IIM-A to share placement experience

The Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A), for the first time, will invite top 10 B-schools in the country to be a part of its new placement process and understand the same.

IIM-A, which had last year, switched over to a cohort-based placement system (from day-based placement system), will be holding a recruiters’ conclave in Mumbai on October 1, where it has invited B-schools including Indian School of Business, Hyderabad; S P Jain Institute of Management and Research, Mumbai; Management Development Institute, Gurgaon and Xavier Labour Relations Institute (XLRI), apart from other IIMs.

A cohort is essentially a group of firms that offers similar profiles and remuneration packages.

“The conclave is one way of sharing our learning of the cohort process. This may be an interesting process for other B-schools too, to know about,” said Saral Mukherjee, placements chairperson at IIM-Ahmedabad.

“This is for the first time that a forum has been created where recruiters can express their hiring concerns not only to IIM-A but also other B-schools,” Mukherjee added.

IIM-A could not invite more B-schools to the conclave due to logistics constraints at the venue, Mukherjee said. He did not divulge the number of companies invited for the conclave.

IIM-A decided to make the shift from day-based placement process to the cohort-based one to give students more time to learn about the nature of job they are being offered and allow the companies a longer span of time to select the right candidate.

An HR head Business Standard spoke to said his company was evaluating participation in the conclave. “The cohort system does not really suit our way of recruitment. But nevertheless, we may participate as we have had a long term recruiting relationship with IIM-A,” he said.

IIM-A, this year, has decided to extend the cohort-based process for the summer placement season too, which would begin from November 12. “The summer placements will see over 400 first-year students getting a feel of the new recruiter-friendly process,” said Mukherjee.