Buoyed by a successful summer placement process, B-schools are looking forward to an encouraging final placement season for their management graduates this season.
The summer placements, which offer internship opportunity to first year management students, have been exceptionally good this year with most B-schools wrapping up the process in record time and bagging good number of offers. Institutes have also witnessed a rise in the average stipends paid to students.
Nearly 20-30 per cent of the pre-placement offers bagged by a management graduate during final placement process come through their internship stints at such summer projects, senior industry experts said.
Indian Institute of Management Calcutta (IIM-C) wrapped up the summer placements for its 460-odd students within four days. The institute bagged more than 230 offers in the first two days of the process and saw participation from diverse sectors such as consulting, investment banks and FMCG, among others.
IIM Kozhikode, witnessed a 28 per cent rise in the number of companies visiting the campus and wrapped up its placements within three weeks, as compared with close to 45 days last year, said Prof. Kulbhushan Balooni, chairperson, placements.
XLRI Jamshedpur wrapped up its summer placements within four days unlike the usual five days during previous years, said Professor Rajiv Mishra, chairperson, placements, XLRI Jamshedpur. Nearly 73 companies participated and made close to 282 offers to a batch of 240 students.
“A good internship process usually means good final placements too,” Prof Mishra said.
Though enthused by the outcome of their summer placement offers, however, B-schools are not willing to be complacent. This could be primarily because of a dip in the number of job offers during final placements, particularly from traditional sectors such as finance and investment banking, during the last two years.
“Good summer placements certainly give us a sense of optimism as there has been participation from newer sectors. However we are still cautious and that is primarily because of the prevailing economic conditions,” a senior official at one of the management institutes said.
Most management institutes have therefore already started taking measures to ensure a smooth final placement process.
XLRI plans to reach out to more number of companies from diverse sectors to facilitate more number of offers for its graduates.
IIM Kozhikode on its part plans to introduce the laterals season this year to enable students with work experience to get an opportunity to get jobs relevant to their prior experience.