ISB extends placement season indefinitely

Only 57% students placed so far.

For the first time since its inception, the Indian School of Business (ISB) has extended its placement season indefinitely. Only 250 of the 440 students (around 57 per cent) in the class of 2009 have secured jobs in the placement drive that began in early January.

Placements should have been completed by the end of March, and the campus would have been readying for graduation day in the first week of April. However, the slowing economy appears to have taken a toll on this prestigious B-school, which ranked 15 in the 2009 global MBA rankings released by the Financial Times. Over the years, the placement trends were analysed and results announced by graduation day, scheduled for April 4. This year, that is unlikely to happen. There are already hints of a fall in the annual average salary offers from Rs 18-20 lakh to Rs 13-15 lakh.

In 2007, 581 offers were made to 416 students. In 2008, 657 offers were made to 421 students.

The IT-ITeS, finance and real estate sectors combined made 280 job offers in 2008. This year, all these sectors have been hit by the slowdown. The school had, in fact, sensed this and started inviting new companies for campus recruitment around November this year.

Many students graduating this April will still have access to ISB’s resources and services over the next few months to find a job. The school will be in regular touch with students to help them find a suitable job that fits students’ profiles.

The school, however, has not fixed any timeframe for students to find jobs. “We will continue to explore avenues till all students find the right job in accordance with their qualifications and work experience,” said an ISB spokesperson.

The premier B-school had earlier announced that it would increase enrolments by 560 to 600 for the class of 2010. It did not, however, explain how it would raise the number of job offers if the job market did not pick up.

ISB has six months to plan for the placement of the new batch after collecting the profiles of the students, their preferences for a sector or function, location choices and so on.