Early trends herald robust B-school placement season

Placement officials from business schools said that sentiments are positive because manufacturing sector is expected to make a big comeback in campuses

This year’s placement season at B-schools is likely to be robust, if early trends are anything to go by. Among the B-schools Business Standard spoke to, International Management Institute, New Delhi, has completed its placement process in three days flat. On the other hand, Institute of Management Technology, Ghaziabad, and Management Development Institute, Gurgaon, have seen an uptick in the number of offers as well as average compensation package.

Data analytics and consulting are the leading sectors, according to early placement trends.

At IMI-New Delhi, the placement session began on November 25 and got over by November 27. This year, on day zero, IMI-New Delhi saw completion of 80 per cent placements through major recruiters such as Google, HUL, SONY, Nestle , Bank of America, and Analytics Quotient, among others. The highest domestic offer at IMI-New Delhi was made by Google - Rs 29 lakh per annum. The average salary was Rs 14.9 lakh per annum.

According to Manaswini Acharya, professor of marketing and dean (placements and corporate relations) at IMI-New Delhi, there has been a 33 per cent increase this year in recruitment from companies in manufacturing sector.

At IMI-Delhi, new companies included General Motors, Volvo Eicher Commercial Vehicles, Tata Motors and Hero Motocorp. Pre-placement offers (PPOs) and pre-placement interviews (PPIs) were offered by BMW, DCM, Shriram, Ceat Tyres, and Hero Motocorp.

IMT-Ghaziabad, which follows a rolling placement process that begins in December, too, saw a 17 per cent growth in terms of students placed till the second week of January compared to the same period a year ago. Against 460 students last year, IMT-Ghaziabad saw 520 students being placed this time.

“Compared to last year, where we hardly got 21 offers crossing Rs 15 lakh, we received 52 offers this year in that range. On day zero alone, we placed 241 students. This is not a trend we are seeing every year. We have got 19 offers crossing Rs 20 lakh package,” said Vishal Goyal, head (corporate relations) at IMT Ghaziabad and Dubai.

According to Kanwal Kapil, chairperson (placements) at MDI-Gurgaon, the first day of placements has seen good response from companies, especially those from consulting, manufacturing and banking, financial services and insurance. “On an average, there has been a growth in average salaries by 15-20 per cent compared to last year, based on the current data available.”

Recruiters at IMT- Ghaziabad included KPMG, PwC, EY, Deloitte, Goldman Sachs, Google, Microsoft, and HSBC. Among them, Deloitte made 30 offers.

While Credit Suisse, a first time recruiter, made 20 PPOs and 20 final offers, Cognizant, a regular recruiter at IMT Ghaziabad, raised its offers from 14 last year to 22 this year.

Goyal attributes the bullish placement scenario at IMT to the institute’s focus on improving its offering to the corporate world, such as a five-month internship to give companies a larger window to observe students. Apart from offers in final placements, the institute also got 80-100 PPOs.

“Regular recruiters are increasing their numbers due to IMT students meeting recruiters' expectations. Average compensation has risen by Rs 2.5 lakh per annum. Moreover, analytics and consulting offers have increased,” said Goyal, adding the process was likely to be completed by March.

Other B-schools such as XLRI will begin the process in February. Overall, placement officials from B-schools said sentiments were positive because the manufacturing sector was expected to make a big comeback in campuses.