B Krishna Mohan / Hyderabad Mar 04, 2009, 00:55 IST
The ongoing placement season at the Indian School of Business (ISB) here is seeing some undercurrents of slowdown and recession.
Most compensation packages have fallen to Rs 13-15 lakh a year, compared to the Rs 18-20 lakh of last year. And, students have had fewer offers to choose from than last year.
Last year, around 230 companies came to the campus for hiring. The same number is likely this placement season, which began in January and would go on till March 31.
Last year, 657 offers were made for 421 students of Class 2008. Of this, the IT, ITeS, finance and real estate sectors combined made 280 job offers. This year, there are 440 students.
Typically, placements at ISB are marked by heavy career shifts. All students have prior work experience and a high number shift to another speciality or another sector. Normally, companies would not take prior experience into consideration when the students wanted a shift in roles or sectors. During the previous placement season, about 80 per cent of students changed function (20 per cent) or industry (10 per cent) or both (50 per cent).
However, it’s a different situation this year. The job profile a candidate held before joining ISB is getting more weightage than before. “Prior experience in the sector is very relevant now,” said a student. The students, too, gauging the market scenario, are often grabbing the first offer made to them.
According to V K Menon, senior director of admissions, financial aid and career advancement services, the ratio of acceptance to offers is high as the students feel they are on a sticky wicket due to the slowdown.
ISB made it clear that companies would not recruit in large numbers as they did last year and that it is inviting more firms to the campus this year. On many an occasion, it has told the students to set realistic salary targets. The average yearly gross salary offered last year stood at $144,812 for foreign offers, and for domestic offers, about Rs 19 lakh.
Contrary to the belief that information technology is down and out, ISB graduates are getting some “decent” offers from IT companies. Ofcourse, there is no Satyam this time. “Biotechnology, pharma and healthcare sectors seem to be the flavour of the season,” said Menon. These have turned “Day One” companies. MNCs Novartis International and its domestic arm, Novartis Pharma, and life sciences company, Clarius, among others, have already come to the campus. This is the first time that life sciences’ companies are coming to ISB.
The financial sector made 14 per cent of all offers for Class 2008 and 17 per cent for Class 2007. This year’s should be much lesser. The shift is towards general management and consultancy.
According to a student, ISB is now asking small and medium companies in tier II and III cities to come to the campus for hiring. Many have expressed dislike for joining the real estate sector now. “I got an offer from a pharma company,” said a student who earlier wanted to be part of the real estate story. The change in decision, she said, was due to the not-so-rosy picture of these companies.
Some students say they will try entrepreneurship. For instance, Chandrani Chakroborty and Abhishek Mitra, a husband and wife pair, have started a health and nutrition fruit outlet at the campus itself on a pilot basis in December with an investment of Rs 30,000. The couple, who have earlier worked with TCS in the US before joining ISB, have plans to start at least 10 outlets in Hyderabad and other cities after completing their education.
The duo have given a proposal to the Wadhwani Centre for Entrepreneurship Development at the ISB, seeking academic and financial assistance. They would invest about 30-40 lakh in the venture.
At of today only 190 of the 440 ISB graduates have got one offer. The rest 250 are yet to get any offer. But ISB placement process is a rolling process and will go on for another 20 days till the end of March. It started in the first week of January and this must placement has been achieved in only 70 days. The remaining students will easily get placed by end of March with some good companies.
Kris where have you read that 50% will not be placed???
Rajani I guess the institute from students perspecive is basically judged by the placements and salary offered and ISB was doing just fine but now due to meltdown salaries have gone down but meltdown must have effected every institution in the world.We can't just blame ISB.But I completely agree as ISB is relatively very new to Harvard and stanford business it doesn't have that brand value.
I am curious about the contribution of these graduates
I know some of them used to come to US and sell stocks/bonds. Some employed in staff position with consulting companies where measuring performance is very difficult. I think it is a big racket, which suits corporate executives because they get contacts and name, and students who will favor the same professors in future for helping them get these jobs.
But the resilience of an subject is tested only in murky waters. It was easy to be good in good days. Substance is something which is weighed now during bad times. Only those with strong fundamentals will emerge stronger and clearly the trend is visible.
Wonder why the ISB is not denying or confirming these figures? This is definitely not a good performance expected for a World 15th ranking institute. I wonder about those 50% students still not placed. Will they find any job at all in the current scenario. That too with massive loans on their heads.
Posted by: Rajani
March 04 , 2009, 18:23 IST
Dear Sri, Kris. ISB was never ever a great institute and got to where it is on rankings purely on the basis of hype. Just because it has the backing of some of the big guys in the American corporate world means nothing. the gentry there is pretty snooty and certainly does not have half the class of some other institutes that have made the grade by sheer dint of their commitment to excellence. ISB is nothing but a money making racket that was thriving on brand America. Now that brand America is down in the dumps, ISB will follow suit
Posted by: Sri
March 04 , 2009, 17:57 IST
Only institute in India with Global ranking 15 is quite good actually. But looking deeply one would find out that ISB achieved this ONLY based on the salary levels. If the outgoing salary is so low, they will be kicked out of the ranking pretty soon, which would be a shame.
13-15 lacs CTC and that too average. (Take home probably 6-8 lacs) This is equivalent to 2006 levels.
No one is sure about the quality of these roles offered on top of this. They might be completely crap esp for the class of crowd that is quite good.
This is really bad for ISB Performance. Is this all the ISB had ?? I had much expectations for this institute and but I guess School is overconfident and paying more attention to JUST market.
One wonder and feel pity for all those brilliant students who were working overseas at very good salaries and now have lost everything !!! Job, Money and role !!!
I remember watching a video on Youtube in which VK Menon from ISB said that QUOTE "NObody will go unplaced. There might be rationalisation in salaries but NObody will go unplaced".. Somebody was quite overconfident then.
Posted by: Kris
March 04 , 2009, 15:10 IST
Anon: You seem to forget that the ISB is the only Indian B-school to figure prominently in global b-school rankings. Salaries are not everything and downturns dont last forever.
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