While the economic meltdown kept some key recruiters away from campus, Indian public sector units, including the 'navratnas' have recruited a total of 65 students of Indian Institute of Management-Lucknow in the just concluded placement season 2009.
Coal India Ltd, Steel Authority of India Ltd, Bharat Heavy Electrical Ltd and Oil and Natural Gas Corporation were among the 15 top PSUs, which went about head hunting at the IIM-L. CIL and SAIL recruited 12 students each.
"Out of the total of 267 IIM-L students graduating this year, PSUs recruited 65 students," IIM-L Placements Chairman Sushil Kumar told the media in Lucknow.
While 25 other students already had pre-placement offers, seven opted to launch their start-ups and kept away from the placement process.
This year, the total number of offers shrunk to 284 from 496 offers made to 256 graduates last year. But all IIM-L students stand placed satisfactorily, Kumar added.
The PSUs literally saved the day for IIM-L with the handsome recruitment figures compared to the previous year's placements. Last year, only two PSUs had visited the campus, but returned empty-handed due to lack of interest among students.
"This year, the economic condition is different and the students are giving priority to job security than fancy positions and pay packets," an IIM-L student told Business Standard.
As a matter of policy, the institute did not reveal salary levels of the recruited students.
A total of 120-odd companies visited the IIM-L campus this year. "Our students, despite global recession, secured jobs in sectors of their choice with 40 per cent offers coming from the financial domain, which is higher than last year's figure of 31 per cent," Kumar informed.
Major recruiters were McKinsey & Co, Boston Consulting Group, Proctor & Gamble, Hindustan Unilever Ltd, HSBC, Axis Bank, ICICI Group, Deutsche Bank, American Express, Frost & Sullivan, Asian Paints, Cadbury, Johnson & Johnson, Glaxo and Reckitt Benckiser.
Meanwhile, the higher entry placement process was also successful with 48 students (having prior work experience) bagging offers from 33 companies.
"This is in line with our admission policy with the next graduating batch of 2010 having an average work experience of 36 months, which is comparable with other leading B schools like ISB," Kumar said.
