XLRI: 100 percent placement 2009

Jamshedpur , Mar 29 The global economic downturn has not stopped B-school XLRI School of Business and Human Resources here from achieving 100 placement for its class of 2009, although pay packets were a tad lower from last year. Of the 170 students graduating this year, 63 per cent students received offers from marketing and finance sectors, XLRI Placement Committee Chairperson Rajiv Mishra said on Friday.

He said the average domestic salary package offered on campus was Rs 12.12 lakh, which is 18 per cent lower from the Rs 14.75 lakh average offer made last year. The highest international offer of 1,10,000 US Dollar came from global pharmaceuticals major"Novartis"in the human resources sector.

Altogether, 76 domestic and international companies participated in the campus recruitment, held between February 13 and March 25, Placement Committee Secretary Subid Anand said. Many public sector units ranging from financial institutions like SBI capital to Bank Of Baroda and Securities and Exchange Board of India to Gail, BPCL, ONGC, BHEL and Coal India Limited were also in the campus for recruitment, Anand said.

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IIM-A fee up by 1 Lac

AHMEDABAD: The Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad (IIM-A) on Sunday increased the fee of its flagship Post Graduate Programme from Rs 11.5 lakh to Rs 12.5 lakh annually, citing rising cost of teaching.

With the increase, the institute has more than doubled its fee in the past one year.

It had increased the fee from Rs 5 lakh to Rs 11.5 lakh in 2008. ''The hike will be applicable to the batch of 2009-11. Students will have to pay Rs 6 lakh for the first year and Rs 6.5 lakh in the second year. The institute is continuing the subsidy scheme but may introduce minor changes,'' said director Samir Barua after the meeting of the board of governors on Sunday.

IIM-Calcutta, too, more than doubled its fee in February, to Rs 9 lakh for students joining the institute this year. The fee for IIM-Bangalore is Rs 9.5 lakh. There's a proposal to increase the fee from Rs 5 lakh to about Rs 7 lakh at IIM-Lucknow.

The increase in fee comes at a time when IIM-A is at loggerheads with the Centre over attempts to curtail its autonomy. The decision was taken by the board of governors. IIM-A has been fighting a tug-of-war with the central HRD ministers since 2004, first over fee hike with Murli Manohar Joshi when the NDA was in power and then with Arjun Singh over OBC quota when the UPA came to power.

''Although, the Central government members on our board weren't present during the meeting, we had sent them the agenda in advance,'' Barua said. ''I have not received any objection to the hike so far.''

Management Development Programmes, the main source of income for IIMs, have seen a huge downturn in the second half of the academic year of 2008-09. The placement fee charged from companies participating in campus placements has also come down.

Barua said, ''By the time the 2009 batch passes out in 2011, recession is expected to fade out and students will get competitive jobs, with which it will not be difficulty for them to pay their loans. Also, in comparison to other business schools in the country, this fee is not very high.''

The hike is also seen as an attempt by the institute to replenish its depleting corpus. Barua said the corpus was Rs 130 crore till construction of the new campus began. ''Now we are left with Rs 50 crore,'' he said.

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XLRI achieves 100% placement

XLRI School of Business & Human Resources, Jamshedpur (XLRI Jamshedpur), has completed its final placement procedure with all its 180 students getting placed.

The highest salary offered this year was Rs 22 lakh, while the highest international offer this year was $110,000. Around 76 companies visited the campus this year and made 193 offers to a batch of 180 students. The average domestic salary package offered this year was Rs 12.12 lakh per annum.

This year companies were conservative in terms of pre-placement offers (PPOs), with 30 PPOs being offered. Around eight students ventured with their own niche business plans.

Last year, 57 companies came to campus and made 298 offers to a batch of 180 students. The average domestic offer last year was Rs 14.75 lakh and the highest domestic offer was Rs 28 lakh. Around 12 international offers were made with an average of $90,000, while the highest was $100,000.

Despite news about job cuts, recruitments in human resources continued in the consulting, FMCG and finance sector for international banks and group companies alike. Various specialised roles were offered, such as the one by global pharmaceuticals major, Novartis, offering its HR leadership role at Basel, Switzerland, exclusively to XLRI, making the highest international offer of $110,000.

XLRI’s commitment to promoting and fostering entrepreneurship received a boost this year. With the introduction of deferred placements for students starting out on their own, XLRI established a new legacy in promoting nation builders. This year saw the launch of three startups. Also, one student signed out with deferred placements.

XLRI recently raised close to Rs 14 lakh from its alumni network and other donations towards its XLRI Social Entrepreneurship Trust. The Singapore chapter has also generated close to SGD 5,000. This would go towards the seed fund reserved for student entrepreneurs.

Notwithstanding the financial crisis, XLRI maintained its stand as a premier finance destination with 30 per cent of the total offers coming from the financial sector. Offers were received in investment banking, treasury, corporate finance, commercial banking and insurance. The domestic investment banks were led by Centrum and SBI Capital. Banks such as Citibank, HSBC, Standard Chartered, ICICI, Axis Bank and Bank of Baroda offered roles in their treasury and foreign exchange desks as well as their corporate and retail banking functions.

The Securities & Exchange Board of India (Sebi) recruited from XLRI for the first time, while roles in trading were offered by Futures First. The insurance sector recruited in their product development and distribution functions. Firms such as Bharti AXA, HDFC Ergo, ICICI Lombard and ICICI Prudential offered product structuring roles to students. Corporate finance roles were offered by the likes of Pepsi, L&T, Tata Steel, among others.

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Demand for MBAs on rise

KANPUR: Despite global economic recession, demand for MBAs is expected to be around 10-12 lakhs within the next couple of years. The prophesy was made by management expert Anil Singh on Saturday.

Singh was giving tips to the MBA aspirants during a seminar organised on 'MBA preparation Demands'. Addressing a jam-packed hall, Singh said recession had proved to be a blessing in disguise for MBAs, as new employment avenues had opened up for them in the form of public sector undertakings.

He also made a special reference to CAT going online from the current year. He stressed that the students would now need to become computer savvy and thus must have strong conceptual skills and command on fundamentals.

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IIMK graduates get 228 offers

The Indian Institute of Management, Kozhikode, (IIMK) saw a total of 88 firms taking part in the placement process this year. These firms made 228 offers to a batch of 185 students (the largest batch till date).

Students bagged a total of 23 international offers this year. The highest international offer was US $120,000. Offers were made from firms in North America, Europe, South East Asia and other emerging markets.

The highest domestic offer stood at Rs 24 lakh made by an investment bank based out of Mumbai. Though this is a decrease from what was achieved last year, the institute managed to minimise the impact on both the average salary and the median package. Despite the global economic slowdown, IIMK students ended the placements with an average annual salary of Rs 10.56 lakh.

“The final placement process was largely successful due to our early planning and action to get the top recruiters on board as well as target new sectors both in India and abroad,” said Purani, placements chairperson.

Offers were made by Deutsche Bank, Citibank, HSBC, Standard Chartered, American Express, Yes Bank, Axis Bank, Sebi, among others. Finance still remained the preferred destination for most of the students with as many as 37 per cent final acceptances.

In marketing and business development, students took up jobs in Coke, Pepsi, ITC, Reckitt Benckiser, Pfizer, JnJ Medical, Marico, Sony Entertainment, Britannia, Asian Paints, VIP, Titan, Idea Cellular and Godrej. The percentage of final acceptances in this segment stood at 28 per cent.

Other important recruiters included Deloitte, PWC, Maersk, Infosys, and Dr Reddy’s. Manipal Group, Tolaram Group and Essar were also on campus.

Public sector units such as IOCL, Sidbi, Bank of Baroda, HAL, SAIL, also recruited, some of them for the first time, apart from participation of some NGOs.

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NITIE Summer Placements 2009

Destiny is not a matter of chance; it is a matter of choice. It is not a thing to be waited for; it is a thing to be achieved. -William Jennings Bryan

As the students of NITIE, Mumbai geared up for their summer placements, these thoughts inspired them to chase their dreams; and the phenomenal offers stand testimonial to it. Summer Placements 2009 saw the participation of more than sixty companies, offering profiles to the students across the entire spectrum of industry – Leadership Programmes to Corporate Planning to the niche profiles in Finance, Marketing, Supply Chain and IT.

There is an age old saying that a good workman is never in need of a job. The wisdom of these words is reflected aptly in the current economic scenario, as the industry continues to demonstrate its confidence in graduates from the top B-schools in the country.

Recruitments for summer internships at NITIE have continued to show the upward trend, they have consistently exhibited over the past years. FMCG sector continued to be the major recruiter with 37% of the batch opting for roles across their variety of profiles; Sales and Marketing, Supply Chain Management and I.T. functions.

The major recruiters included Procter & Gamble, HUL, Cadbury, Nestle, ITC, Asian Paints, GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare, Johnson & Johnson, Reckitt Benckiser, Colgate Palmolive, Britannia, Godrej, Cargill, Perfetti, etc., offering exciting projects across all domains. Cadbury offered the highest package of Rs 1 Lakh for the two month internship programme, while P & G made a total of 7 offers across its various divisions. A distinct trend at Summer Placements 2009 was the wide variety of profiles on offer, even from traditional recruiters.

The Consulting sector was well represented by corporate heavyweights like Ernst & Young, Deloitte Consulting, Cognizant Business Consulting and IBM Business Consulting, with Deloitte participating in the summer placement process for the first time. Notwithstanding the global economic slowdown, the Banking and Financial Services sector (BFSI) remained upbeat with corporate bigwigs like Deutsche Bank, American Express, Citibank, HSBC, GE, ICICI Bank, ICICI Prudential and HDFC Bank making a plethora of offers.

This further affirms NITIE's rapid foray into the BFSI domain in the last few years. The IT & Systems Sector was represented by the likes of Dell, Tata Consultancy Solutions, Cypress Semiconductors, Wipro and Genpact. Manufacturing and automobile giants like Maruti Suzuki, Tata Motors, Anand Group, Castrol and Essar Group made their presence felt to offer the students with roles in Operations and Marketing. Commenting on the tremendous response received from the corporate world, Prof. Ashok Pundir,Associate Dean (Placements), said, "The excellent Summer Placements year after year once again reiterates the immense confidence the industry has in the quality of NITIE students"

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Job profiles score over salaries

The placements season in various B-schools, including the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs), is witnessing a new trend. With a dip salary packages offered, the placement process is taking longer to complete. However, according to faculty members and students, some changes are for the better.

The Department of Management Studies (DMS) at IIT-Delhi has completed placing its entire batch of 49 students, but not without difficulty. “Some recruiters backed out at the last moment; placements that earlier took three to four days now took over two months, and; there was a dip in the highest salary offered (Rs 15 lakh) as compared to the amount offered last year (Rs 20.7 lakh),” informed Chetan Kapoor, student placement co-ordinator at DMS.

However, student priorities have changed as well. “Earlier, salary was a top criterion for most students but now they are more focussed. They are taking their time in choosing a profile that will stand them in good stead,” said Munish Bhargava, corporate and placement advisor, Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT), Delhi. Bhargava added that with the highest salary offered this year being Rs 15 lakh, IIFT has experienced a 10% dip against last year. Also, about 8% students are yet to be placed.

There has also been a change in the profile of companies visiting the campus, with the number of PSUs and logistics companies increasing. Bhargava added, “Students are readily joining PSUs since they get to experience work life outside the corporate set-up. Besides, the increase in salaries in the Sixth Pay Commission, has helped this decision.”

At the Faculty of Management Studies (FMS), Delhi University, placement started in the last week of February. “Placements are almost over and most students have got jobs. However, the number of companies visiting the campus and the number of jobs offered per-company has reduced. There is also a dip in the highest salary offered. This year, the highest salary offered is Rs 20 lakh,” said Arvind Narasimhan, placement secretary, FMS. He added that many students have joined PSUs, choosing stability over brand, location and salary.

IIM-Kozhikode has also finished placements for the 11th batch of its flagship postgraduate programme in management. The institute ended placements with an average annual salary of 10.56 lakh, a highest international offer of $1,20,000 and highest domestic offer of Rs 24 lakh. The highest number of offers was made in the area of finance, while many students also went for opportunities in NGOs and media companies. Further, two students from the graduating batch decided to opt out of this year’s placement process and start their entrepreneurial ventures.

Around 267 students of the batch of 2009 at IIM-Lucknow received their post-graduate diplomas in management. Unlike previous years, the final placement process at IIM-L was also extended over two weeks. By the end of placements, 105 companies had made a total of 284 offers. Students also managed to secure international offers from reputed firms such as Barclays Capital, Frost & Sullivan, Ernst & Young and Alshaya, among others. Summarising the season, Sushil Kumar, chairman, placements, IIM-L, said: “Despite the market scenario, the campus succeeded in securing job offers for the entire batch, while strengthening its relationship with regular recruiters and establishing new associations.”

Subir Verma, chairman, placements, Management Development Institute (MDI), Gurgaon, said, “Usually we complete our placements in what we call in B-school parlance ‘Day-0.’ This is the first time that we are doing our placement in four phases, which started in end-January. We are now looking at a larger set of recruiters for two reasons. First, the number of offers made by a single company has gone down. Secondly, we have increased batch strength from 169 students to 269 students.”

Arindam Chaudhuri, dean, Centre for Economic Research and Advanced Studies, IIPM, said, “Nearly 1,520 students have been placed so far this year, which is marginally lower than last year. Also, last year’s average package was 5.2 lakh which is now 4.2 lakh; international placements were 165 and this year it’s 44. Many companies like Reliance ADAG and ICICI, which recruited over 100 students have reduced their hiring to only a small fraction of that number. As a result, we have opted to bring in more companies this year. Many of these companies are from the SME and manufacturing sector and are visiting the campus for the first time. Further, even though the financial sector has slowed down compared to previous years, insurance and IT are still big recruiters.”

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Should you do your MBA?

You just lost your job. Should you start looking for a new one or do the overstated MBA? After all, IIM grads do seem to be raking in all the moolah these days.

An MBA is not for everyone

"An MBA makes sense if you are doing it as part of your education i.e. before you start your career. However, if you are doing an MBA to boost your career, you must make sure you have sufficient years of experience," says Shashi Iyer, Partner, Harvest Strategies.

An MBA after just two years in a field is not completely worth it. It makes more sense to do an MBA after about five to seven years. This is because by that time you will have sufficient experience in the field and are looking for a break into a managerial role.

"If you are an engineer or any other professional, you could take a break for an MBA after about four years of working. This helps you get a feel of the industry and the MBA will help you refine your thought process," Shashi explains.

Does an MBA make a difference?

When companies are hiring, the harsh reality is that they would consider an MBA grad rather than someone with just talent for the job. "In my experience, I have noticed that MBA graduates from top B schools in the country have more structured thinking skills and require less inputs as compared to those who have not done an MBA," says Nupur Bhargava, VP Staffing, PepsiCo India Beverages.

Therefore, an MBA degree does give a person some edge over her contemporaries. However, at the end of the day it is only a starting point. What matters after one is hired is what one brings to the table, she continues.

Today, promotions are more performance-based than based on qualifications. So definitely people with talent can get ahead in the long run but it might take a little more time.

Money wise

If you are planning to get married and start a family in your late twenties, you are probably wondering if investing so much money in an MBA is worth it? Well, if you plan it out well, an MBA could work for you.

Say you start your career by 21. It would be a good idea to do an MBA by around 23 years. This way you can afford to take a break for marriage and post-pregnancy as well five years down the line.

Do a recognised MBA

Gayatri Parameswaran, Senior Officer, ADFC (a subsidiary of HDFC Bank) is pursuing a part-time MBA from Welingkars. She is specialising in Human Resources and hopes to get into senior level management.

But did you know it is not so much the MBA degree that counts as the institute from where you get it. Yes, any old MBA degree won't be worth anything.

"Very few companies accept any MBA certification for a managerial position," says Shashi Iyer. If you want to really grow in designation, it is important to do an MBA from a B school or a reputed international institute.

Also, it is important that you do a full time MBA because merely mugging textbooks isn't going to do you any good. It is the interaction with like-minded people and learning from them that will help you broaden your own knowledge.

But if you want to continue working, Manoj Varghese, Director of Human Resources, Google India says that you can pursue a part-time satellite based MBA through video conferencing. It is equally good as you get to interact with peers and learn from their experiences.

Arun Rajendran, Senior Account Manager with Adfactors was doing a part-time MBA from NMIMS but is now doing a part-time MBA from XLRI. "The XLRI MBA is a satellite based course. It is twice a week and hence, does not interfere with my work," Arun explains. "I am pursuing it primarily to better my prospects and gain perspective on dealing with my team."

Foreign MBAs

Doing an MBA from a foreign institute does not really give you an edge over your contemporaries. It is more important to do an MBA from a reputed institute than just a foreign one.

Fresh talent v/s experienced

Do companies prefer to hire fresh talent from B school and other MBA institute campuses? Well, it depends. Companies that hire from campuses are recruiting for various job profiles.

Every profile requires different qualifications. There are some openings that require more mature and experienced individuals while others require fresh talent that can be moulded into the organisational set up.

Company sponsored MBAs

Many companies offer their employees the chance to do an MBA while they work. This is great if you always wanted to do an MBA but couldn't because of lack of funds etc. However, you will not be able to do a fulltime MBA or choose the institute you want to do it from.

Often many people take up this kind of opportunity. Once they have completed their MBA, they have a degree in hand and usually wait to jump one level higher in their present organisation before they move on to higher ground.

Considering funds and a break

Opting for an MBA after working for a couple years makes sense if you do not have the funds to pursue an MBA immediately after a Bachelor's degree. However, after accumulating sufficient funds, you will probably be able to afford an MBA and take a planned break from work.

Also, if you plan on rejoining your old company, you must make sure that your company is okay with the extended break you plan to take. But if you are doing an MBA from one of the top institutes in the country you will be looking for a fresh start so that won't be much of an issue.

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IIMs to review placement plans

The falling job market is forcing the premier Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) to review their placement strategies. The options include doing away with Day Zero and reducing placement fees.

Day Zero is the name given to the day placements begin at IIMs. Day Zero and Day One are reserved for top companies like investment banks and consulting firms that confirm participation on campus.

The placement fees are higher on these first two days — each company pays Rs 1 lakh as participation charge and Rs 1 lakh as recruitment charge. These charges drop to between Rs 80,000 and Rs 50,000 each for participation fee and recruitment charges on the next few days.

In good times, most students are placed by Day Zero and Day One, which means many of the smaller companies that come to campus later leave empty-handed.

To cope with what one IIM official described as “the madness around Day Zero”, the B-schools are exploring ways of extending the placement process to over a week or fortnight so that all companies have a better chance.

“We are going to re-examine the entire placement process, including the Day Zero strategy and look into what needs to be done for a long-term relationship with companies. So far, we concentrated on a very narrow segment and pool of recruiters,” said Samir Barua, Director IIM Ahmedabad (IIM-A), the oldest and most prestigious of the IIMs.

IIM-A finished its placements last week and recorded a 32 per cent dip in its salary packages. IIM Bangalore (IIM-B) and IIM Calcutta (IIM-C), which have also completed placements, will make the results public on Tuesday.

IIM Bangalore (IIM-B), too, said it will re-examine its placement strategy in the next few days. “We know that the present placement system is an imperfect system. But among all imperfect systems, this is the perfect system,” said Sourav Mukherji, placement chairperson, IIM-B.

The institute has decided to rename its placement cell “career development and placement cell” and will recruit a new person dedicated to look at placement and career development-related activities and liaison with companies.

The IIMs will also look at a reasonable placement fee. This year, many domestic and foreign companies in banking and financial services, consulting and consumer goods had written to the IIMs, requesting them to waive or lower participation and recruitment fees. IIMs said they charge placement fees from companies to meet scholarship and other educational needs on the campus, since the fees for the flagship management programme is heavily subsidised.

The IIMs are also looking at devising a strategy which could be specially made to attract government-owned companies (PSUs or public sector undertakings) on campus after this season’s experience.

This year, PSUs and banks made good the gap left by private sector companies. B-schools saw a 20 to 50 per cent jump in the registration of government companies visiting the campuses. They recruited some 40 students from IIM-A this year, with Union Bank among the top recruiters.

“We are looking at how we can take a big share of the PSU pie and make it attractive to the students. PSUs offer a great career development path and we need to talk to the students about this,” said Professor Prafulla Agnihotri, placement chairperson at IIM-C.

IIM-B also said it would need multiple companies on the campus to provide a meaningful profile to an MBA student, since it is expanding in terms of number of students and programmes. Barua of IIM-A agreed there is a need to convince students to consider opportunities and challenges that PSUs offer.

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