Indian companies, the flavour of IIM placements this year

The global economic meltdown following the sub-prime crisis in 2008-09 and the recent Euro zone crisis seems to have prompted the premier B-schools like the IIMs (Indian Institutes of Management) to look at the domestic market for recruitments.

Most of these institutes – which once used to rely largely on international offers – are now looking at attracting Indian companies across various sectors for campus recruitments.

The recent crisis has also encouraged these institutes to look at new and emerging sectors such as e-commerce. Plans are also afoot to tweak the courses to meet emerging demand of the industry.

According to Prof Ashok Banerjee, Dean, New Initiatives and External Relations, Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta (IIM-C), there has been a “correction” in the nature of placements post the 2008 crisis.

“With the global economy moving into a recession, the over-dependence on multinational corporations has come down. The Indian market has, however, been posting a steady growth and so are the companies here. This is prompting them to hire,” Prof Banerjee told Business Line .

Realignment

This, in turn, has brought about a sort of realignment in placement process. “Earlier, Indian companies were not getting good slots in the placement process but now, with the demand from MNCs coming down, they are also getting a good slot and able to select from the best of the candidates,” he said

Investment banking has been one of the worst affected following the crisis, said Prof Amit Dhiman, Chairperson – Career Development and Placements, IIM-C.

“The number of offers, particularly from i-banks, has clearly come down this year but this has been more than offset by the participation of new companies and new sectors,” he said. IIM-C had some concerns with regard to placements this year and did a lot of legwork to attract newer companies and sectors. “There were some feelers that the recruitments might not be very easy; so we talked to a lot of new sectors and companies. A number of technology firms, for instance, hired in large numbers this year. This apart, there was also lot of interest from e-commerce companies,” he added.

There has also been a churn in the kind of courses opted by the management graduates.

“Pre-2008, more than half of the batch of students would opt for finance and there were no takers for courses such as operational management and human resource management. This was an aberration and this has been corrected to a great extent now as finance and investment banking are one of the worst affected areas in so far as placements are concerned,” Prof Banerjee said.

Course pattern

Courses such as logistics and supply chain management and operational management have been slowly catching up, he added.

According to Prof Rajiv Mishra, Chairperson, Placements, XLRI Jamshedpur, the course pattern has to change keeping in mind the changing needs of the industry.

“Courses have to be dynamic in nature keeping in mind the needs of the industry. At XLRI, we encourage the faculties to make modifications in courses as and when required. This year, for instance, we saw some e-commerce companies coming in for recruitment. We can have some new curriculum built into our existing course to focus on the needs of specific industries,” he said.

According to Prof Banerjee, placements would continue to be a challenge till 2015. The job scenario in the global front might not look up immediately and there could be a change in the profile and nature of jobs coming to B-schools.

“Things are not going to change drastically at least on the global front. However, in India, a number of banks will face a mid-management crisis post-2013 as there would be a huge exodus of staff on account of retirement. The profile of jobs and company will change – we will see more number of public sector units and Indian private sector companies hiring from B-schools,” he said.