IIM-B, IIM-C may extend campus placement period

A year after the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A), changed its final placement process, its peers in Bangalore and Calcutta, IIM-B and IIM-C, plan to alter their final placement process for the next year. Both institutes are in consultation with each other to put in place a process that will extend the final placement period, making it less stressful for both students and participating companies.

“In the next five-six weeks, we will introduce changes in the placement process. Companies have expressed that they want more time for it. We, too, realised that it gets too stressful and hectic for students,” said a placement official from IIM-C. The changes in the placement process also take into consideration the fact that these institutes have increased their batch sizes. Thus, students and companies would get more time to interact. IIM-B, for instance, will have 375 students, against 350 from the earlier batch. At IIM-C, 362 students will be placed this year. The numbers will go up to 425 and 462 students at IIM-B and IIM-C, respectively, for the 2011-13 batch.

A professor at IIM-B said till IIM-A changed its placement process, most firms visited IIM-A, IIM-B and IIM-C during the same time of the year for final placements. A poor job market in 2009 had forced B-schools to review their placement strategy. In fact, the changes IIM-B and IIM-C are bringing in, are more or less in sync with that of IIM-A’s, where students and companies can get ample time to evaluate each other. “A spread out placement process will make our task easier to schedule firms during placements,” said the professor.

IIM-A, incidentally, was the first IIM to make changes in its placement process last year, by bringing in the cohort-based system. Under the system, every weekend saw firms from a particular sector visiting the campus as a cluster. International investment banks and consulting firms formed the first cluster. The process carried on for well over a month. The new system will ensure more interaction time between students and firms.