invest time in B-schools during Slowdown

MUMBAI: More and more graduates seem to think that it could be the best time to pursue a B-school degree that could be handy in a tight job market. Applications for various full and part-time management courses rose by more than 20% this year at most business schools. Also, there was a renewed interest for more than 60% of the part-time programmes and nearly 70% of executive programmes.

According to Sujata Khanna, founder of Career Launcher, said, “The reason for a surge in applicants is the factor of economic slowdown as one perceives the job market will be tight for the next two years and hence, people want to invest the time in education.”

Something similar happened in 2001 after the dotcom bust, when the number of applications had touched a peak in B-schools. “A year after Y2K, we saw a 40-45% increase in students, who wanted to prepare for various B-schools entrance examinations,” said Ms Khanna.

Jamanalal Bajaj Institute, a leading business school in Mumbai, has recorded a 25% jump in applicants for the MH-CET entrance test scheduled in February. The institute takes 120 students for the post-graduate degree.

Students feel that it makes sense to be armed with an MBA or a post-graduate degree in such times, so that when the market rebounds they would be better placed than others, said an official with the Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management.

Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies (NMIMS), which conducts the NMAT entrance test for its full-time MBA courses sometime December-end, has received approximately 46,000 applications for its 360 seats. It’s a 21% rise over last year. “If you’re an admissions officer, it’s a great news, because it means you're going to have a lot of decision-making power and have a richer pool of applicants,” said VK Sreedhar, registrar of NMISMS.

Another leading business school in Mumbai, Wellingkar Institute of Management, has also seen a rise of 12% in online applications this year as against last year for its 3-year part-time masters degree. Similarly, applications for Symbiosis National Aptitude Test (SNAP), which is going to be held on December 21, has shown a significant rise.

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MBA's appering for civil exam

JAIPUR: Neeraj Mathur, a final year finance student had purchased geography and general knowledge books last week. After, he failed to grab a decent job in a campus placement session held in his college in a midst of an economic slowdown. "Now I have decided to appear for civil service exam. Its no lesser then a suicide to wait for a job in a present scenario," said disappointed Mathur.

Like, Mathur hundreds of MBA graduates studying in city B-schools are disappointed by the lukewarm response from the corporate due to recession. Many of them have given hopes of getting a lucrative job. Now they are eyeing on the competitive exams like IAS, Bank PO and other government jobs.

Another MBA student Trilok Khandelwal, from Purnima College is busy revising his commerce books to clear the fundamentals of accountancy before he appear for Bank Po exam in the coming months. "I have taken a loan for my MBA programme. The instalments would commence from April next year. The worry is if I failed to get a job by them who would pay the instalments" added Trilok.

The students are left with less options. Either they can wait for the recovery of market or they could grab a job which ever is available, suggested many management schools to their students. Rajesh Kathori, director Podar Management College agress that "Though the market condition is not favourable at present. There are jobs available only for the competent ones"

This year sudden spurt in students appearing for the Civil service and other competitive exams due to the implementation of Sixth pay commission. It has attracted many students from management and science background to appear for the exam. "Government sector jobs have become very promising with the implementation of commission. Now, the salary of a MBA graduate is present scenario is much lesser then a government scribe," Mahesh Vardhman.

Students also opined that uncertainty in private sector is also a reason that over the years working executives left their jobs for government sector.

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Slowdown affects placements at ISB

The simultaneous slowdown in the US and Asian economies is going to affect the placements at the Indian School of Business (ISB). Information technology and information technology-enabled services (IT, ITES) firms, finance and real estate companies are especially not expected to recruit large numbers this year.

These sectors combined made 280 job offers out of the total 657 made for the Class of 2008, which had 421 students. The Class of 2009 has 440 students.

ISB dean M Rammohan Rao said: “We do not expect the companies to recruit in large numbers, as they did last year. But that will not mean that the students will go job-less. We are inviting more companies to the campus this year for campus recruitment.”

The institute is asking its students to set realistic salary targets. Last year, 230 companies participated in the placement drive. The average cost-to company (CTC) package for an international offer stood at $ 144,812. For a domestic offer, it was Rs 19 lakh per annum. The financial sector made 95 offers last year, IT and ITeS sectors made 148 offers and real estate made 37 offers.

The dean added these sectors are in turmoil now and this year might see a spurt in offers from telecom, pharma and health sector companies, which are growing at a healthy rate. Airtel, the largest private cellular operator, has assured a campus visit during the placement season. “It is not just Airtel, but other cellular operators will also visit the campus,” Rao said at a strategic seminar held last week.

The IT and telecom sectors have been losing their position to other sectors in the last three years. For instance, if 56 per cent of the total offers made to Class of 2006 were from IT and telecom companies, it was 50 per cent for Class of 2007 and dropped to 36 per cent for Class of 2008. The trend is same with financial services. The number of offers from the sector fell to 14 per cent of the total offers made for the Class of 2008 from 17 per cent for Class of 2007. Both sectors peaked respectively for the Class of 2004.

Companies from real estate, which boomed through the years 2006-07, made six per cent of the total offers for the Class of 2007 and six per cent for Class of 2008. During the last placement season, 50 per cent of the students changed both function and the industry, 21 per cent changed the function and 10 per cent moved to the new industry. This year, there could be a shift in industry segment.

Though ISB has been promoting entrepreneurship, this year it further decided to place some students of Class 2009 in the start-up companies set up by the ISB alumni. “It would be easy for the start-ups to find people who would align with their thinking and business vision. Also, the students, apart from finding a job for themselves, would have the opportunity to learn from their peers,” said deputy dean Ajit Rangnekar.

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B-schools feel the placement pinch

'We have been asked to take a practical approach and not look only at dream jobs'— Student from Institute for Technology and Management.

Saurabh Gupta, an engineering student from Thane, Mumbai, got himself a job at an IT company at a monthly salary of Rs 7,000. Had he graduated last year, Gupta would have been drawing around Rs 25,000 a month.

All the same, Gupta is not complaining. Many of his batch-mates are still looking for jobs and some are even settling for salaries as low as Rs 5,000 a month.

“I decided it was better to take this job and gain some experience rather than be jobless," said Gupta. He paid Rs 2 lakh for a three-year Master’s degree in computer engineering.

Out of 60 students, Gupta's institute has been able to place only eight so far. Last year, half the batch had found jobs by this time.

The situation at various second-run management and engineering institutes is no different, courtesy the slowdown that has impacted even their better-known counterparts like the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) and Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs).

In fact, average salaries for final placements at some second-rung B-schools are expected to fall as much as 35 per cent with some schools finding it tough to achieve a 100 per cent placement.

For instance, at SIES College of Management Studies (SIESCOM), Navi Mumbai, the average annual salary has dropped almost 33 per cent from Rs 6 lakh last year to Rs 4 lakh so far. The highest salary last year was Rs 12.5 lakh; this year, the institute expects it to peak at Rs 8-10 lakh.

The lowest salary has dropped 50 per cent from Rs 4 lakh to Rs 2 lakh this year.

"With the tier-I B-schools also approaching other companies beside their regular recruiters, many companies have withdrawn from the campuses. This is affecting placements at tier-II B-schools," said Jharna Lulla, placement manager, SIESCOM.

Another B-school, the Institute for Technology and Management (ITM), has seen a 30 per cent drop in its highest salary from Rs 10 lakh last year to Rs 7 lakh this year.

The lowest salary was Rs 3.5 lakh, and the institute has decided not to allow any company on the campus that offers less than this. ITM thinks it will manage 80 per cent placements this year.

"Companies are taking advantage of the financial meltdown and quoting lower salaries. We have asked students to be patient because the situation might improve in the next few months,” said Arun Saxena, placements chairperson, ITM.

For its 2007-08-batch of 360 students, ITM had placed around 90 per cent of the students by January 2008. This year, the institute so far has been able to place only 30 per cent of the students.

"Students who wanted placements in the financial sector are going for sales and marketing jobs. We have been asked to take a practical approach and not look only at dream jobs," said a student from ITM who requested anonymity.

At another engineering institute, only six companies have visited the campus so far against 20 companies last year. The institute says software companies have declined to come for placements this time.

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research is key for excellence in B-schools

Foreign educational institutions are bound to be allowed to come in to establish institutions either on their own or as joint ventures, so the competition will intensify

The report of the committee to review the functioning of the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) which was submitted to the Union ministry of human resource development (HRD), has been facing criticism within the IIMs since October. One of the biggest criticism was that the panel’s recommendations interfere with the autonomy of the IIMs. The panel in turn finds the B-schools’ management development programmes eroding the quality of their teaching and research. The ministry has now invited public comments on the recommendations.

Former Maruti Udyog Ltd. chairman R.C. Bhargava, who headed the panel, speaks about IIMs‘ autonomy, faculty MDPs and of dealing with intensifying competition from private business schools in an interview with Mint.

Excerpts:

The IIMs have turned out to be leaders in business education in India till now and they attract the brightest of students, both boys and girls. At the end of two-year post graduate programme, they are very much in demand, both inside and outside India. That’s the measure of the quality of education at the IIMs.

What we felt as a committee is that now they face a challenge from private investment in business education. It has been growing rapidly and will continue to grow because everyone has seen there is a big gap between demand and supply of good business education in this country—for 1,800 odd seats at the IIMs, about 2.5 lakh candidates take the exam every year. People invest where they see demand.

Foreign educational institutions are bound to be allowed to come in to establish institutions either on their own or as joint ventures so the competition will intensify. There is already some competition from private business schools but IIMs are still way ahead.

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XIMB expects 25% growth in PPOs

The premier B-school has already received 32 PPOs this year from top companies like Hindustan Coca Cola Beverages, Tata Group HR, JP Morgan Chase, Cognizant, Axis Bank, Hindustan Times, Godrej, Britannia and Genpact to name a few. More PPOs are in the offing as companies are expected to make offers till the end of this month. Last year, XIMB had bagged 32 PPOs.

Apart from PPOs, the management institute has also been able to secure summer internships for nearly 90 per cent of the first year students of its PGP (post graduate programme) in management. The institute is now gearing itself for Xuberance, the final campus recruitment programme for the 2007-09 batch of PGP students which is scheduled for January 15-22 next year.

Over 100 companies are expected to visit the XIMB campus during this year’s final placements as against 62 companies which visited last year. In last year’s placements, the recruiters across different sectors made a total of 218 offers for the 118 students. Last year, the highest international offer was $85,000 per annum and the highest domestic package stood at Rs 16.5 lakh per annum with the average salary on offer being Rs 10.12 lakh per annum.

Talking on the final placements for the current batch, Sabeeta Mohanty, head, placements committee, XIMB said, “The growth in average salary is likely to be stagnant during this year’s placements owing to the prevailing economic downturn. However, none of our regular recruiters have indicated that they will be hiring lesser students this year”. It may be noted that XIMB has recorded about 100 per cent growth in its average salary over the past three years.

“Many companies are yet to make any final commitment on recruitments as they have kept their fingers crossed over the impending third quarter results. This year, the banking and financial services sector is unlikely to emerge as the top recruiter and we are expecting more recruitment from other sectors”, she added.

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Pink Slip and Jobless

JAIPUR: Life was sailing smooth for 25-year-old Shobit Saxena (name changed) till early September, when the real estate major he was working with asked him to shift base. He was asked to move to Chandigarh from his hometown Jaipur where he was comfortable earning Rs 10 lakh per annum. Taking it as a regular transfer Shobit, shifted base only to find that his monthly salary cheque came with the most feared pink slip' and is jobless today.

Sixty-year-old Ashok Kumar (name changed), took a demotion from being a general manager at a country resort in Delhi to become deputy general manager with a home developer firm, only to be with his family in Jaipur. Little did he knew that the happiness would be short lived. Kumar lost his job within a year and is living on his savings as he searches for another job.

These are just two examples, but as more and more pink slips are being rolled out, professionals are leading a life in fear. Dealing with depression within and that in the market place is taking a toll on them. As Dr Shiv Gautam, additional principal, SMS Medical College, puts it, "Unprepared to take any stress, these youngsters who feel secure after bagging a lucrative job put themselves at the biggest risk of facing trauma in any adverse situation."

Experts feel that one on the contrary should realize the gravity of the situation and take a realistic approach towards one's professional profile. If you are less experienced or don't possesses adequate skills, it will be tough to sustain.

"In a booming market, even dirt sells at a price of gold, whereas in recession it's hard to sell gold. Don't panic, build up your skill sets," is what Dr Rajesh Kothari, director, R A Poddar Institute of Management tells the aspiring professionals.

Psychiatrists are of the view that a growing number of professionals in the age group of 20-35, primarily from IT and ITES, and marketing are seeking professional help to bail them out of fatigue, irritation and anxiety.

"The first advice we give is to ask them to take a realistic perspective of the situation, hold what is on their hands and the act," says Dr Gautam who feels sharing one's thoughts and practising yoga can help a person calm down and take a fresh stock of things.

Keeping a positive outlook and converting threats into opportunities might sound the biggest clich?d jargon in these tiring times, but experts feel taking a sabbatical and looking for alternative streams can actually help.

"The education sector is still booming and with the growing number of engineering colleges and B-schools there is a dearth of good professionals and those with industry experience can get good bargains there," says V Raghunathan, managing director, GMR industries. "These might not be a full time solution but they certainly act as parachutes that might help you keep afloat," he adds.

Apart from the job woes, it's the investments that aren't paying the desired results. The reason, according to Raghunathan, is the very fact that we haven't yet adopted to live in a free market.

"While most of us enjoy the luxuries that a free market economy offers, we are yet to come to term with its hardships. We are yet to come with terms of its basics that for every fives years of boom there might be a year of lull, for which we should save beforehand," says Raghunathan.

Despite the sensex failing to show any great advances, experts feel that when it comes to making money in the stock markets, it is going the Warren Buffet way, buy when the world is selling.'

Invest in the best shares as they are available at never before prices is a unanimous expert opinion. According to Pawan Parasher, chairman, Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, Jaipur branch, "Don't go by the word of mouth, do some research before investing in stocks and go by the real value of the share as in the net worth of the share, dividends it has been offering and company profile."

His pick is the infrastructure sector. They always do good in the long run' whereas he feels parking your money in the IT sector can be a bit dangerous in the present situation.

These are difficult times, but there is light at the end of the tunnel. So calculate your moves and keep walking is the mantra.

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Job-hunting IITians turn to start-ups

MUMBAI: The global slowdown has arrived at the IITs too. And campus placements have taken a big hit. From vying for the very best in the corporate world, students may have to scale down their ambitions and career plans, at least for now. Alarmed by a significant downturn in its campus placement scenario, IIT Bombay is approaching start-up companies to beat the recession heat.

According to a source close to the development, IIT Bombay's placement record, which was extremely impressive last year with nearly 100% placements, has posted a 40% dip in the first phase of campus placement in the current academic year.

The poor response has forced the authorities to extend the date of placement for this academic year till April. Earlier, the placements used to close in two to three weeks in previous years. "The number of recruiters who used to visit the campus has come down and also the offers. We have started to approach start-up companies for placement," said a placement coordinator from IIT Bombay, who did not wish to be named.

Last year, out of 74 students in the computer and engineering division, all got campus recruitment offers except two. But this year, out of 94 students, only 50% students have got offers so far, he added.

"We are now focusing on phase 2 of the placement process in this academic session and are approaching start-up and services-based companies in the country," said another source.

However IIT Bombay professor incharge Subash Babu told ET that there is a marginal impact on campus placement due to the economic meltdown. "We were expecting a slowdown in placement, considering the present economic downturn. This year the ratio of placement till now is 4:4 compared to 4:5 last year." 300 students have got placements in various companies in nine days of placement process, Mr Babu said. However, he refused to divulge the total number of students who had applied for placement.

According to an analyst from a leading consulting firm, there has been a drastic cut in hiring at the junior level. "There is a cut of more than 60% at the freshers level and this is adding to the woes of the engineering graduates," he said. Even after an interview, the probability of getting a job is very less, the analyst added.

Some of the big companies who have been regular at IIT Bombay placements include the Tata Group, Godrej, e-Clerx, Cadbury, Marico, Citibank, Accenture, Infosys Technologies, Wipro, Bristlecone, Anand Group, Mahindra British Telecom, GECIS, JP Morgan Chase, SBI Caps and the SBI. Nearly 80% of them were present this year as well. In 2007, around 200 companies visited the IIT Bombay placement campaign organised by the institute.

Over 100 candidates benefited from the campaign. Many students from IIT Bombay also received international offers from global companies.

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Options after the CAT

New Delhi: Almost 270,000 students took the Common Admission Test, or CAT, this year, aiming to study at one of the prestigious Indian Institutes of Management (IIM). But with only 1,800 seats and official results not due until 9 January, candidates can’t celebrate just yet.

Many MBA hopefuls are preparing for the next round of exams since entrance tests for a dozen other B-schools, such as the Faculty of Management Studies, or FMS, Delhi University, and XLRI School of Business and Human Resources in Jamshedpur, Jharkhand, are scheduled for later this month and early January.

“I was quite nervous for the CAT,” says Swati Paliwal, a student in Delhi who hopes to join a business school next year and is also applying to XLRI, Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies, or NMIMS, in Mumbai and Symbiosis Institute of Business Management in Pune. “I want to give my best in these exams.” Others are considering options that include pursuing an MBA abroad. “I just want to go and do my MBA, so if not the IIMs by any chance, then I will probably go ahead with Singapore,” says Adesh Gunjan in Mumbai, who adds that while he is happy with his performance in CAT, he is worried about his score in the English paper. He says that connections outside India might help him find a job after school since many global companies have their regional headquarters in Singapore.

John Gabriel, chief marketing officer for test prep company IMS Learning Resources Pvt. Ltd, says he counsels students who are set on the IIMs, but fail to make the cut this time, to try again next year.

Beyond the IIMs, others cater to different areas of expertise, he says. For those interested in exports and imports, the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, or IIFT, is a good option. For those looking to get into human resources management, the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, or Tiss, in Mumbai and XLRI offer better possibilities. For others interested in social organization and non-profit management, Tiss or the Institute of Rural Management Anand, or Irma, in Gujarat are more relevant.

While the entrance exams for many institutes are similar, each test is tailored to attract students who best fit its profile. “While the IIMs check out how well you are aware at the interview stage, (others) do it at the exam stage,” says R. Shiva Kumar, director of research and development at Career Launcher India Ltd, referring to the current affairs section in the IIFT entrance test.

The entrance tests for NMIMS and Symbiosis, he says, focus more on advanced arithmetic. The XAT, which is required for admission to XLRI, requires more analytical thinking and the Joint Management Entrance Test, or JMET, designed for engineers, tests for high school math. “The CAT is essentially class X maths,” says Shiva Kumar, “so it is a little more democratic.” For MBA aspirants looking abroad, business education experts offer a different frame for students to consider. IMS’ Gabriel describes two types of MBA colleges in India, one that create leaders and the other that act more like finishing schools. For students who can’t crack the first type, Gabriel often steers them to institutes outside the country.

Since most B-schools abroad require work experience from applicants, Singapore, in particular, is an appealing choice for Indian candidates. Most are one-year programmes and students are admitted on academic record, rather than entrance tests, so these are more accessible options for fresh graduates.

Also, Gabriel says that since Singapore is culturally closer to India, it is a better choice for students who have never been outside the country. “If India’s top business schools total around 5,000 seats,” Gabriel says, “for the 5,015th guy, it’s unfortunate, so we talk to them about the world.”

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IIM-A tougher than Stanford, Harvard

AHMEDABAD: Is the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A), the country’s premier business school, better than the best international management schools like Stanford or Harvard when it comes to the executive management programme? The answer is yes if the comparison is based on the GMAT scores required for admission.

The minimum GMAT, or the Graduate Management Admission Test, score required for admission in IIM-A’s one-year post-graduate executive management programme (PGPX) for the 2009-10 batch was fixed at 722 out of 800. This figure exceeds the score required for admission in prestigious institutes like Harvard or Stanford, where the GMAT cut-off is between 710 and 715.

While the IIMs use CAT (common admission test) scores for admission in their flagship management programme (PGP), they accept GMAT scores for the one-year executive management programme. GMAT scores are accepted by all top universities globally for taking in executives for management training.

“We have invited 85 candidates for admission to the 2009-10 PGPX course. The GMAT cut-off score required for admission in IIM-A is higher than those required by even top global B-schools such as Harvard and Stanford,” Arvind Sahay, IIM-A faculty & chairperson for the PGPX course, said. Last year, the GMAT cut-off for the course was 728.

Apart from a good GMAT score, IIM-A also looks for a good academic and career record in candidates interested in joining the course. In the current batch, candidates represent sectors like power, FMCG, financial services, government services, IT/ITeS, consultancy, manufacturing, media, shipping, telecom, healthcare and BPO.

The institute had introduced the diversity criteria for selecting candidates that led to the number of candidates having experience in the IT/ITeS sector — who dominated PGPX batches — coming down significantly. While around 50% of the candidates in the current batch have a background in IT/ITeS sector, the new batch comprises just 30% of such candidates.

“We have tried to make the sectoral profile of candidates more diverse than before, which might be a reason why more non-IT/ITeS candidates made it to the final list. Such candidates did well in the interview round, too,” Mr Sahay added.

There has also been an increasing trend of executives settled abroad joining the course as a stepping stone to begin careers afresh in the country. Close to 25 of the 30 students of the 2008-09 batch — who were working abroad and are enrolled for the course — have made up their minds to settle down in India.

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Personal Interview Tips

Your academic skills were checked in the entrance test, your people skills in GD. Now, comes the turn of gauging you on your own standards. The B-schools want to know how much you are aware of yourself and how much you relate your goals to your personal self.

Students spend most of the time in going through course books whereas 90 per cent of the interview questions are based on you. But answering questions on yourself can catch you in a tight spot. There can be some rules set when it comes to GD because there are certain expected etiquettes, but there can be no rules set for the interview because everyone has sui generis personality. The best way to tackle interview is to sit and know yourself in and out. Think why you want to pursue an MBA. Make a list of your strengths and weaknesses. Not only will it help you analyse your personality, but will also help you prepare for many other questions for the interview, including:

Why do you want to do MBA?
What are your personal goals?
Where do you see yourself 10 years down the line?
What are your hobbies?
What are your strengths and weakness?
Tell us about yourself.

Who wins?
Those with:
Self awareness: You should be able to delve on each and every aspect of your personality, family background, the city you come from and the institutes you have studied in. If you are aware of your strengths and weaknesses, you will be able to justify them. For example, the panelists may ask someone about his poor academic record. As long as he knows why he under-performed, he can come up trumps.

Goal clarity: You should know how the MBA programme will help you achieve your long-term goals. There might be different reasons for doing MBA, for different people, and even for one person there can be more than one objective to do MBA. But you should analyse it beforehand rather than doing it in front of the panel.

Ability to remain calm: The real you comes up when you are under pressure situation.The panelist will try to grill you on your weakness or on the answers you are giving. They want to put you under pressure and see whether you lose your calm once put under pressure.

Who loses?
Those who:
Give practised answers: You have your own strengths and weaknesses. But while attending the mock interviews, you were told how some students gave impressive answers and got selected. If you try to give the same answers, you might be caught.

Lie to the panellists: They are very experienced people and can catch you if you try to bluff them on your academic record, or on a fact-based question, or when you try to answer the question even if you don’t know the answer.

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IIM-L to call 100 firms for 45 students

For the first batch of the International Programme in Management for Executives (IPMX) — the one-year residential executive programme at Indian Institute of Management-Lucknow (IIM-L)—final placements in April 2009 will happen against the backdrop of the global slowdown. To counter this, the institute will call nearly 100 companies for its batch of 45 students to its Noida campus.

The institute is expecting companies in the infrastructure and manufacturing sector to take the lead in making offers.

“Unlike the two-year post graduate programmes, there is no placement week in this programme. Recruiters to our programme prefer to have a couple of meetings with the student before making an offer. Finance offers could be affected due to the economic slowdown, but we are seeing a lot of interest from infrastructure, manufacturing and IT companies to hire students for higher managerial level positions,” said Punam Sahgal, Chairperson IPMX at IIM-Lucknow’s Noida Campus.

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Group Discussion Tips

A group discussion is generally a 20-to-30 minute process whose larger objective is to select those candidates who have the ability to perform in a team. Apart from this, the kind of topic given, also helps panelists to know various traits of a candidate’s personality. In most of the GDs’, you are made to sit in a semi-circle and discuss a given topic.

What matters in group discussion is your stand on the topic, your ability to analyse, your awareness about the topic, and the way you present it. One person from the group is asked to introduce the topic, what follows is the discussion and the conclusion. The focus here is more on leadership and decision making, because in a GD you may or may not reach a consensus since the issues given to you are debatable. The end result of GD will not always be to reach a consensus, but to assess your people skill.

Who wins?
Those who have:

Good listening skills: Listening doesn’t mean hearing. It means understanding what the other person is saying. If you have good listening skills, you will be able to keep a track of where the group discussion is moving. You will know different points that have already been raised and you have to bring in some new point.

Knowledge of the topic: Earlier it was just about discussing pros and cons of an issue, but now knowledge gathered from various sources, analysed and presented in a structured form, holds the key to success in GD.

Reading newspapers, magazines, and going through Economic Survey would help in enriching the content of GD.

Confidence: You might have all the knowledge and good listening and analytical skills, but if you do not have confidence to assert what you are saying is right, that might prove to be detrimental.

Introduction: Introducing the topic can make or break the situation. Explain the topic, don’t read what is written.

Say what you think of it. People think that taking a stand in a GD might go against them. But there is difference in being assertive and in being rigid. You are expected to give your point of view.

Who loses?

Those who speak a lot: Of course, not speaking in GD will not take you anywhere but speaking too much can also make you lose the GD. Remember, it is not a one-man show. It is a group discussion. If you try to grab the attention of the panelists, cut other person short, it shows that you are not a team player. If you do not speak in the entire GD, but give valid points twice that can add value to the discussion, then you will be appreciated.

Those who become emotional: There are topics that involve some sensitive issues. You have all the valid points to support that women make better managers, but bringing in the element of argument and accusing other persons in the group will only get you rejected.|

Those who over-dominate: You are taking and managing the group discussion well, listening to the arguments, giving your point of view and letting everyone speak. Everything is in your favour and suddenly you decide to be a godfather of somebody who has not spoken at all and who doesn’t have one single argument to present.

Cutting short somebody who is making a valid point and asking the silent one to speak, can actually go against you.

Poor placement response forces IIT students to fend for themselves

With final placements at the premier Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) being a very tame affair this year, IITians are planning to approach companies on their own. Though this violates the policy which states that students cannot do so till placements on the campus are over, many students do not want to take chances.

"If the placements do not pick up by January, we are planning to approach the companies on our own,” an anxious student from one of the IITs told Business Standard. Students are also planning to take up higher studies in engineering or pursue a management course to better their job prospects.

“Our problem is not about students taking time to get placed. What we fear is if these companies change their hiring plan by next June and take the offers back,” said an IIT director on condition of anonymity. He added: “The offers must be slightly lower this year but the situation is not that bad. Companies are recruiting, though, in fewer numbers. The IIT directors will be meeting at the end of this month and if the situation does not improve much by then, we will take a call on what to do.”

Placements on the IIT campuses, which began this month, have suffered due to the economic slowdown. The IITs that are into the first four days of their placements have received a lukewarm response from the corporate world. So much so, that few of them are planning to extend the placements till April. The placements for IITs begins in December and will go on till February. But poor response from companies has forced the IITs to extend it.

“While recession was adding to the fear of the placements being a not-so-great affair, the terror attacks on Mumbai has also had an impact on our placements. Companies that were to visit us from Mumbai have either cancelled their plans or postponed them,” said professor P K Jain, placement chairperson at IIT Roorkee.

IIT Roorkee has had only two companies on the campus with only eight offers made so far against 45 offers made on day one last year. At IIT Bombay, the situation is no different. The institute on day one has had only 33 offers so far as compared to 93 offers made last year.

On day two the students had received around 27 offers against 41 last year. IIT Madras says recession has impacted them in terms of number of students being taken by the companies. “There have also been cancellation of visits in some cases,” says the institute. Questionnaires sent to other IITs on December 2 remained unanswered.

Observers are drawing parallels between the current job scenario and situation in the year 2002 that was particularly hard on the software industry, when most of the companies took their offers back. For placements in 2002, companies started approaching the IITs in July/August 2001 (beginning of the semester) but took back their offers around May-June 2002.

“Some companies paid a severance bonus and asked people not to join. Many students opted for further studies at that point. Some of them joined other companies hiring but paying lesser salaries. This is also the time the high-end outsourcing industry became big. So several people ended up joining companies in IP/business research,” explained Rahul Gupta, from 2003 IIT Bombay batch. Gupta now heads a start up called Vakow!

The situation at IITs, however, is starkly different from what the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) witnessed a month ago. Despite the global economic slowdown, students managed to bag diverse offers for their summer internships due in April 2009. However, it remains to be seen how the IIMs fare when it comes to final placements.

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Secrets of success for B-School entre

There is no set of rules that can teach you what to, and what not to do in GD/PI. This is because it is a process to assess a candidate’s personality, and you cannot apply the same set of rules to every individual. What becomes important in such a scenario is to understand the ‘why’ and ‘what’ of GD; and arrive at your own rules that fit your personality.

The first things first — why

B-schools conduct GD/PI when students have already gone through an acid test. Isn’t clearing MBA entrance test enough to show that you are worth it? The simple answer is NO, because B-schools are not simply looking for walking dictionaries or logarithm books.They want candidates who can be trained and polished to be managers.The entrance test is just one stage where they see whether you have the basic acumen to understand the course that will be taught during the MBA programme. In that, too, some parts of personality, like ability to take decisions, ability to perform under pressure, and analytical and logical thinking, are assessed. But in order to get a complete idea of a candidate’s personality, B-schools go through this long process.

Group discussions and personal interviews are accepted tools to select a student, because in a limited time they can give a fair idea to B-schools whether a candidate can become a manager or not. This brings us to another question: are managerial traits natural or can they be acquired? If they are natural, what is the need to do MBA?

An MBA course teaches students how to achieve larger goals and it polishes those personality traits. But there are some basic traits that a candidate should have to go through the MBA process and to know that, institutes conduct GD/PI.

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Bollywood biggies to teach at IIM-A

Ahmedabad : Even if it's not exactly boom time at Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A), it'll soon be dhoom' time! Bollywood biggies are going to descend on campus soon and don the hat of professors.

The first-ever course on Bollywood at the institute will roll out on December 23. Confirmations from Sanjay Gadhvi, maker of Dhoom 2' and more recently, Kidnap', and Apoorva Lakhia, director of Shootout at Lokhandwala', have been received and Aamir Khan and Madhur Bhandarkar have also shown keen interest.

The course has met with overwhelming response with 86 students registering for it. This will make it a class even bigger than that of Dr APJ Abdul Kalam!

"I'm happy with the interest students have shown in the course. The reason for launching it was to study the Indian film business as an industry. Plenty of research has been done on relatively new industries like transportation, telecom and retail. I took this opportunity to explore film industry," says Tejas Desai, faculty in-charge of the course titled Introduction to Contemporary Film Industry'.

The course will give students an insight into economics of the industry at various stages of filmmaking production, financing, distribution, marketing and much more, he elaborates. Prof Desai has prepared a case study on Madhur Bhandarkar's Corporate'.

"With this course, I'm also hoping a whole new industry will be opened for students as far as placements are concerned. National and international companies, like Sony, UTV and Big Entertainment, can offer our students good opportunities," says Desai.

The course has been offered as an elective to second-year students of postgraduate programme in their last term at the institute. At present, the schedule is being chalked out and a brief on topics to be taken has been sent to the two directors who have confirmed their involvement.

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B-schools need to shape mindsets, not just placement agencies

The global economic crisis has thrown up many challenges for our higher educational institutions, especially business schools. This meltdown is not only about greed or irresponsible judgement in using other people’s money by those at the helm in some institutions; it is also a manifestation of a deeper crisis in capitalism. B-schools can play a role in addressing this crisis. Besides shaping the mindset of the students, they also need to set a new direction to the research their faculty is involved in.

The subprime mortgage crisis in the US could not have caused such havoc worldwide had the regulators and the rating agencies done a better job. Valid aspersions are being raised on the integrity of these rating agencies that converted the bad debts of some financial institutions into investment-grade products and trapped other financial institutions. Some even attribute it to an unholy nexus between rating agencies, regulators and financial institutions. The disturbing aspect of it is that most of these organizations are run by products of some top B-schools.

Unfortunately, the role models for most B-school students are those graduates who earn the biggest pay packets; and their dream destinations have been companies that pay the most—even those that borrow heavily to do so or whose directors don’t mind getting fat bonuses even as their firms bleed. Wall Street icon Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., which was highly leveraged and collapsed in mid-September, was also one of the highest paymasters.

Even media overplayed the placement performance of B-schools by publishing misleading data. This overemphasis on placements in the last few years has had a great impact on shaping the mindset of students. Many faculty members at some top Indian B-schools have told me how they see the quality of students deteriorating every year. From the day they enter campus, their focus is more on getting high-salary jobs than on improving their capabilities. Students are increasingly viewing B-schools as placement agencies rather than learning centres. This creates an environment where making money gets primacy over hard work, ethics and social responsibilities.

After the Enron Inc. crisis, it became the fashion to include ethics as a subject in B-schools though I have my doubts on whether ethics can be taught at all—particularly at this stage of education. In my view, the best way of inculcating ethics in students is to promote an ethical culture in the institutions. Faculty and management should be role models for ethical behaviour.

This is where many of our B-schools falter. Misleading advertisements, backdoor admissions, hiring incompetent faculty, siphoning money from the system and tolerance for unethical practices among faculty and students by management have a corrupting influence on students.

This, in turn, is often reflected in their alacrity in taking short cuts to complete their projects or in making money. Reversing this trend would be a big challenge for our educational institutions.

The present economic crisis is not only about the failure of some financial institutions, it is also symptomatic of the breakdown of the capitalist system. Like the command economy of the erstwhile Communist countries, it too has failed to keep up with the needs of our growing population and its growing aspirations. It invested much more in fuelling consumption than on investing in creation and application of knowledge in critical areas such as food, fuel and the environment.

Most of the research in the financial sector, too, has facilitated consumption on borrowed money. For example, securitization, the process by which loans of one institution are sold to other institutions as pools of debt, has in a way resulted in irresponsible lending that has significantly contributed to the present crisis. Even the poor are treated more as a market for different products, including debt, rather than as potential wealth creators. This is precisely where research in our educational institutions should now focus—to increase the productivity of the poor, especially those in rural areas. Before treating them as a market, their productivity should be increased by leveraging innovations in technology.

For this, our educational institutions should first believe that they can play a leadership role in transforming society. As of now, most of them are content with being just teaching outlets and placement agencies.

Premchand Palety is director of Centre for Forecasting and Research (C fore) in New Delhi, from where he keeps a close eye on India’s business schools. Comments are welcome at businesscase@livemint.com

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Persistent determination, the basis of business

What is the fundamental nature of business? It is true that the foundation of a business revolves around the notion of profit but this is not all. The successful operation of a business depends on many other factors apart from this. One of these factors happens to be persistent determination. This is not only essential but also motivates a person even at the hours of distress. Are you a student of MBA? If you are, you have surely gone through many case studies related to this. But now you can have something in your home.

How? Have a chat with RK Krishna Kumar, the Vice-chairman of Tata Group’s Indian Hotels and see his self-esteem and steadfastness even at this worst situation in the history of Taj. The person is fully committed towards the reconstruction of the structure of Taj and proposes a toast to the spirit of the employees of the hotel. Never forget that this trait should be present in every management although the bulk of the Indian companies are found to be devoid of this.

He has also criticized vehemently, while talking to the media persons, the deadly attack on the city of Mumbai and two of its iconic landmarks — the Taj and the Oberoi. According to him, this is in no way a stray incident and a simple continuation of the previous terror attacks for the liberation of Kashmir or other demands. On the contrary this is a daring attempt to halt the economic progress of India and her emergence as a global power.

In the context of Taj the rebuilding of the age-old institution will start as soon as the present crisis ends. What’s more he is confident that the management is enough competent and will restore it to its fullest glory. What should be the level of the reconstruction? This can be clearly understood for the fact that the entire top floor of the hotel has gone up in flames.

You will make a huge mistake if you consider RK Krishna Kumar as the only vigilant person of the management. Mr. Tata is also conscious of the entire happening and its gradual developments. What does this indicate? The illustrious dedication of the Taj group originates in the determination and consistency of the management. The self-sacrifice of Taj’s employees is an outcome of this age-old yet effective ideal.

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IIFT ties up with global B-Schools

KOLKATA: In an effort to maintain its pre-eminence as one of the leading B-Schools in the country, Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT) is set to embrace new global partners to offer new courses in the state-of-the-art education on business management, international trade and marketing.

The institute, which has been awarded the deemed university status, is in talks with two global B-Schools now.

“Discussion is on with a German institute for a partnership in offering a new MBA course for aspiring business consultants. The purpose behind this is to have a faculty exchange programme and secure the opportunity for students to go to that German institute for completing part of the course curriculum under the programme,” said IIFT director KT Chacko.

IIFT is also eyeing a partnership with a London-based royal institute to explore the opportunity of offering a specialised course in logistics and supply chain management. Without divulging the name of the royal institute, Mr Chacko said the deal in this regard may be struck by early next month.

In step with its strategy to help create a pool of skilled workforce for different industries, IIFT is soon going to introduce an exclusive PG diploma course exclusively for the executives of Larsen & Toubro.

IIFT, as a nodal institute for offering training and education programmes on bilateral and multilateral trade issues in developing countries, has been invited by the governments of Namibia and Rwanda to launch those programmes in those states, in collaboration with local Bschools . “Two such programmes are planned to be launched in those African countries in the first week of December and another one in Cambodia in January next year,” said Mr Chacko.

These programmes are being facilitated by multilateral trading fora/funding agencies, including WTO, UNCTAD and Swiss International Development Organisation.

Earlier in the year, IIFT, under the regional resource development programme, had conducted two programmes on management development for SMEs at Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam and at Kuo-Ming in China , in collaboration with the local institutes.

Right now, the institute offers courses on 35 streams within the broad spectrum in business and international trade management.

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Global Top B-Schools

USA

University of Pennsylvania: Wharton
Columbia Business School
Harvard Business School
Stanford University GSB
University of Chicago GSB
New York University: Stern
Yale School of Management
MIT: Sloan
UCLA: Anderson
Duke University: Fuqua
UC Berkeley: Haas
Dartmouth College: Tuck

U.K.

London Business School
University of Cambridge: Judge
Manchester Business School

France

Insead
HEC Paris

Spain

Instituto de Empresa
Iese Business School
Esade Business School

China

Ceibs

Switzerland

IMD

Canada

University of Toronto: Rotman
University of Western Ontario: Ivey

XLRI shines in season of campus gloom

KOLKATA: XLRI, Jamshedpur, seems to have bucked the global meltdown that has not spared the likes of the IIMs and IITs. The highest international stipend (for two months) is the same as last years record of Rs 5 lakh and the average stipend has risen by over 55% from Rs 48,000 to Rs 85,000 for 2009.

Better still, the number of students bagging a stipend of Rs 1 lakh-plus has jumped from 14 to 45. The icing on the cake: international offers have shot up from 5 in 2008 to 22 for 2009.

The only casualty of the meltdown is the highest domestic stipend, which has slipped from Rs 5 lakh to Rs 3 lakh. No more than a bruising blow, when many others have taken a knockout hit. The number of recruiters who turned up for summer placements increased by 32 from last year.

Top financial banks like Lehmann Brothers (which offered the highest stipend last year), Robo Bank and Calyon Bank stayed away but no surprise there.

Over 200 internship offers were made for a batch of 180 students with 15% of the profiles being offered internationally in North America, Europe, South-East Asia, and West Asia by over 70 recruiters.

The highest international stipend was offered by a Wall Street investment bank for its trading desk in Hong Kong while the highest domestic stipend was offered by an investment bank, again, for a position in Mumbai, said Jeevan Kumar, secretary of XLRI's placement committee. And, The Carlyle Group, now the largest private equity player in the world, once again chose XLRI as its exclusive domestic recruitment destination.

So, what's the secret? "We had invited carbon trading companies like Cantor C2E and commodity exchange companies like MCX for summer placements. And, for the first time, brand consulting companies participated too,'' said Rajiv Mishra, XLRI's placement committee chairperson. "XLRI offers a unique dual management, both in marketing and finance. So, the meltdown did not affect us as much.''

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In core engg sectors, recession spares campus recruitments

Lucknow, November 21 : The economic meltdown has hit the campus recruitment of the country’s premier institutes, but Institute of Engineering and Technology (IET), Lucknow, has a reason to smile. In the first session of placement of undergraduates, of the 280 registered students, 168 students have already been offered jobs.

Unlike the previous years, the core engineering sectors — civil, mechanical and electrical — witnessed a high demand. The authorities expect around 200 students to receive job offers by the end of the year.

“We have seen a rise in demand in the core engineering sectors this year. Placement statistics indicate a shift in job opportunities from IT to civil, mechanical and electronics,” said Dr D S Yadav, Head, Training and Placement Cell.

Companies like Lanco Infratech, Hindalco, Hero Honda and Larsen and Toubro have already hired undergraduates from the institute.

Lanco has hired 16, of whom seven are from the civil engineering department while Larsen and Toubro has hired 10, three from mechanical, four from electrical and three from civil. Hindalco has hired three and more companies are flocking to the institute. Simplex Infrastructures, Hindustan Construction Company and Shapoorji Pallonji are expected to arrive soon.

“Economic development over the past three years has led to a boom in the infrastructure and power industry,” said Vineet Sachan, a civil engineering student who received an offer of around Rs 4.5 lakh per annum from Lanco.

“The economic recession is rampant in the IT sector. Core engineering has not been affected much,” said Divyabh Tyagi, a mechanical engineering student.

Computer Science and Electronics department, however, recorded 31 and 29 placements respectively. Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), has continued with its placement rounds at IET.

“TCS has absorbed much of the impact of the recession due to its length and breadth,” said Amitanshu Nath, HR executive, TCS, which has hired 96 students.

The salary structure also reflects this trend, with core sectors surpassing traditionally high paying IT companies. Hero Honda offered around Rs 5 lakh per annum while Lanco offered Rs 4.5 lakh per annum. In comparison, TCS offered around Rs 3.15 lakh per annum.

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IIM Lucknow Summer Placements 2008

A day after the Indian Institute of Management-Lucknow (IIM-L) authorities said 55 students in the first year of the MBA programme are still waiting for offers, a released posted on the institute’s website said there has been a 15 per cent rise in the number of companies participating in summer placements over the last year.

According to the figures, 114 companies had participated in this year’s summer placement programme. While the website had no word on the exact number of offers and the number of students placed, it maintained that for the first time, IIM-L has allowed progressive entrepreneurial ventures and start-ups to participate in the programme. Around 20 firms launched by IIM-L alumnus were present at the programme. This was done following demand from students, said an official. As many as 35 students opted for entrepreneurial ventures and start-ups.

Companies and banking firms like Merrill Lynch, Barclays Capital, Baring Private Equity Partners, O3 Capital, 2i Capital, Seedfund, JP Morgan Chase, and Goldman Sachs and premier banks like Citigroup, HSBC, Deutsche Bank, Standard Chartered Bank, RBS Group, American Express, ICICI Bank and Axis Bank, had taken part in the programme, stated the release. While 320 students (32 per cent) have opted for the banking and financial sector, 34 per cent have opted for strategy and consultancy based roles. Ninety have opted for marketing internships in powerhouses like P&G, Diageo, Nokia, Johnson & Johnson, Asian Paints, Cadbury, Nestle, etc.

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Related Story

IT cos going back on campus placements' commitments

Desperate times call for desperate measures. IT companies are going back on commitments made at campus placements. Many companies are even unwilling to commit as to when they will visit colleges this year.

That extra twang in the tone is missing. And it may stay that way a long time. Hiring by it companies seems to have hit a rough patch with companies deferring joining dates for fresh hires. Mindtree, for example, has deferred hiring by two quarters.

Making the situation worse is reluctance among it companies to even visit campuses this year. A large engineering college in Bangalore says twenty companies visited their campus last October. But this year, none have come so far. This sentiment is echoed across colleges and reiterated by HR consultants. And companies say it may take time for things to improve.

Som Mittal, President, NASSCOM says, “For some time now, many of the large IT companies have staggered hiring and it has become more skewed due to the events taking place….it is not only the IT industry but as we are competing for resources in the domestic market and there has been an impact all around.”

Pratik Kumar, Executive Vice President-HR (Brand & Corporate Communication), Wipro says, “What you are witnessing is a staggering of joining dates which is taking place. I am not giving you a Wipro perspective, but since it is a general industry view. I can say that we are seeing it right now."

Most IT companies make offers to students in the third year of engineering and the recruitment cycle of companies is such that typically students join in the October-November timeframe. But most engineering colleges we spoke with say that companies’ have deferred hiring to February and are awaiting clarity on whether companies will be able to meet that new commitment.

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Slowdown making many executives for CAT

AHMEDABAD: Freshers, beware! From next year, belling the CAT will be much more tougher. For there would be additional competition from candidates with two to five years of work experience—a profile preferred by the top B-schools in the country.

The number of candidates appearing for CAT has gone up by 11% versus last year. However, the ratio of freshers to those with some work experience has remained more or less constant at 30:70. Experts feel that this ratio will alter for CAT 2009 in favour of those with additional work experience.

Driven by economic slowdown, many professionals from IT, engineering , medical and finance background are gearing up for CAT.

“Given the current slowdown in the economy, working people are looking to rescale and upgrade their profile, which will lead them to take up CAT next year. Already inquiries are pouring in from people with such profiles. This means, competition for country’s top BSchool will get tougher,” said Career Launcher director Arindham Lahiri.

Experts believe people who have been otherwise busy with their job are now making up their minds to take up CAT and are readying themselves to take the plunge next year. “It is better to do an MBA now as promotions are not expected quickly. In two-years’ time, as economy picks up, job prospects might improve. By that time, I would hopefully have my MBA degree,” says Sakshi Verma, who has been working for eight months for a Delhi-based KPO and has been shifted to a different department as the volume of work in her department had shrunk.

While the bulk of candidates applying for CAT are fresh graduates, over the years there have been an increasing trend of people with two to five years of experience taking up the test for admission to the coveted B-Schools . And candidates with prior work experience have a special preference over freshers for top-slot B-Schools , including IIMs.

“We do consider candidates with prior work experience. This is part of our admission policy. Although it varies from year to year, candidates with varying degree of work experience (which may be as little as six months) are our first choice,” said IIM-A chairperson (admissions) Satish Deodhar. IIM-A has more than 50% candidates with two to five years of work experience.

“Around 40% of candidates take up CAT more than once, and the number has accumulated over the last several years. They are also candidates with some amount of work experience in the fields of IT and banking-finance and have an edge over freshers ,” said director and CEO of Endeavor , an institute that prepares for admission to management schools.

GETTING TOUGHER

Number of candidates appearing for CAT has gone up by 11% compared to last year Ratio of freshers to those with work experience has remained constant at around 30:70 IIM-A has more than 50% candidates with work experience Candidates with prior work experience have a preference over freshers for most B-Schools.

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CAT 2008 Overview

90 questions 3 sections - Quantitative Ability (25 question), Data Interpretation (25 questions) and Verbal Ability (40 questions).

Overall Expected Cutoff for 1 IIM Call: 125/360

Life beyond IIMs

Three lakh students will be making the beeline to take the CAT exam this year. But with less than one out of 300 aspirants making it to the much sought after IIMs, here's a list that will lighten the load off your shoulders. There is a life beyond the IIMs.

Xavier Labour Relation Institute School Of Management

Top of that pile is Xavier Labour Relation Institute School Of Management the institute located in the industrial town of Jamshedpur. It's setting high standards with a separate entrance conducted in the first week of January.
It's an opportunity in wings for those who don't make the coveted CAT list, for some though it was a first choice.

Faculty of Management Studies

The Faculty of Management Studies in the Capital may not be such a bad bet. It's number two on the list after XLRI. Apart from full time MBA, it's known for it's part time MBA programme as well.
As far as specialsations go the best of marketing and finance are the on offer.

Indian School of Business

In Hyderabad, the youngest of the all B schools is Indian School of Business. It's barely 10-years-old but is rising in ranks globally and on the list. A globally accepted GMAT exam along with comprehensive interviews and Group Discussion are prerequisites. But along with that the excecutive MBA requires a two years of work experience.

SP Jain Institute of Management and Research

Also in line is SP Jain Institute of Management and Research in Mumbai. For those with work experience both CAT and XAT scores work for its diploma.

Indian Institute of Foreign Trade

Indian Institute of Foreign Trade in Delhi closes the list of top five B schools in the country.

With percentiles above 95 giving you a fair chance of making it to leading B-schools, all's not lost if you haven't made it to the IIMs.

There are 99 other B-schools that accept CAT scores throwing open another gateway to your management dreams.

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Crisis - engineering placements suffer

As the global economic crisis deepens, some technology companies are revoking campus offers, while some are reducing the number of campus hires

Bangalore: Seven engineering students of National Institute of Technology (NIT) Surathkal, in Karnataka, received job offers from Bangalore-based outsourced product developer Aditi Technologies Pvt. Ltd in August. Last month the placement department of the institute received an email from the company that the offers had been withdrawn.

“I missed (attending interviews at) 10-15 companies because I took the Aditi offer,” said one of the seven, a 21-year-old in his seventh semester, who didn’t want his name revealed because it might hurt his chances of landing another job.

Tech companies have revoked offer letters and deferred joining dates for engineering students who passed out in June, Mint reported in July. While many who passed out in June are yet to be informed of their joining dates, placements are under way for the batch that will pass out in June 2009, and the going seems to get tougher.

Information technology (IT) services firms typically hire in bulk and so far provided employment to at least half the students passing out of NITs and the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs).

Chetan L.S., vice-president of the people department at Aditi Technologies, denied revoking the campus offers. “We had made offers to seven students in NIT Surathkal and those offers stand—we absolutely intend to on-board these candidates,” he said.

However, a placement official at NIT Surathkal, who did not want to be identified as he is not authorized to speak to the media, said, “Aditi sent an email to the placement department saying they are withdrawing the offers. We have allowed these seven students to attend other interviews.”

At NIT Surathkal, out of a batch of 570 B.Tech (bachelor of technology) students, 120 students are awaiting placement. At NIT Rourkela, Orissa, 98 students out of a batch of 660 are awaiting jobs and at NIT Warangal, Andhra Pradesh, 50 students out of a batch of 380 are yet to be placed, said placement officials from the respective colleges.

“Engineering placements are going badly this year with only about 85% of students in NITs placed so far,” says Rishi Das, director of CareerNet Consulting Pvt. Ltd, a recruiter. By this time last year, about 95-98% of students in NITs would have been placed.

Placements in lower-rung engineering colleges would be bad this year, said B.S. Murthy, chief executive of Bangalore-based executive search firm BSM Leadership Capital Consulting Pvt. Ltd. “I know of some colleges in which there were virtually no takers,” he said.

“IT companies are taking smaller number of students this year,” says a placement official at NIT Rourkela, who did not wish to be identified as he is not authorized to speak to the media.

For instance, India’s third largest software exporter, Wipro Technologies, took 61 students this year as against 92 last year from NIT Rourkela. Pradeep Bahirwani, vice-president of talent acquisition at Wipro Technologies, refused to reveal the current fiscal’s hiring target given the market conditions, but said, “In 2008-09, we have made 8,000 offers so far.”

Companies such as Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp. and Citrix R&D India Pvt. Ltd declined to visit NIT Surathkal this year, said the placement official at the college. A Cognizant spokesman said it was against company policy to reveal campus recruitment numbers.

Citrix R&D India denied any change in the recruitment strategy. “We have been visiting campuses across India every year for over five years and will be doing the same this academic year,” managing director Rakesh Singh said by email. “There is no change in our plans.”

Even the prestigious IITs are not immune to the downturn. “In the IITs there is 30-50% fall in the number of companies (set to visit them),” says Das.

IITs are preparing to start their placements next month. At IIT Roorkee in Uttarakhand, some 100 companies are expected on campus against 130-140 last year, said a placement coordinator who did not want to be identified. Apart from IT companies, the college is also missing multinational investment banks that recruited at least 20 engineering students as financial analysts last year.

M.Tech, or master of technology, students have it worse. At NIT Warangal, only 40% of a batch of 250 M.Techs have been placed so far as against 75% last year by this time; at NIT Rourkela only 5% of a batch of 270 M.Techs have been placed so far.

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Rat race to bell CAT

Ranchi, Nov. 13: Anxiety is evident on the faces of many MBA aspirants as the countdown for the Common Admission Test (CAT) has already begun.

With just two days left for the mega examination to take place, the aspirants are running helter-skelter for last minute tips from coaching institutes, making revision of their notes and taking mock tests for self-evaluation.

At stake are the entry tickets to six prestigious management institutes — the IIMs.

“The exam is no joke. It needs stringent practice, arduous labour and above all, the grace of divine providence. I am better prepared to bell the CAT this time,” said Avinash Ananda, a student who had also taken the examination last year as well.

“I had been scoring reasonably well in all the mock tests taken by my institute up till now. I sincerely hope that I don’t come out a rat in the CAT which I shall be facing on this Sunday,” said Riya Sinha, an aspirant preparing for the examination at Career Launchers in Sainik Market on Main Road .

Hope is reflected in the reactions of these students aspiring for a management career as they gear up for the CAT race.

The race would be testing students on their speed and agility. It shall see many a dream culminate into reality or infuse tenacity in others to aspire for the challenge once again with renewed confidence.

Asked what tips do experts preparing these students had to give for the last moments, calmness of mind and inner confidence came out as unanimous response. “There is no point in cramming things left untouched at this moment. Just work on your stronger points. take a few mock tests before the examination, relax, meditate and recall your previous victories,” said Rita Shahdeo director of Erudite, an MBA coaching centre at Amravati Complex.

70 to 75 questions in 150 minutes and nearly 1,00,000 intelligent minds of the country competing for 900 odd seats in six IIMs. A tough competition for sure!

“There are only two possibilities. Either I will make it or I shall be eliminated. After all, CAT is not the end of the world,” said Saket Mewara, a final year BCom student at St Xavier’s College who shall be taking the test for the first time.

Yet, he could not hide the anxiety on his face.

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More professionals want to bell CAT

Ahmedabad : With Common Admission Test (CAT-2008) just around the corner, many doctors, lawyers and chartered accountants are spending sleepless nights. Cracking the exam and getting into top-notch B-schools, like Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs), doesnt come easy.

Till a few years ago, a management degree was an obvious choice for engineers, but now its becoming the preferred option for other professionals as well. The reason: they find it worth investing two years in an MBA since it gives them much-needed soft skills.

"It was during my CA course, in which I had a subject called general management and communication skills, that I realised importance of soft skills. Even if you are an excellent CA, you need to know how to present yourself, " says Vinay Menon, CA rank-holder.

Vaidehi Darji, who is pursuing her LLB, says: "The grilling and grooming one goes through in a management course is the biggest attraction. This is my second CAT attempt and I hope to make it to an institute of my choice."

The famous Gujarati entrepreneurial spirit is another reason why an MBA degree is getting popular among professionals. "Im hoping to start something on my own eventually. Also, with just a CA degree I would be like any other practitioner," says Parth Desai.

"The number of people with a professional degree taking CAT has increased this year. We had only two CAs last year, this year we have seven. The number of doctors has increased and lawyers are new additions to our students," says Yakub Mansuri, centre manager of IMS Learning Resources.

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CAT: Expect the unexpected

NEW DELHI: Unpredictability is the only prediction for the Common Admission Test (CAT) as over 2.76 lakh students are all set to sweat it out on November 16 to get a place in the top B-schools of the country. There will be over 54,000 female candidates taking the test this year. Over 118 B-schools would accept CAT scores this year. And no one is hazarding a guess as to what surprise is in store in this edition of CAT.

However, before the trends, here is what CAT-2008 looks like in numbers in comparison to 2007. In comparison to 2.3 lakh applicants in 2007, 2.85 lakh applicants have been accepted this year. According to Satish Deodhar, member CAT committee, "Close to 3 lakh forms were sold for 2008. While 2 lakh wrote the test last year, it would be 76,000 more this year."

The exam, scheduled to start at 10.30 am, would have three sections and would be of two-and-half-hour duration. According to sources from IIM Bangalore, CAT would be conducted from IIM Bangalore this year. On condition of anonymity, a faculty of IIM Kolkata, said: "The trend has been a special surprise after a three-year interval. Going by that trend in 2006 and 2007, the number of questions remained 75 and English remained comparatively the toughest section and so we can expect a new variation this year."

However, neither faculty members nor aspirants are going with a fixed mindset as CAT is known to turn all strategies upside down. Deekshant of MBA Guru said: "It would be foolish to predict anything. Variations have been random and the only consistency we have seen is that in last five years the test has been tough and getting tougher as the number of questions are coming down. Earlier, it was speed based, now it is more of testing your managerial skills, rather than your knowledge."

In last five years (2002 to 2007), the variations have been random with one section being the toughest, much more so than others. In 2002 and 2003, the English section has been the easiest. From 2003 to 2005, data analysis was comparatively the toughest, while in 2006 and 2007, English became the nightmare.

Then there were variations in the number of questions, with the only consistency being that since 2002 it has seen a gradual decline in the number of question asked. In 2002, the paper had 150 questions. In 2003 and 2004 there were 123 questions, which came down to 90 in 2005. In 2006 and 2007 there were only 75 questions, which is fairly similar to what GMAT adheres to, giving rise to speculations about CAT going the GMAT way.

While the number of question remained the same in 2003 and 2004 and so also the toughness of the section on data analysis, CAT sprang a surprise by bifurcating the paper into sections A and B. Section A contained questions worth half and one mark each, while section B had question worth two marks each.

Does that leave much option to guess as to what it would be like this time? Rajiv Kumar, an aspirant said: "Why hazard a guess? CAT is not for guess work. And that's where the fun of the game is."

Agrees Asha Kaul, professor, IIM Ahmedabad, "I don't want to comment on what CAT would be like or predict anything. Yes, it has been the toughest challenge for those aspiring to pursue MBA from the best institutes in India and I feel it would maintain that status. And except for those setting the paper, no one has actually been able to anticipate what surprise CAT will throw up. Only those with the right attitude can crack this exam."

So no fixed mindset before you step in for the exam. Ulhas Vairagkar, director, TIME, Delhi, said: "Don't worry about the surprise element. Just do your best. Even if one attempts 40 to 45 questions and even if seven to 10 of those are incorrect, even then there is a huge probability of getting a good percentile and a call from a good B-school."

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