Companies Make A Beeline For Xlri Students

It's a virtual boom in the time of recession. Corporates are lining up to swoop in on XLRI Jamshedpur as the countdown to the campus recruitment programme 1998 begins.

XLRI is keen to prove doomsday forecasters wrong, and says that the trends in summer internships show that the pessimistic notions on campus recruitments may not be accurate.

In fact, XLRI completed its summer placements in a much shorter time this year -- the process starting on September 27 and the last student being placed on December 22, 1997. The B-school favourites -- Hindustan Lever Ltd, P&G and Citibank, vied with each other for candidates.

 

"While many others tried, they did not succeed, since the recruitment process was over sooner than usual", says an XLRI insider.

Almost all companies took more interns this year and for diverse functions as compared to the past years. Besides, in addition to the regulars, there were several first-timers on the XLRI campus this season.

Top companies like KPMG Peat Marwick, GE Capital, Motorola, Monsanto, and Cargill have expressed interest in establishing a long-term relationship with XLRI by taking students for summer internships this year.

Multinational companies have reaffirmed their position as top B-school recruiters with 79 out of a batch of 127 placed in companies like Unilever, P&G, HSBC, Nestle, Colgate Palmolive, SmithKline Beecham, Whirlpool etc.

About forty four per cent of the students were placed with the fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) and consumer durables firms, confirming the popularity of this segment in the campuses.

In fact, contrary to the perceptible decline in jobs in the financial sector, 23 per cent of students will undergo training in this area.

What are the reasons behind this improved scenario? A major change in the batch profile may be one explanation.

XLRI says the first-time visitors among firms developed a rather positive attitude and companies which had visited XLRI only on an experimental basis are now talking of longer term relationships.

Interestingly, the summer recruitment programme (SRP) also saw a diverse range of projects on offer.

New areas like human resource information systems and enterprise resource planning have been offered in additional to the traditional sales, retail banking and the like.

In fact, XLRI argues that the Indian corporate sector is becoming more bullish about business schools these days.

A case in point is the fact that, a good fortnight before the placement week, 17 students in XLRI have received pre-placement offers from major corporates.

The interest of the corporates in B-schools, XLRI says, is certainly not on the wane.

The pre-placement talks and offers, it says, points to a rewarding final placement season.