Cracking the Placements Code: How JAGSoM’s Industry Internship Program (IIP) gives it an Unfair Advantage!

At IIMs and other prestigious B-schools, the Placements 2024 season is moving at a slow pace. In past, while many B-schools would announce Placements by January every year, there is a quite lull this time around. Global Slowdown, Rise of AI, and Lackadaisical Growth in Mass Markets are some of the reasons cited for slow placements. In such a milieu, JAGSoM Bangalore stand out with its differentiated Placement Model that leverage ‘Industry Internship Program’ (IIP) to get an unfair advantage over its peers. This MBAUniverse.com article outlines the What, Why, How of JAGSoM’s IIP, and the IIP Placements 2024 results.

But before we talk about IIP, let’s have a quick overview of JAGSoM, the Business School, and its progress over the last few years.

Jagdish Sheth School of Management (JAGSoM) Bangalore is amongst the first 6 business schools in India to be awarded the AACSB accreditation. It is Globally Ranked in QS Masters Global Ranking 2022 in 101+ Band for PGDM Marketing, 101+ Band for PGDM Analytics & Digital Business and 151+ Band in PGDM Finance. JAGSoM was ranked at #11 amongst all private business schools of India by MBAUniverse.com Rankings 2024.

JAGSoM Bangalore Admission 2024 Open: Apply Now

IIP at JAGSoM: Yet another Internship Program? 
All B-schools have internship programs, so that what makes JAGSoM’s IIP different from others? Well, traditionally, Business Schools have a Summer Internship Program, which happens at the end of the first year. The interviews for the Summer Internship Program are generally held within 3-4 months of student’s joining the program, in say, Oct-Nov period. By then most students have barely completed a term, and have little idea about their career goals. They follow the heard, and get into the internships in popular areas like marketing, finance and HR.

IIP strategically placed as a ‘Capstone Initiative’
How is JAGSoM’s IIP different? Actually, JAGSoM has turned the entire Internship Process on its head. Outlining the Internship philosophy, Dr Atish Chattopadhyay, Director, JAGSoM says, “JAGSoM believes that the internship should be post the substantial value-add by the B-School, hence we have the changed the academic calendar itself to strategically place Internships when students are ready for it.”

So, what is a typical ‘Summer Internship’ for most B-schools, and fall between the first and the second year, JAGSoM’s IIP is held at the end of the program in the sixth term, after the student has done their core courses, elective courses required for their Major, and importantly have prepared for a ‘specific career role’ over the fourth and fifth term. Hence, JAGSoM IIP is a long 16 weeks initiative, held between November-February, just before the program ends.

“IIP at JAGSoM is a capstone intervention and not just a mid-term intervention,” proclaims Dr Chattopadhyay.

Not just any Internship -- Getting ready for a ‘Specific Role’
A critical factor that differentiates JAGSoM’s internship program from others is the that it prepares students for specific roles, through ‘Role-Defined Career Tracks’. “Role defined career tracks is an intervention that prepare a student to match their aspiration with opportunity. It prepares students for a ‘Role’ in terms of their career goals based on one’s strength. This is different from traditional B-Schools which prepare students for ‘function’ (Marketing, Finance etc) and NOT ‘roles’,” explains Dr Atish Chattopadhyay.  

JAGSoM follows a step-by-step process to prepare students for the target roles. These steps are:

• Step 1: Self Discovery: Outbound Leadership Lab (OLL) and Psychometric Assessments to enable a participant to discover her/his strengths.
• Step 2: Preparation of Individual Development Plan: This helps the participants to decide on their targeted roles and related Career Track based on strengths.
• Step 3: Mentoring: Mentorship by industry practitioners, who guide participants in preparing for targeted roles.
• Step 4: Learning by Solving: Participants work in groups to solve an industry-supported real-life business problem mentored by a faculty member.
• Step 5: Industry Internship (IIP) Program: A 16-week-long internship, as a capstone intervention, in a role aligned to one’s career aspirations.

Seven Career Tracks
JAGSoM offers students the following seven career tracks:

1. Sales & Service
2. Martech,
3. Fintech
4. Banking
5. Capital Market
6. Business Analytics and
7. HRM.

At present the students of the Class of 2024 are in doing their IIP and all the students are placed for their IIP.

JAGSoM Bangalore Admission 2024 Open: Apply Now

Key Roles and Prominent Recruiters for Each Track
The IIP of the JAGSoM’s Class of 2022-24 has demonstrated the success of the Career Track driven approach, as students across tracks have received offers in their desired roles in companies of repute. When MBAUniverse.com asked JAGSoM to share the list IIPs for each of the Tracks, data revealed many interesting trends:

• Martech, Business Analytics, Capital Markets and Sales & Services are the most popular career tracks opted by JAGSoM Students.
• New Age Roles like ‘Growth Hackers’, ‘Content Marketing’, ‘Financial Analyst’ and ‘Business Analyst’ are some of the most popular roles for MBAs.
• Recruiters include blue chip names like Toyota and Aditya Birla, and new age digital companies like Swiggy and Porter.

Here is the breakdown of all 250 students by track, role and recruiters.

JAGSoM IIP 2024: Key Roles and Prominent Recruiters by Tracks

Encouraging Outcomes
For JAGSoM recruiters, the ‘Role Defined Career Track’ and the IIP addresses three major concerns: Time to Recruit, Time to Deploy and Time to Perform. No wonder, they are a happy lot and continue to visit JAGSoM year after year. For instance, start-ups like Bluestone Jewellery, Swiggy and Porter offered Internships to JAGSoM students in their founding years.

From students’ point of view, there are two ways measure the outcomes. First is the more immediate impact on stipends and salaries, and second is the more long-term career growth and satisfaction. On short term measures, JAGSoM students seem to be doing well. The median stipend recorded for the current batch (IIP 2024) is Rs 71,550 while the average stipend for the batch stood at Rs 89,350. The highest stipend of Rs 250,000 is an increase of 12 percent over the last year.

What about the Final Placements? Going by the past trends, more than 60% of JAGSoM student get Pre-Placement Offers (PPOs), which is a very good outcome. In case an IIP is not converted into Final Placement, the student appears for Final Placement where the student’s experience of a long internship comes in handy in establishing their credentials to the recruiter.

So even as IIMs and other prestigious B-schools struggle with Placements 2024 season, JAGSoM Bangalore stand out with its differentiated Placement Model that leverage ‘Industry Internship Program’ (IIP). Programs offered by JAGSoM include PGDM, PGDM (Marketing Major), PGDM (Finance Major), PGDM (Analytics & Digital Business Major), PGDM (HRM Major), and International MBA. Admission 2024 are open. Review details and Apply Now

Stay tuned to MBAUniverse.com for more updates on Jagdish Sheth School of Management (JAGSoM)