The placement process for the graduating batch of the Post Graduate Programme in Management (PGP) has come to a close. All PGP students sitting for placements at IIM Ahmedabad have been placed. Despite a recessionary year, a larger batch, a new, untested placement process, all students of the batch were placed in the firms of their choice. A total of 110 firms participated in the laterals and final placement process, excluding firms that only extended Pre Placement Offers (PPOs).

The cluster-based placement process

True to its reputation of being a change leader, IIM Ahmedabad, took a path-breaking step by introducing a Cohort-based placement process this time around. It was discussed at length by the Placement Committee, the faculty, the students and had the mandate of recruiters even before it was put into place. As envisaged, the process reaped rich results with a far relaxed process that reduced stress on students and ensured better match making for both students and recruiters. The feedback received from all concerned parties has been positive to say the least. We will continue to reengineer the placement process to align with the needs of both the student and the recruiter community. In addition to the regular offer system, IIM Ahmedabad also continued with its tradition of allowing its students to play a “dream” on any firm of their choice even when they held offer(s) in hand.

Laterals placement process

A big push this time came from the laterals placement process. With 53% of the batch eligible, the thrust on lateral placements ensured that students could leverage their experience to the hilt. Firms like Deloitte Consulting, A&M, Yes Bank, TSMG, Cognizant, Aditya Birla Group, Amazon and Philips were some of the major recruiters during the process. More than 40 firms participated in the laterals process and extended more than 100 offers, an increase of 4 times over last year.

Cluster 1 – A test of character

Since Cohort based process was a drastic change from the way placements have been conducted across Indian B-schools, Cluster 1 was an acid test for us. We were cautiously optimistic but left no stone unturned in the preparation for the first cluster (13-14 February, 2010). The results were very positive with more than 40 offers extended by Global Strategy Consulting firms, Global Niche Consulting firms, Global Investment Banks and Global Private Equity firms, the four cohorts that constituted this cluster. Mckinsey & Co (8 acceptances including pre-placement offers), The Boston Consulting Group (8 acceptances including pre-placement offers), Monitor Group (5 acceptances), Bain and Company, Booz and Company, AT Kearney and Oliver Wyman were went back satisfied with the quality of students recruited from IIMA.

Return of the Investment Banks

This year marked the return of the Investment Banks for the Final Recruitment Process. As compared to last year that saw almost no presence of Investment Banks for final placements, this year saw I-Banks extending offers both through PPOs and final placements. While Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, UBS, Deutsche Bank and Citigroup were among the major recruiters to extend offers through the PPO route, we saw JP Morgan, Merrill Lynch, HSBC and Nomura participate in the finals process.

International Offers

Similar to last year, this year also saw international offers being made to students of this institute. Goldman Sachs offered multiple roles in London while banks like Morgan Stanley, Citigroup and Deutsche Bank offered roles across Asia Pacific. In a marked development that probably is an indicator of conditions improving dramatically for IT firms, Cybage and Syntel Inc. made offers for their US operations. P&G, with 4 acceptances, continued with its trend of extending a majority of its offers for Singapore operations.

Overview across clusters

A number of firms participated in the process in several cohorts namely global and Indian Investment Banks, niche and strategy consulting, corporate leadership program, global FMCG operations, public sector enterprises and IT services. Yes Bank (13 offers including laterals) and ICICI Bank (13 offers) were the top recruiters on campus this year. This was closely followed by Deloitte that made 10 offers (including laterals) for its consulting arm serving the US offices. One of the top global consulting firms, the Boston Consulting Group and leading steel maker, Ispat Industries made 8 offers each for consulting and general management roles respectively. The elite Tata Administrative Services and niche consulting firm, Feedback Ventures re-affirmed their commitment to IIMA with 6 offers each. Public sector enterprises like Union Bank of India (2 offers), Power Grid Corporation of India Limited (4 offers) and National Thermal Power Corporation (1 offer) also participated in the process.

Sectoral overview

Banking and consulting firms were the flavors of the season this time around with most top recruiters coming from these firms. While about 20 firms offering roles in the consulting space recruited 29% of the batch, the Banking and Financial services sector saw 27% of the batch joining the workforce. However, there was no dearth of opportunities for students interested in other sectors. 15% of the batch took up roles with marketing majors such as P&G, HUL, Nestle, Airtel, J&J, Nokia, Philips, Titan, Cadbury etc. Similarly, 13% of the batch took up roles with firms operating in the Systems domain with some of the star recruiters being Google, Inc. which offered Sales, Marketing, Account Management and Business Development roles, Microsoft, Amazon, Cognizant, Wipro, Mindtree and Rediff. Last but definitely not the least, General Management roles were offered by TAS, the Aditya Birla Group, Mahindra, Essar, Lodha Group and Philips amongst others.

Fostering Entrepreneurship

IIM Ahmedabad has always encouraged students to take up entrepreneurship as a career. This year five students opted out of the placement process to become entrepreneurs. In line with its culture of fostering entrepreneurship, IIMA is the only campus, to our knowledge, to offer a placement holiday to its students. We saw this year, three students who had opted out of placements to try their hand at their own ventures (2 were from the batch of 2009 and 1 was from the batch of 2008) come back and use the IIMA placement service to get very good offers. This is a prime example of an institution backing its alumni in whatever venture they choose to carry out.

Redefining Placements

“The new cohort based placement process has been well received by students and recruiters. We take this opportunity to thank the recruiters who have provided valuable inputs and support over the last one year. This innovation in campus recruitment has its origin in the need to reorient the placement process to serve the recruiter better. We will not claim the new placement process as a success till the student placed contributes to the society and becomes invaluable for the recruiter. We do not indulge in claiming superficial victories over any institute on any dimension of placement. With this new process stretching almost one month, we have reiterated our conviction that time taken to place the batch is not an indicator of placement efficiency or effectiveness. The objective of the placement process is the right fit between the student and the recruiter and we would continually review the placement process to align it to this principle.” said Chairperson of Placements, Professor Saral Mukherjee.

Some highlights

-In PGP 10 there were 289 students eligible for placements and three students returning from placement holiday. 4 students did not seek placements. 5 went to entrepreneurship. Total 280 offers were accepted plus three offers accepted by students returning from placement holiday.

-Average domestic salary(INR) 14,94,000
Average international salary(USD) 1,10,750

-While there were 42 offers made and 35 accepted in first cluster, the figures of second clusters are 60 offers and 52 acceptence, in third cluster 78 offers and 65 acceptence, and in fourth cluster 65 offers and 42 acceptence.

-29% secured job in Consulting, 27% in Finance, 15% in Systems and 15% and in Marketing, 13% in General Management, 1% in Entrepreneurship.

Footnotes:

1. The salary data quoted in this press release are CTC figures quoted by participating firms
2. The salary data includes average variable bonus (wherever committed)
3. The salary data is based on the numbers communicated to the student placement committee and does not include numbers for firms that have not yet revealed information