IIT Delhi that all students have got placed in a single day," said Ravi Srivastava, a student in the class of 2004 at the institute.