At the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore (IIM-B), where post-graduate programme (PGP) placement starts on March 4, a sense of anticipation and optimism is in the air.
Over 70 pre-placement offers have been received by the students. The B-school expects over 100 companies to visit its campus in the next one week. The batch has 266 students.
"The outlook for placements looks good. We expect consultancies and investment banks to come for slot one recruitment. Companies from other verticals like FMCG, manufacturing and retail are also expected to come to the campus," says Sapna Agarwal, head of career development services at IIM-B.
The institute's executive management programme (ePGP) is learnt to have completed nearly 70 per cent of its placement, which happens in a rolling process. The batch has 70 participants who have received offers for roles like CXOs, VPs, GMs and AGMs for companies in India and abroad.
Nearly 50 companies have already visited the campus and 20-25 more are expected till the end of March. Companies from verticals like IT, pharma, infrastructure, power, manufacturing and banking are the major recruiters.
At IIM-Calcutta, while the final placements for 280 students would start on March 6, its ongoing lateral placements for 170 students have already seen more than 100 offers.
The recruiters who have made offers include Cognizant Business Consulting, Deloitte, Hinduja Group, Aditya Birla Group, Accenture Business Consulting, Mahindra & Mahindra, Virtusa, Essar and Bristlecone. From consulting to general management, there has been a greater variety of roles on offer this year as compared to last year. IIM-C also witnessed an increase in the packages offered to the students for lateral placement this year, with some offers above Rs 20 lakh per annum being made. For PGP placements, the highest pre-placement offer (PPO) has been Rs 60 lakh.
Says Prafulla Agnihotri, chairman-placements of IIM-C, "Close to 120 companies have confirmed participation this year. For lateral placements, 30-35 companies have turned up." He adds that like all years, finance would be the dominant sector during placements. "While this is a significant improvement compared to last year and we look forward to a better placement season ahead, the mood on campus is one of guarded optimism, as the numbers are still not as good as the pre-recession 2007-08 levels," he says.
IIM Ahmedabad, which is running for the first time a cohort-based placement process this year, has seen an increase in the number of offers. It 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.
Companies participating in placements at IIM-A this year include 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 has made 10 offers (including lateral offers) for consulting roles during Cluster 2.
Other regular recruiters like TAS and Feedback Ventures have offered general management and consulting roles and each has hired six students. The campus has also seen HUL, P&G, American Express, Standard Chartered and Nestle making several placement offers.
