Post slump, IIM-C students shun PSUs

Updated on: Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Kolkata: Indian Institute of Management Calcutta has evidently put the downturn behind it with only one of its 278 students opting to join a public sector undertaking (PSU) this year, a clear reversal from last year’s trend when a large number made a beeline for safe PSU jobs.

As the five-day placement process ended this year, the number of IIMC students who bagged crore-plus annual offers stood at five. Together, the 278 IIM-C passouts bagged 318 offers from 113 companies with only one opting to join Bharat Heavy Electrical Limited (Bhel), the lone PSU to visit the campus during placements.

The highest offer of Rs 1.6 crore a year was made by a foreign bank for its office in Singapore. Most of those who bagged crore-plus offers will head for South East Asian countries while one will fly to London. More than 37% of the students chose to join the financial sector with Yes Bank and ICICI turning out to be major recruiters. Yes Bank recruited 13 and ICICI Bank hired 10 students. IIM-C was also the only recruiting ground for Switzerland’s UBS.

Around 27% of students joined consulting firms. Accenture Business Consulting made 15 offers — the highest number of offers by a firm — across six different roles. Cognizant Business Consulting made 14 offers. Oliver Wyman recruited exclusively from the institute and hired five of its students.

Marketing profiles were chosen by 18% of the students this year. Hindustan Unilever made five offers followed by four each from Procter & Gamble and Johnson & Johnson while Nokia extended three offers.

General management was preferred by 16% of students. Tata Administrative Services made seven offers, the highest in the sector. “This year, the students were offered diverse roles which include the position of an executive assistant to the chairman and assistant vice-president of a company, apart from the regular ones,” added a placement committee member, Sriharsha Majety.

“Seven students have opted out from the placement process. While two have planned to pursue their own ventures, two are going back to join Indian Railways and MMTC which are their former employers, two students will pursue higher education, one among them have chosen to continue his PHd in Harvard University and finally Prasant Bagchi will develop a career in film production,” said external relations secretary of the institute, Hariharan Sriram.

The average salary has seen a 20% increase over last year with the average domestic compensation, excluding year-end bonuses rising to Rs 15.32 lakh as compared to Rs 12.7 lakh last year. The highest package offered (domestic) increased to Rs 75 lakh compared to Rs 60 lakh last year. The average international package exclusive of bonus is $123,450. Last year, it was $86,785.

“Though NTPC and Union Bank was also ready to have come to the campus, we had completed the placement process,” said chairperson of the placement committee, Prafulla Agnihotri. The batch of 2010 comprised 35% freshers and 65% students with prior work-experience. Among them, 12% of the students had workexperience of more than 36 months.

With 462 students up for placements from next year, Agnihotri hinted that there may be a change in the existing placement process. “There is a need to take a relook at the existing system and if necessary implement changes. If at all needed, it will be due to the sheer largeness of students required to be placed next year,” Agnihotri concluded.

Post slump, IIM-C students shun PSUs

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