Slowdown skips IIMs

Pre-placement offers point to a buoyant recruitment season

Joel Xavier, Manager, Student Affairs and Placements, at  Indian Institute of Management Udaipur, is upbeat. “Twenty-five companies had come for summer placements last year in October-November 2011 and they placed 57 students. These students successfully completed their summer internships in April-June 2012,” he said.

Its older peer, IIM Bangalore, is no less bullish, as it has already received over 40 pre-placement offers (PPOs) compared to a total of 93 at the end of last year. Such offers at the institute keep trickling in till December which is when lateral placements begin.

Almost all IIMs said a muted economy notwithstanding, the final tally for PPOs will beat last year’s records, with some of the biggest names ranging from Hindustan Unilever, McKinsey and the financial sector giants turning up for placements this year. PPOs are placement offers to final year students who are, or were trainees, in the company during their internships. The IIM PPO process begins every July and goes on till final placements conclude in March-April of next year.

IIM Raipur, which has around two PPOs in hand, is focusing on having international placements on campus and is also inviting more number of consultancy firms. "A lot of consulting firms largely restrict themselves to older IIMs. This year we have approached them to recruit from our campuses too and so far the response is positive," said Sanjeev Parashar, Placement chairperson, IIM Raipur. IIM Raipur has a batch size of 48 students to place this year.

Devi Singh, director of IIM Lucknow (IIM-L) said the institute has got a positive response from its recruiters as well as students who have returned from summer internship. Lucknow saw about 419 strong batch participating in summer internships this year. Godwin Tennyson, placements chairperson at IIM Trichy, says "market is volatile for sure, but demand will certainly be there." PPOs at IIM Trichy will keep flowing in till February 2013.

Recruiters are equally bullish. Boston Consulting Group (BCG), which emerged among the topmost recruiters from the IIMs last year has this year extended 27 PPO offers to students who interned with BCG in the summer of 2012. "These candidates will join BCG in 2013. Of this 26 are from the IIMs while one is from Harvard Business School," said Ravi Srivastava, Partner & Director, BCG. "BCG business continues to grow at a rapid pace, and we will continue recruiting in large numbers this year as well," Srivastava added.

At Mumbai-bsaed RPG group, 35 students interned during the summer from 10 B-schools this year and the company says it looks forward to an aggressive recruitment season.

Technically all students who intern are eligible to receive PPOs. However different firms have different policies -- some do not offer PPOs, some do not have plans to offer full time employment and also some firms offer PPI ( Pre placement interviews).

These firms put the candidates through one more final round of interview before the final placement process and then offer them a job if they qualify. All students are eligible to go through final placements. Every year all our students get one or more job offer through the campus placement process.

(This is an updated version)