The emphasis at IIM-A is on quality and not just numbers. Sharing information with MBAUnivere.com, IIM-A says that already 9 students have got associate level offers from leading Investment Banks. Not only are these offers highest in the country, these offers put IIM-A's talent at par with the world's best.
IIM-A believes that many more associate offers are in pipeline. Says IIM-A placement officials, "As of now, 9 students have been extended associate offers this year - the highest across all B-schools in the country and by some distance. With more than six months to go before actual placements, this number represents a record of sorts." The number of associate offers during Final Placements 2007 at IIM-A was eleven.
Meanwhile, IIM-A continues to attract top firms inspite of recent sub-prime crisis and the economic downturn. IIMA students have already got as many as 79 Pre-placement Offers (PPOs) this year. Top consulting firms like McKinsey and Co. and Bain and Co., along with leaders in the investment banking industry such as Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank among other prominent firms have extended fulltime offers to all their summer interns from IIMA.
Another interesting trend at IIM-A campus is the increasing number of students opting out of the placement process in favour of entrepreneurship. Last year, the number of entrepreneurs in the batch nearly doubled to eleven. Kunal Upadhyay, who heads the Centre for Innovation, Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE) at IIMA, puts it aptly, "In recent times, the focus of students has risen above PPOs, job offers etc. to starting their own ventures, joining startups and realizing their dreams." IIM-A is encouraging the entrepreneurship drive by providing such students with the option of coming back to IIMA for placements within the two years after graduation.
What's more is that IIM-A is even allowing the exchange students from world renowned schools to sit for placements with the batch of 2008. Diane Gabriel, one such exchange student who has studied at IIM-A opines: "As a French IIMA-ESSEC dual-degree student, I intend to sit for placement at IIM-A because it offers great professional opportunities both in India and abroad. The companies that come to the campus are among the world's best and the roles that they offer are as diverse and challenging as they come."
Noting the placement trends so far, IIM-A states, "It comes as no surprise that the global recruiters find IIMA students overqualified for entry-level positions. In fact, the IIMA recruits are now obtaining senior level positions on par with global Business schools, where the average work-experience tends to be much higher. This is a clear testimony to the fact that IIMA graduates are considered a superior resource in the job-market."
