Here is a round-up of summer placements trends across leading campuses like IIM C, IIM B and FMS Delhi.
IIM Calcutta attracts more firms, completes summer placements
The Indian Institute of Management Calcutta has upheld its reputation as the top choice of recruiters again this year. The summer placement process which was scheduled from the 9th to the 14th of November has been completed with the entire batch of over 300 students being offered the widest possible range of sectors and job profiles.
The students have been offered prestigious roles in investment banking, consulting, general management, marketing, media and private equity. The students this year have had more options to choose from and have accepted offers from a variety of sectors and profiles. The total number of companies this year has risen to the highest ever level with around 110 companies participating in the placement process, a testimony to the foresight and planning followed by IIM Calcutta in proactively countering the effects of the global meltdown in the recruitment market.
Slot 0 at IIMC saw excellent placements with around a 100 students being placed. The prestigious Slot 0 saw companies such as Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch, McKinsey, Macquarie, AT Kearney, BCG, Bain, HSBC Global, JP Morgan Chase, Barclays Capital, Deutsche Bank, RBS, Rothschild and French investment bank Calyon amongst many others. Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, Royal Bank of Scotland preferred to recruit the highest number of students from IIM Calcutta. Morgan Stanley London and two of the biggest names in Swiss banking, UBS and Credit Suisse, chose to recruit exclusively from IIM Calcutta.
The locations on offer include the United States, Europe, Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore, the Middle East and all major locations in India.
Day 0 investment banks made 58 offers, while the consulting offers stood at 16. Offers also came in from a variety of domains, and included openings in retail, general management, marketing and commercial banking. Some of the major marketing names this year included P&G, Unilever, Diageo, Pepsi, Nestle and ITC among others. New firms on campus included Yahoo, Amazon, Provogue, DHL Logistics, Reebok, Century Ply and the Mahindra Group. Adding to the diversity of profiles on offer, for the first time ever, IIM Calcutta has had startups, online ventures and micro-credit institutions. HT Media, Times Group and Star TV attracted students interested in being part of the emerging media sector.
The sector wise breakups have been more rounded this time with marketing, finance, media, logistics and supply chain management, general management, public sector undertakings and analytics firms all attracting interest from the students this year. The trend this time points to finance still being the preferred sector of choice, but marketing has also seen an increase along with consulting.
IIM Bangalore concludes summers on Day two
The Indian Institute of Management Bangalore, recently adjudged the Best Business School in South Asia, concluded its summer placement process today. This placement process was set at a time of economic slowdown, where the companies were extremely selective in their recruitment process. Despite the reduced numbers seen in campuses across the country, IIM Bangalore has concluded its process on Day two itself, placing its largest ever batch size of 275.
The placement scenario this year saw recruiters across a variety of domains like consulting, investment banking, private equity, media, general management, marketing, education and real estate. "At a time of economic slowdown, companies have more rigorous selection criteria and have raised their bars. But the quality of resumes and students at IIM Bangalore far exceeded their expectations. The net result was that they exceeded the pre-decided numbers they had come with", says Mr. Sourav Mukherji, the Placement Chairperson.
In anticipation of reduced enthusiasm among recruiters, IIM Bangalore invited more companies on to campus this year. Companies responded positively and as a result, close to half of the recruiters were new companies on campus.
FMS records 100% placements
FMS students have registered 100% summer placements in a record time. The varied nature of the roles offered in diverse and niche sectors indicate the confidence and faith that the corporate world has in FMS.
The highlight of Summers 2008 was the niche profiles offered to students, ranging from Private Equity to Investment Banking to Media Communication. This year recruiters included private equity players like Avigo Capital Partners, realty firm IREO, venture capital firm Helion Ventures, trading firms like Stemcor, marketing companies like Starcom MediaVest, Apple, Perfetti, Puma, Heinz and J&J Medical and strategy profiles offered by Mahindra and Mahindra.
Continuing from last year, Indian heavyweights and traditional recruiters like Hindustan Unilever Limited, Procter & Gamble and Tata Administrative Services made a slew of offers across various sectors and geographies. In addition to this, international roles were offered by companies like Arthur D. Little, Starcom Media Vest and FMC Technologies. Summers 2008 also saw the participation of companies like Vodafone, GE Corporate, Citibank, IDFC SSKI, Microsoft, Cognizant, Coca Cola, ITC, Nestle, Godrej et al offering profiles in a range of sectors.
With multiple offers being made by the companies to students of the two full-time programmes: 107 in MBA and 48 in MBA-MS, the average stipend this year rose to Rs. 37,000 per month this year. All in all, Summers 2008 was an expression of the capability of the students to get a dream internship in companies and profiles of their choice.
Finance
Despite the global meltdown, FMS saw a plethora of varied offers from the best financial institutions in the country. Leading banks like Standard Chartered, Citibank, HSBC, Bank of America, American Express, ICICI Bank and Axis recruited in large numbers in both Corporate as well as Consumer Banking. Around 15% of the batch got much coveted profiles in these leading banks. Besides these, investment banking firms like Langham Capital and IDFC-SSKI, venture capital firms Helion Ventures and IDG Ventures and private equity firm Avigo Capital Partners reaffirmed their relationship with the campus, offering a variety of roles to the students.
International steel trading firm Stemcor, infrastructure fund managers Zeus Inframanagement, financial research firms ICRA and Dun and Bradstreet and real estate developers IREO also participated in the process and offered niche roles to the candidates. FMCG majors HUL, P&G, SAB Miller and Coca Cola continued the tradition of offering finance profiles in addition to the existing Sales & Marketing profiles. Corporate Finance continued to rule the roost with 19% of the batch being offered these profiles.
Marketing
FMS is reputed for providing quality talent in the field of marketing and this year's summer placements reiterated this very fact. Industry giants like HUL, P&G, Coca Cola, Cadburys, ITC, Perfetti, Colgate Palmolive, Nestle, GSK, Britannia, Pepsi, SAB Miller, Reckitt Benckiser, Dabur, Agro Tech, Puma and Heinz were some of the FMCGs that participated in the process. 29% of the batch decided to join the FMCG giants for their summer internships.
This year saw for the first time marketing profiles being offered for summer internship by media communication agency, Starcom MediaVest Group and Viacom. Mahindra & Mahindra, Essar, Motorola, Tata Motors and telecom majors Vodafone and Idea Cellular participated in the process making multiple offers in the field of Sales and Marketing. IT behemoths Microsoft and Apple offered sales and marketing profiles for the first time. 21% of the batch was offered marketing profiles in these companies.
Consulting and General Management
Summers 2008 saw the participation of many top notch consulting companies, from large firms in strategic management to boutique firms offering specialised services. Leading consulting firm Arthur D Little offered roles in management consulting with locations in the Middle East and Dubai. FMC Technologies offered profiles in Operations consulting. Legacy recruiters Tata Administrative Services and Essar group also participated in the process making multiple offers in the field of general management. Mahindra and Mahindra came for the first time offering a profile in general management. Around 7% of the batch took up offers in the area of Consulting and General Management.
IT Consulting
The IT sector saw handsome participation from global heavyweights like Microsoft, Cognizant, IBM, Genpact, Aricent and Wipro. Approximately, 8% of the batch opted for IT profile for their summers. Candidates showed a clear inclination for choosing challenging profiles over lucrative stipends offered by companies.
"FMS always firmly believed that in the nature of things, if any door closes, many others open. This year, along with our legacy recruiters, we also had new and niche players coming to the campus to assess and appreciate our products. The experience has turned out to be very enriching for all of us and we are looking forward to an encore in our Final placements too." said Prof. J.K. Mitra, Dean, Faculty of Management Studies, Delhi.
