Placements have got better at the Johnson Graduate School of Management of Ivy League Cornell University since 2009. But students and faculty have had to work harder for it, says Dean Mr L. Joseph Thomas, in conversation with Business Line .
Web-based interviews have become the norm across schools, as have student road trips to visit recruiters.
“Things have been getting better every year, including at Johnson, but faculty and students have had to work much harder. During a previous downturn, we had flown recruiters in and out on a jet, courtesy an alumnus. In the last few years, we have taken students on ‘Job Treks' to cities such as New York, San Francisco, London, Hong Kong and Dublin,” said Mr Thomas.
The efforts have borne fruit. Students placed at the time of graduating from Johnson from the two year MBA program was 68 per cent.
This has gone up to 74 per cent in 2010, over 80 per cent in 2011, and is hovering at just below 90 per cent this year. From the two-year MBA course, 241 of 269 graduates from the class of 2011 sought employment. Mean base salary (reported by 96 per cent respondents) was $103,600 an annum, three months after graduation. Seventy-seven per cent of those accepting jobs reported a signing bonus — at a mean of $23,200.
Of the class, Mr Thomas estimates 30-35 per cent to be from outside the US. The largest contingent is from India, followed by China and Korea.
The Cornell veteran of three decades hands over the Dean's chair to Mr Soumitra Dutta in June. Mr Dutta moves from INSEAD's campus in France, as Mr Thomas returns to teaching and research, part time, and some deserved time off.
On Cornell's plans for India, he said, “We have no plans to build a campus anywhere at the moment. We would rather be in several parts of the world, including India, through joint projects.”
Joint projects
KJ Somaiya Institute of Management, Mumbai, and IIM, Bangalore, are among institutes engaged in joint projects with Cornell's Johnson School of Management. In the past, Cornell has collaborated with SP Jain Institute of Management, Mumbai, according to the Dean.
Mr Thomas was in Mumbai recently on the invitation of Somaiya Vidyavihar, as Chief Guest for the inauguration of a building.