Summer placements set a scorching pace

A good summer placement season is seen as the harbinger of a good final placement season in February-March,

After two successive years of gloomy forecasts, the initial response to this year’s summer internship placement season at the premier Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) has been good.

For instance, the number of students receiving seven-figure stipends at IIM Calcutta has shot up to 15, whereas only three students were paid over Rs 10 lakh last year. For the 2009-2011 batch, three IIM-C students have received stipends of Rs 12.5 lakh each for a two-month internship with a Singapore-based investment bank. Last year, just one student had received an identical stipend. He, too, had interned with an investment bank in Hong Kong.

Stipends include the amount paid for services, airfare and accommodation. Every year, the process starts during October-November, with first-year students joining the firms in April-May for internships. A good summer placement season is also seen as the harbinger of a good final placement season in February-March, when students land permanent jobs.

Most of the international internship offers come from multinationals such as Barclays, Morgan Stanley, Macquarie, UBS, Goldman Sachs, McKinsey, AT Kearney, BCG, Bain & Co, Arthur D Little, HSBC Global, JP Morgan Chase, P&G, Nokia and Unilever.

IIM Lucknow expects a rise of 15-20 per cent in the salaries of summer interns for the 2010-12 batch. “We expect greater participation from consulting and financial firms this summer. We are also looking to secure offers in niche sectors like energy management, green technology, media and advertising, education and training among others,” says Rahul Tom Joseph, recruitment- coordinator, placement cell, IIM-L. The institute does not envisage any change in the placement process for the year.

Last year, the banking and financial services sector witnessed the highest number of summer placement offers at 33 per cent followed by sales and marketing at 22 per cent. Other sectors that offered various roles to summer interns from IIM-L were general management (14 per cent), startups (eight per cent), IT/systems (seven per cent), consulting (six per cent) and operations and others (five per cent ).

Likewise, IIM Kozhikode expects the stipend figures to go beyond the highest offered by a foreign investment bank last year. “The highest stipend offered last year was over Rs 1,00,000 inclusive of perks and allowances. It was paid by a foreign investment bank for their investment banking profile. Considering the current scenario, we expect to do well this year,” says G Sridhar, chairperson-placements at IIM-K.

Around 120 firms participated in last year’s summer placements. The key highlights of the 2009-11 programme included the participation of new recruiters in the emerging fields of media, sports management, hospitality and NGOs, indicating that students were willing to explore new avenues and challenge old stereotypes. Besides, the startup fair provided a platform for interaction between students and successful entrepreneurial ventures and saw participation from 25 firms and over 40 students. The institute, which wrapped up its summer placement process in 8 days last year, hopes to complete the summer placements first among all IIMs.

Last year, IIM-A concluded the summer internship placement process (for the class of 2009-11) by placing 310 participating students in a record four days. At 44 per cent, finance roles were the top pick among students, signalling the return of big names in investment banking and private equity and an increase in the number of offers made by them. At 12 offers, the RBS was the largest summer recruiter. However, it declined to comment on this year’s expectations.