Despite the anxieties and the fear of reduced hiring due to the global economic scenario, national and international companies flocked to IIM Kozhikode for the Summer Recruitment process for the batch of 2008-2010. With a 102 firms, up from 66 last year, participating in the process, the 261 students in the batch got placed in companies of their choice. Summers 2009 saw students walk away with 14 International offers across various functions and in locations like Singapore, Hong Kong, Germany, Dubai, South Africa and London.
The performance is commendable since IIM K had increased its student intake by 42% and with recruiters across all verticals generally cutting back on number of offers. A coordinated effort by the Faculty, Alumni and the Placements Committee along with the strong relationship which the institute shares with its industry partners ensured that the Class of 2010 had no dearth of offers even in these economically severe times.
Says IIMK, "The excellent student quality at IIMK, guided by a strong pedagogy and a constant thrust on overall personality development, was a reason enough for most of the firms to return to IIMK for summer placements. Summers 2009 truly marked the coming of age for IIMK. The current scenario tested the institute and its capability to provide good internships to its students. It is in times of adversity when the true strength is seen. IIMK has proved its mettle yet again by being one of the few campuses to finish its Summers Placements process in time and placing such a large number of students."
Banks and other financial institutions actually increased the number of offers as compared to last year. Some of the banks that recruited from IIMK were HSBC, Citibank, Standard Chartered Bank, American Express, ICICI Bank and Axis Bank. Investment Banks like JP Morgan, Deutsche Bank, and Edelweiss Capital were bullish on students at IIMK. Roles in Private Equity were on offers from Tata Capital, and IDG Ventures. A total of 27% of students will intern in finance companies. "We were quite impressed by the profiles of the students at IIM Kozhikode," said Sharad Goenka, Sr. Vice President at Corporate Banking at HSBC.
A large chunk of students opted for the Strategy and Consulting roles. Arthur D Little, one of the world's top Management Consulting firms offered roles in its Dubai office. The Freudenberg Group reaffirmed its relationship with IIM Kozhikode by picking up students for Strategy and Operations roles based in Germany and Hong Kong. "I am quite excited about going to Germany for my summer internships" said Harshad Karandikar, first year student from IIMK who was amongst those selected for the summer internship by Freudenberg. Regular recruiters like Deloitte, Hewitt, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), and picked up students for consulting roles. IIMK also had niche roles in the Marketing and Operations Consulting space by Frost and Sullivan and i2 Consulting. Wipro and IBM also offered roles in their Consulting and Strategy divisions. 20% of the students would be interning in Consulting Firms in India and abroad. "I was impressed by the processes followed by IIMK during the Summer Placements. The work done by the Placements Committee is commendable", said Thomas Kuruvilla, MD Middle East at Arthur D Little.
In the marketing domain, while Nestle and Coca-Cola offered roles in marketing for the first time, regular recruiters like Hindustan Unilever (HUL), Colgate Palmolive, Marico, ITC, Aditya Birla Group and Johnson & Johnson picked students for roles in branding, sales and marketing, operations and logistics. Coca-Cola was one of the firms offering highest domestic stipend at Rs 1 lakh for the duration of internship, while Vega Foods, a Singapore based company offered 6000$ for the internship period. 22% of students will be doing marketing internships.
There was fantastic participation from the sunrise sector – with many students opting for internships in Media and Real Estate companies. Sony Entertainment Television, Viacom, Star News, BBC World offered both creative and marketing roles, while Ansal API, Godrej and ABG Infralogistics offered roles in Real Estate. "I have always dreamed of doing something creative post my MBA" said Naren Kumar, a 1st year student. "An internship with Sony TV will be a wonderful introduction to the media world for me".
This year also saw traditional recruiters giving summer internship roles in broader business divisions. In Systems and IT/ITeS vertical, while Cognizant gave roles in Business Consulting, TCS gave roles in Capital Markets. Taiwanese hardware manufacturer ASUS participated for the first time. Conglomerates like Mahindra & Mahindra and international consortiums like the Buhler Group and Dutch State Group also took students for general management and strategy roles at international locations.
Summers 2009 also marked a paradigm shift in the attitude of the students towards exploring non traditional avenues for internships. The Entrepreneurship-Cell at IIMK held a Start-Up Fair, in which 25 start-up firms participated and more than 150 enthusiastic students from the 1st and 2nd year interacted with them. Several students who were interested in learning business hands-on in an entrepreneurial environment actually chose to do their summer internships in these start-ups rather than go to established firms.
"With the global economic slowdown and with many firms resorting to layoffs and recruitment freezes, many had feared that this would adversely affect campus placements" said Dr. Keyoor Purani, the Placements Chairperson at IIMK. "However, IIMK has bucked the trend by finishing summer placements in time and with great success. I am really glad that so many firms have reaffirmed their faith and confidence in IIM Kozhikode students and we look forward to a long term all weather relationship with them".
