It's not only students at the Indian Institute of Management that are flooded with multiple job offers this placement season.

Other B-schools students in the country too will have  to choose from as many as four job offers this year.

With the lateral placements (for students with at least a year's experience) underway and final placement (for freshers) season round the corner, institutes expect this year's placements to be one of the best ever.

One placement chairperson remarked, "This is the best year for students to have graduated. Such fantastic placements have not happened in the last five years."

His statement is not far-fetched. For instance, at S P Jain Institute of Management and Research, 100 plus companies have confirmed their presence for campus recruitment -- almost a 43 per cent increase over last year's offers' figure of 70. The institute has received good number of offers from retail companies and private equity firms.

Says Abbas Ali Gabula, placement chairperson, SPJIMR "Last year every student had at least two offers in hand but this year, they have four offers to choose from. The salary packages will see a 20 per cent increase."

Offers at Xavier Labour Relations Institute, Jamshedpur, too have doubled this year with 100 companies visiting the campus as compared to 50 last year.

New recruiters like JP Morgan Chase, Carlyle, Lehman Brothers, Deutsche Bank, American Express and Rabobank Barings Private Equity Partners, Carlyle, Citi Financial, Deutsche Bank, Fair Isaac, Jonas Lang La Salle, Microsoft, Nokia, Rabobank and Tata HRLP are the participating companies.

Management Development Institute, Gurgaon, has finished with best ever lateral placement and expects its final placements too, to be the best this year.

The salary levels, the institute says, are expected to go up as much as 25 per cent with around 50 companies visiting the campus. However, the final numbers will be known once the lateral placement are over by mid-February and final placements by March 10.

Flying High

• Salary levels to soar 25%
• Number of companies approaching campuses have almost doubled
• Each student has four offers to choose from.