Commenting on the placement scenario this year, IIMK placements chairperson Dr Purani says, “Its class of 2009, comprising 185 students, its largest batch ever, has wrapped up its final placement process with 88 participating firms making a total of 228 offers. It has proved that the economic slowdown has impacted IIM K also along with other IIMs. The average annual salary offered this time is Rs10.56 lakh, a 28% dip, as compared to the last year’s Rs14.83 lakh.
According to IIM K, students bagged a total of 23 foreign offers this year, the same as last time, made by firms in North America, Europe, South East Asia and other emerging markets. The highest international offer stood at $120,000, 31% less compared to last year’s highest of $175,000. The highest domestic offer this time was Rs24 lakh made by a Mumbai-based investment bank.
Anticipating the slowdown taking its toll on placements, IIMK initiated a foray into new sectors while also expanding its roster of regular B-School recruiters. "The final placement process was largely successful due to our early planning and action to get top recruiters on board as well as target new sectors both in India and abroad," says Dr Purani.
"I knew that this placement season was going to be tough. When we heard that several campuses had imposed spot offers and forced PPO acceptances, many of us were tense about our job prospects. Luckily, we were given a decent amount of flexibility in selecting our offers," Revant Bhate, a student in the graduating batch says.
IIM K further says, “There was significant participation from financial sector companies with offers made by Deutsche Bank, Citibank, HSBC, Standard Chartered, American Express, Yes Bank, Axis Bank, Aranca, Barings Private Equity, Futures First, SEBI, ICRA and SBI Cap, among others. Around 37% of the batch took up offers in the finance sector.”
“In marketing and business development, students took up jobs in firms like Coke, Pepsi, ITC, Reckitt Benckiser, Pfizer, JnJ Medical, Marico, Sony Entertainment, Britannia, Asian Paints, VIP, Titan, Idea Cellular and Godrej, among others,” Dr Purani adds.
He further comments, “Other important recruiters included Deloitte, PwC, Freudenberg, Maersk, Infosys, Cognizant and Dr. Reddy’s. Conglomerates such as Manipal Group, Tolaram Group and Essar also came for placements as did a number of Public Sector undertakings (PSUs) such as IOCL, SIDBI, Bank of Baroda, HAL, SAIL, PFC and HPCL, some of them have recruited from IIM K for the first time this year. The current batch also saw some students opting for non-traditional sectors such as non-profit organizations and media companies, among others. This year also saw two students deciding to start ventures of their own.”
