E-commerce steals the show from finance in IIM Lucknow summer placements

While, e-commerce job offers doubled, finance sector roles shrunk by 35%

With global online retail giants making India their next playfield, the premier Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow (IIM-L) has reported finance being replaced by e-commerce as one of the most popular sectors in the current summer placements.

IIM-L has clocked 100 per cent summer placements for 455 students of the 34th batch (2018-20).

As per data, the top sectors based on roles offered were sales & marketing (28 per cent), consulting (22 per cent), e-commerce (19 per cent), finance (17 per cent), general management (11 per cent) and systems/IT (3 per cent). The rest of the offers emerged from domains such as market research, analytics, business development, social media marketing and HR.

Last year, sales & marketing topped the table (35 per cent), followed by consulting (20 per cent), finance (25 per cent), e-commerce (10 per cent), systems/IT (5 per cent) and general management (5 per cent). Thus, while e-commerce grew from merely 10 per cent to almost double at 19 per cent this season, the finance sector roles shrunk by about 35 per cent, from 25 per cent to 17 per cent.

In the composite IT/ecommerce/technology sectors, recruiters such as Amazon, Capgemini, Google, eBay, Flipkart, MakeMyTrip, Microsoft, OLX, Pepperfry, Samsung, Swiggy, Uber and Wipro made a total of 87 offers. These firms recruited not only for IT/Systems profiles, but also for category management, business development, supply chain management, product marketing, strategic alliances, program manager and analytics.

The placements had over 140 domestic and international recruiters participating, which reiterated the standing of IIM-L as a preferred recruitment destination for marketing, consulting & finance roles.

The top recruiters across different sectors, included Accenture Management Consulting, Aditya Birla Group, Amazon, AT Kearney, Bain & Company, Citi, Deloitte, HUL, ITC, McKinsey, P&G, TAS, Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and Uber. First time recruiters were AstraZeneca, Bain & Company, Bajaj Finserv, Hinduja Group, RBS, and RP-SG Group (GIL), among others. Cipla, Deutsche Bank, HUL, JP Morgan Chase, M H Alshaya offered international profiles.

IIM-L has attributed the ‘outstanding’ summer placements to its contemporary pedagogy, competency and values students acquired at the Institute.

Meanwhile, in the topmost FMCG/consumer goods/telecom/digital media sector, as many as 129 offers were rolled out by recruiters such as Airtel, Asian Paints, Colgate Palmolive, HUL, ITC, J&J, Mars, Mondelez, Nestle, PepsiCo, P&G, Pidilite, Reckitt Benckiser and RP-SG Group (GIL).

The banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) sector had American Express, Avendus Capital, Citi, CRISIL, DBS, Deutsche Bank, Duff & Phelps, Edelweiss, JP Morgan and RBS. These headhunters offered roles such as front end investment banking, global markets, investment research, corporate/ wholesale/ retail banking, market research, trading and operations among others.

In consulting domain, Accenture Management Consulting, Alvarez & Marsal, AT Kearney, Auctus Advisors, Bain & Company, Deloitte, McKinsey & Co., MasterCard Advisors and The Boston Consulting Group made a total of 98 offers. The General Management domain saw participation from companies such as Aditya Birla Group, Airtel, Mahindra, RIL, RPG, Star India, TAS and Vodafone Idea Limited.