MBAUniverse.com spoke to placement team at Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIM A), and other leading campuses, to get a sense of mood and planning for the Placement 2009.
IIM A is currently in the midst of Lateral Placements, which are expected to end by end of February. The placements for rest of the batch will commence by end of February. IIM A has taken a series of steps to ensure that more companies, including new recruiters, participate this year, and is hopeful that country's top talent will find enough takers.
Confirming that the final placements are scheduled for later this month, Mihir Lal, member of IIM A's placement team told MBAUniverse.com, "The final placements is scheduled for late February. The lateral placements are currently underway."
The lateral placements process for experienced students from the PGP, PGPX, PGP PMP, PGP ABM and FPM programs at IIM Ahmedabad commenced in early January 2009. The objective of this particular process is to provide our experienced students with a wide gamut of opportunities with the focus on match students experience with higher level (non entry-level) positions within firms, informed IIM A.
Said Mihir Lal, "The lateral placements are ongoing and will end before the finals process (i.e. in late Feb) for the PGP program and at the end of the academic year for the PGPX and PGP-PMP programs."
Acknowledging the possible impact of slowdown on IIM A placements, Mihir Lal said, "While I will be unable to generalize on student sentiment per se, naturally, market conditions are bad and we are in the process of reaching out to a wide range of sectors and firms."
When asked what steps IIM A has taken to manage the impact of slowdown on its placements, IIM A said that it has invited a larger number of companies form non-finance sectors, and has been working on reviving the old ties with recruiters.
Said Lal, "Historically, a large proportion of the batch at IIM A has opted for a career in the finance sector. Given market conditions, we expect the proportion to fall this year. We see this as a great opportunity to strengthen our relationships with old time recruiters and establish new firms which have not recruited at IIM A previously."
IIM A is hopeful and confident that when the placement season ends this summer, there will be smiles on face of students. Said Lal, "We cannot comment on the number of companies that will be participating in placements. We believe that there is a place for quality talent even in this market and we are hopeful that we will be able to provide our students with appropriate opportunities."
