Summer interns, stipends to double

TRAINING

Companies are willing to give management students challenging projects since higher stipends alone are not attractive enough. Even second-tier institutes are now getting a better deal.

At IIM-Bangalore (IIM-B), summer internships will take place from November 9-12, 2006 and the campus expects 80 firms to visit the B-school for summer recruitments and make around 160 offers. Last year, 130 firms converged on its campus to recruit 84 students.

Similarly, around 40 companies have already consented to participate in MDI-Gurgaon's summer placements that began on September 24, 2006. As part of its internship action, the campus is planning to have a separate week termed `IT-week' for three days where it will see only IT companies hiring students for summer jobs. This exercise took off on October 3 and will end on October 5, 2006.

Similary, summer placements in XIM-B are a little more than a week old. The campus, however, has already received positive signals from companies across a range of sectors. Besides, the management school also hopes to see a 40 per cent rise in its stipends this year. Saveeta Mohanty, Professor, Faculty Placement Co-ordinator XIM-B, says: "Stipends are in the 15,000 to 20,000 range and this year stipends are expected to go up by 40 per cent."

IIM-A hopes to bag around 120 internship offers for its students this summer internship season. IIM-K has also received confirmations from 65 companies of which 10 of them are international offers. The domestic stipend at the campus is being pegged at Rs 30,000 and $5000 for international stipends. International offers are expected from finance, consulting and marketing companies.

There are also some unique traits in this year's summer internships. Second-tier campuses seem to have benefited from the lukewarm treatment meted out by IIMs. Says Nilanjan Chattopadhyay, chairman Placements, IMT Ghaziabad: "Many companies who would avoid second-tier institutes are now flocking to these institutes as these companies are not getting a better slot at IIMs."

The ones doing that are actually the FMCG companies. IMT-Ghaziabad for instance has seen HLL visiting its campus after a gap of six years. Similarly, Pepsico. was visiting this campus after a gap of three years and even other companies like Frito-lay have evinced new interest to hire students for its summer projects.

Moreover, students are not making a beeline for projects that are high on emoluments and low on the challenge-factor this year. "Many students have refused to take up projects that are routine in nature despite higher stipends,"says Chattopadhyay. The assignments that have been given a short-shrift include a mundane HR project in a BPO company and another one from a healthcare companies asking students to do the jobs that any medical representative would do, for instance, a project asking students to observe the prescription pattern among medical practitioners.

Companies too are willing to give new and exciting projects to summer interns. Says Subir Verma, associate professor, organisational behaviour, MDI-Gurgaon: "In the banking sector, students are receiving projects in corporate banking as opposed to mere consumer banking."

Even analytics as a profile is now being given to summer interns. IT companies are asking students to do trend analysis and predict the future of a certain project rather than do a mere data analysis and recommendation.

Consulting companies, on the other hand, are now exposing these summer interns directly to their clients. IMT-Ghaziabad has received enquiries from e-clarx, Mckinsey for students with financial experience. Having started its placements by the end of July, till date the campus have placed around 30 per cent of the total batch compared to last year when only 18 per cent of the total batch was placed.

Tata Motors, Henkel India, and Mahindra are other such companies who have visited the campus.

Also, in many business schools students are showing keenness towards more enriching assignments. Some of them being quality assurance in HR or brand relaunches and revival if it pertains to marketing.

Further, Mumbai-based NITIE has seen companies like Citibank, HSBC, Standard Chartered, ICICI Bank, and SBI capital visiting its campus in the ongoing summer placement round. Says Ashok Pundir, Associate Dean, Placements, NITIE: "There are 253 offers for 165 students, while another 65 students are still to be placed. However, some more companies are expected next week and few of the names are HP and Whirlpool."

The highest domestic stipend at NITIE is Rs 30,000 and it is being given by Cognizant Technologies while the lowest stipend is Rs 10,000. American Express, Standard Chartered (here after a long gap), GE Money, Cyprus Semiconductors and Pepsico. are some of the first time recruiters for summer placements at NITIE. Last year, NITIE was able to garner summer offers for 90 students from a batch size of 165 this year by the same time around 165 students have been placed out of a total batch size of 232. There has been a 25 per cent hike in stipends at NITIE when compared to last year.