While hiring sizzles, it’s a struggle for newer IIMs

Though the placement scene is more vibrant than last year at the older IIMs, at the newer ones it has been a lukewarm affair so far.

The final placements at the six newer IIMs started between December and January, and are yet to wrap up, despite the smaller batch size.

“We are a new IIM and, therefore, we need to try harder for placements,” says Dwarika Prasad Uniyal, the placements chairperson of IIM Kashipur. “Kashipur being a manufacturing hub, various offers have come from manufacturing and core sectors offering roles in logistics, and supply chain management.”

Last year, 11 per cent of the batch was offered roles in the operations domain; the percentage may increase this year with more offers coming from core sectors.

“The core sector is hiring but in fewer numbers; therefore, the number of companies coming to recruit is higher,” added Uniyal. The PGP 2014 batch of IIM Kashipur has a smaller size of 40 and the median salary at the Uttarakhand based B-school was Rs 9 lakh, with the lowest annual salary of Rs 5 lakh in 2013.

The situation is similar at IIM Udaipur. The final placements for the PGP 2014 batch at this IIM started in mid-December and the process is still on. “The job market is not very good, yet we are getting good profiles,” said a member of the placement committee at IIM Udaipur. “The IT sector has recruited in good numbers, and some of the interesting job profiles in investment banking and trading have come from the finance sector too.” The domestic median salary at the institute stood at Rs 9.82 lakh last year with most offers coming from the IT, BFSI and core sectors.

“Various NGOs have also offered niche roles in general management and marketing,” added the IIM Udaipur spokesperson.

IIM Ranchi, which was supported and mentored initially by IIM Calcutta, had a head-start when it was established in July 2010. With IIM-C faculty at the helm, the business school has fared better than some of the newer IIMs in terms of placements. “The number of companies visiting the campus has increased and the recruitment is better than last year’s,” said Devanshu Kewlani, a senior member of the placement committee. The average domestic salary at the institute was Rs 12.4 lakh last year.

“Various banks, IT and manufacturing sectors are among the top recruiting sectors so far. We are still engaged in the process and will only know the exact trends after the process is completed,” he added. The final placements at IIM Ranchi started in January second week with a total of 148 students (PGP, PGD-HR batch) participating in the process.

According to the sources at IIM Trichy, apart from the regular consulting and IT companies, a number of e-commerce companies and start-ups are also recruiting from the batch of 103 students. The final placements at IIM Trichy had started on January 20, and like other new IIMs, the B-school is also following the rolling process for placements.

Consulting firms such as Cognizant Business Consulting, KPMG, Vernalis, IQR Consulting and Hunt Partners had made the most offers at IIM Trichy last year, with 15 per cent of the batch placed in the domain.

IIM Raipur is also hosting more companies than last year for a batch of 120 students. “The batch size has increased so the number of companies has gone up. There are a lot of new recruiters who have confirmed their participation,” according to a source at IIM Raipur. “Manufacturing and BFSI sectors have had a larger presence, and some international offers were also made to the students.” Last year’s median salary at the Chhattisgarh-based B-school stood at Rs 11.66 lakh for a batch of 44 students.

Unlike older IIMs, which saw an increase in the number of pre-placement offers this year, most newer IIMs did not see a dramatic rise in PPOs. Last year there were 2-5 PPOs at the newer IIMs.

The number of PPOs received by IIM Rohtak for a batch of 122 students is two this year — extended by Berger paints and Tata Motors. However, for the final placements, both the number of companies and the salaries have increased at the B-school, according to the placement committee of IIM Rohtak.