Summer placements at IIM-A warm up

Summer placements at the Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad (IIM-A) started on a good note today, with consulting firms and investment banks continuing to rule the roost on Day Zero — the opening day.

“Day Zero of the summer placement process for the batch of 2009-11 saw an enthusiastic response from our regular partners from the fields of investment banking and consulting. Most students today were placed in investment banking and consulting roles,” said Himanshu Nema, secretary, Placement Cell.

Summer internships are mandatory and students will spend 8-10 weeks in these companies in the months of April-May next year (2010). These internships later often get converted into job offers, called pre-placement offers.

In line with expectations, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Barclays each saw over five acceptances. A senior manager at Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), which hired more than 10 summer interns in investment banking profiles in Hong Kong, Singapore, New Delhi and London, said: “I was really happy to be here at the IIM-Ahmedabad campus. The students were well prepared and looked excited about the opportunity to work at Royal Bank of Scotland. We hope the international experience provided by an internship at RBS helps them ahead in their careers.”

Some of the other investment banks include JP Morgan, Nomura, HSBC, Deutsche Bank and Citigroup. Companies like McKinsey and the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) also kept their appointments with the premier B-school on the first day of the summer placements.

“Top consulting firms were back on campus on Monday to participate in the summer placement process. McKinsey and Co, BCG and Bain & Co each will have 3-5 students joining them for summer internships in April next year. Among other top consulting companies that recruited were AT Kearney, Booz and Co and Arthur D Little. A day that began with great apprehension for the first-year students, gradually brought relief and cheer to the students as they found that placements had indeed started on expected lines, with regular partners back to recruit and some new firms to choose from,” said Rohan Desai, secretary (media cell), IIM-A.

The first-year postgraduate programme batch of 2009-11 will be the biggest with 330 students (numbers increased after implementation of the OBC quota and increase in general quota seats) going for summer placements this year. Last year, the number of recruiters and offers dipped by 50 per cent on Day Zero, reflecting the collapse of the investment banks globally. Only 24 companies came on Day One compared with 36 companies in 2007. Even the offers made on Day Zero in 2008 were a mere 50 as compared with 120 in 2007.

Meanwhile, taking a cue from the final placements 2009, the institute is also vying for public and social enterprises.