Tepid response to tier-II B-school placements

Lateral and final placements at tier-II management institutes this year have been lacklustre as companies opt out of placements or are unsure of how many candidates they would look at hiring this year. The broad trends so far include fewer offers compared to last year, and similar salaries instead of a traditional 30 per cent increase year-on-year.

At tier-II B-schools, like XLRI Jamshedpur, XIM Bhubaneswar (XIMB), IMT Ghaziabad and Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT), the institutes are looking at alternatives like placing students with start-up companies, public sector units (PSUs), NGOs, or even roping in companies from new sectors like services and manufacturing.

Akshay Sinha, external linkages secretary, XLRI Jamshedpur, said the institute for the first time has started Initiative for Social Entrepreneurship Learning (ISEL) to train students in social affairs and entrepreneurship. “We started ISEL for summer internships in 2008 and 30 students showed interest. Around six students took up summer internships with NGOs, with Unicef and WWF. This year, too, we have invited several NGOs and start-up companies for the ongoing lateral placements which would end around February. Number of offers and salaries offered so far are similar to last year,” Sinha said.

Lateral placements at XLRI Jamshedpur this year has 104 students out of a batch of 180 students. Last year, over the two-month lateral placement season, XLRI had over 100 offers made to 90 eligible lateral candidates for senior level management roles. The average salary package offered was Rs 15 lakh. The highest salary offered reached the Rs 22 lakh mark. Companies such as Infosys offered fast track programs to students which would provide packages of $100,000 a year into the job.

At IIFT, average package offered at its lateral placements has witnessed a 30 to 40 per cent drop, owing to the downturn. Around 50 IIFT students appeared for the lateral placements this year out of a total strength of 180 across the two IIFT campuses in Delhi and Kolkata. “While the average package for lateral placements in the last academic session was around Rs 12- 15 lakh per annum, this year the average package offered is between Rs 6 lakh and Rs 8 lakh,” informed K Rangarajan, head of IIFT Kolkata campus and Centre of MSME Studies at the institute. “Around 40-45 per cent of the visiting companies are from the manufacturing sector this time. Earlier service sector firms comprised nearly 80 per cent of the portfolio,” Ranagarajan pointed out.

The Institute of Management Education (IME), Ghaziabad, has revised its expectations because companies have freezed hiring outlook. D P Goel, director, IME, said students will be better placed if they could manage salaries in the range of Rs 4-5 lakh this year. Last year, the highest package was around Rs 5.3 lakh.

At Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar (XIMB), final placements have seen around 20 companies participating so far and making offers to 80-90 students out of a total batch strength of 120 students.

In parallel, IIT officials say that there has been 25-30 per cent drop in the recruitment as compared to last year. But thankfully, the pay package has not been affected much. Final placements that started at IIT-Bombay (IIT-B) this month and has met with ‘poor response’ this time compared to last year. According to a student placement coordinator, “We are pinning hopes on the public sector units and have received interest from IOC, ONGC, Gail, BPCL and HPCL to take part during the placements this year.”

“Earlier, there was a notion that government jobs are not exciting. But with this economic recession and revised pay package, I am very happy to get into a PSU,” said Jatin Kalson, a final year student in electrical engineering at IIT-Delhi.