IIM-C kickstarts final placement season

Indian Institute of Management-Calcutta (IIM-C), the oldest institute in the IIM system, saw participation of 25 companies on the first day of final placements for PGDBM students — a significant increase over last year.

“We went into the final placements with more than 230 offers already made. This year, we have seen more companies and better offers by way of salaries on Day-zero, signaling a return of a boom phase,” said a student placement coordinator at IIM-C.

The process of placement that goes on well into the night saw an increase in participation from finance companies, a traditional stronghold for IIM-C. Among companies to have made offers were United Bank of Scotland (UBS), Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, and Deutsche Bank among others.

The most number of offers, however, were made by consulting firms like Mckinsey. The company has, this year, made 13 offers, which are inclusive of four pre-placement offers. This is the highest by way of numbers by the firm at any campus in the country.

The trend on Day-zero marked a consolidation of the recovery that was visible in campus placements at IIM-C in 2010, when the average salary saw a jump from Rs 12.7 lakh to Rs 15.32 lakh.

“While it would be difficult to make comments about the average salary size given that the process is still in its early stage, it would be safe to assume that the overall size of offers is better than last year, marking an end to the recession-hit placement scenario of 2009.”

Placements at IIM-C, like other IIMs, are divided into phases and slots. Lateral placements, which were completed in the last week of February, are mostly for students with work experience, the final placements which takes place over five days is for the entire PGDBM batch.