Summer placements bring cheers at IIMs campuses

The summer placements have brought cheers in the Indian Institutes of Managements (IIMs). Banking and financial sector companies have started hiring for summer internships which is likely to improve the final placement process in the campuses.

The summer placement provides the opportunity to the first year post-graduate students to work for nearly two months during summer 2010 with companies that give them offer.

For the meantime all the IIMs have maintained that happy days are returning although placement scenario is yet to achieve the 2007 levels when the growth was at its peak. However there has been improvement this year in comparison to the earlier year 2008 when companies stopped hiring which created vacuum in students life with no hopes and no where to look for jobs due to the Lehman Brothers collapse and the economic slowdown that followed (the IIMs had also extended the closing dates for placements last year).

IIM Ahmedabad has completed its summer placement process four days record time this year, on the other hand relatively smaller IIM Kozhikode too has been able to engross the process in eight days with the highest stipend offer at Rs 1 lakh. Although other IIMs have started the process later but are expecting to close the season within a week.

Last year when there was crash of global banking and financial sectors, the IIMs mainly focused on tech service firms to look for job opportunities for their students. But this year, the IIMs have witnessed a return of all their regular information technology (IT) and IT consulting firms. Also this year the IIMs and start-ups have witnessed coming of non- government-organizations (NGOs) and sports-based companies showing interest.

IIM-Kozhikode (IIM-K) has too witnessed visit of new sectors in micro-finance and NGOs. “These can add up to nearly 15 per cent of the placements,” said Rohan Jaikishen, placement committee member, IIM-K. IIM-Lucknow placements chairman, R L Raina, says: “The offers are expected to rise. This is a sign of economic growth.”

The students of batch 2009-11 of IIM Ahmedabad (IIM-A) had a sigh of relief after over 150 of a total of 315 students have got placed for the summers by the end of second day. This year marketing has been the hot favorite with some of the most sought recruiters such as Diageo (of Smirnoff, Johnnie Walker and Guinness fame), Nokia and Coca Cola. The finance sector has been the top pick with 44 per cent of IIM-A students opting for roles in finance, investment banking, private equity, corporate banking and treasury roles. The marketing sector captured 18 per cent share with positions in sales and marketing management, branding, business development and marketing research. Next came the consulting and general management domains followed by IT, at 11, 18 and 9 per cent, respectively.

However IIM Kozhikode (IIMK), has been able to capture 100 per cent summer placements for its 2009-11 batch in eight day process with 120 firms making offers to the 309-strong batch.

This year big global groups such as Arthur D Little, KPMG, Hewitt, JP Morgan Chase, Citigroup, HSBC, Standard Chartered Bank, Deutsche Bank, HUL, Pepsico and Colgate Palmolive had participated in the placements. The highest stipend offered this year has been over Rs 100,000 inclusive of perks and allowances. Keyoor Purani, chairperson placements, IIM-K said, “The participation of new recruiters in the emerging fields of media, sports management, hospitality and NGOs is indicative that our students are also willing to explore new avenues”.

For the time IIM-K has got as many as 40 firms including Biocon, Astra Zeneca, Singapore-based Tolaram group and Dubai-based Gargash Insurance have recruited summer interns.

IIM-Calcutta has also witnessed the same scene. On day 1 around 90 students got placement. This year there are 408 students of IIM-C for placement which is around 100 more than last two years. This year Morgan Stanley has recruited from IIM-C, exclusively for its London desk. This year absence of Lehman Brothers was not felt, as Nomura the firm that took over Lehman gave five offers to the students. The banks have given offers in investment banking divisions, global markets, equity research, sales and corporate banking.

Whereas at IIM-B summer placement process started on Friday with 15-20 companies visiting campus on day one of slot zero, most popular slot of placement. In other business schools the investment banks and consultancies formed the bulk of recruiters offering both domestic and international offers. Sapna Agarwal, head of career development services at IIM Bangalore (IIM-B), said, “Initially, the institute was apprehensive about placing 350 students this year as compared to 267 last year but the response of recruiters has been very encouraging.”

Though officially nothing has been disclosed but average stipends are understood to be marginally higher than last year as are the number of offers. Also recruiters like RBS, McKinsey, Goldman Sachs, BCG, UBS etc are expected to visit the campus.

However last year around 85 students from IIM-B got the international offers among the highest across the IIMs and the number is likely to increase this year also. IIM-Indore too, has witnessed summer placements and the institution will be giving details only after the completion of the process.