IIM-Indore seeks external help for job placements. Latest Hiring News India

IIM-Indore seeks external help for job placements, Delhi

HR & Payroll

2012-01-24

The Indian Institutes of Management, which sit at the top of the business education totem pole, can normally rely on the power of the IIM brand to land their wards well-paying jobs year after year. But as this year's placement season looms, some are being forced to do the unthinkable - seek outside help - in the process, painting a sorry picture of the economy where slowing growth is forcing companies to cut back on hiring.

IIM-Indore, a relatively new member of the IIM fraternity that was set up in 1996, plans to partner with some placement firms to make sure that all 450 students in the current batch receive offers. The institute is in talks with around five agencies.

We are trying to help our students get good placements," said N Ravichandran, director of IIM-Indore. "At this point, we have to keep the names of these agencies confidential," he said.

Other IIMs may go down the same path. Sunil Goel, director at Global Hunt India Pvt Ltd, said apart from IIM-Indore, Calcutta and Lucknow had also contacted the firm. Tier-II and III B-Schools are also likely to feel the slowdown pinch.

We are in discussions with some of the institutes, but nothing is finalised as yet. We may help them with some form of consulting if the need be," Goel said. But both the older IIMs - Calcutta was set up in 1961 and Lucknow in 1984 - denied they had sought help from external agencies for placements.

Final placements at Indore may begin in February, with about 60 companies. The 2011 batch had an average salary of about 14 lakh in 2011, up 27% on the previous year's level of 11 lakh.

Average Salary may Get Hit

IIM-Indore had not used external agencies in 2009, the toughest year in recent memory as it followed the financial crisis of 2008. The batch size that year was 180 and the institute was able to place all. This year the external agencies will carry on a parallel placement process, once the institute receives a definite number of offers by itself, a placement coordinator said in a mail to ET.

Officials say that given the large batch size - 450 is the biggest among all the IIMs - the average salary is likely to take a hit. This is because as the placement season draws to an end, the quality of job offers, both in terms of salaries and job profiles, gets affected. "These firms will help us in bridging the gap for the last 100-150 students," said a senior official from the institute's placement committee, who did not wish to be named.

The thinking is that these agencies will function independently of the IIM Indore placement cell and will provide opportunities to the participants beyond the existing pool of recruiters. The IIMs were set up at the initiative of India's first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, to train managers that were to run factories and businesses of a fast-industrialising nation. The ones at Ahmedabad and Calcutta were set up in 1961, while the business schools at Bangalore and Lucknow came up in 1973 and 1984, respectively. Ahmedabad, Calcutta and Bangalore, the big three, sit at the apex of Indian business school rankings, with Ahmedabad traditionally occupying pole position.

Source : D C

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IIM-Indore seeks external help for job placements, Delhi

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