Close on the heels of IIM-A, Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta announced that their PGPEX participants are being lapped up by blue chip companies. Levis, PWC and Accenture were among the companies that made 60 offers, including overseas assignments at $200,000 a year, to the first batch of IIM Calcutta's PGPEX programme. Six students accepted international offers that averaged $121,000, while domestic assignments, fetching as high as INR 43 Lakh, averaged INR 20 Lakh. The PGPEX programme completed its placement process in December 2007.
The placement process drew 48 companies, including first-timers AD Little, Wal-Mart and Levis, for the 39 graduating students who had gone into the one-year full-time programme with 9 years of work experience on an average. Of the 48 companies that participated in the placement programme, 24 per cent were consultancy companies. Top consulting companies such as McKinsey and Co., AT Kearney, A.D. Little, Accenture Consulting, TSMG, PWC Global and ECS, interviewed students for senior positions in their organizations.
The offers were in line with the work experience and IIM Calcutta's academic credentials, as companies offered roles at the vice-president and general manager levels to graduating students. Consulting companies, traditionally offering even premier B-school graduates roles at junior levels, slotted the graduating batch at middle- to higher-management positions, informs IIM C. Consulting offers made up about a third of the total offers, while technology accounted for a little more than half the offers.
"It is gratifying to note that top companies from a variety of sectors participated in the placement process for our first batch of students from the PGPEX Programme" said Prof Leena Chatterjee, Convener, PGPEX Placements. "Students from the first batch were excited not only by the roles and assignments on offer but also by the opportunities to move into new sectors as a consequence of completing the one year post graduate programme in management for executives," added Prof Chatterjee.
Industry verticals represented in the placement process also included market leaders in banking, telecom, steel, oil & gas, retail, consumer goods and technology. Consumer goods companies that participated in the placement process include Levis, HUL, ITC, Pepsico and Wal Mart.
Diversified conglomerates or manufacturing participants include Reliance Industries, Aditya Birla Group, DLF and Arcelor Mittal. Technology representatives were TCS, iNautix, HP, NIIT, Syntel Inc, Tech Mahindra, Google, and Microsoft.
IIM Calcutta introduced its full-time, one-year residential programme for experienced executives in December 2006. The programme, which seeks to prepare students for senior corporate roles in line with the participants' work experience and age, uses the GMAT as its primary selection filter. The first batch of graduating students had an average GMAT score of 711, a level higher than INSEAD and on a par with Wharton and Harvard.
