Pre-placement offers rise in B-schools

Indian B-schools are all charged up for the pre-placement season, with some expecting an increase of over 150 per cent in the pre-placement offers (PPOs) made to their students when compared with last year's figure.

The Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Indore, for instance, has received around 21 PPOs so far as compared to a total of 22 last year.

The institute expects the offers to go up to 55 this year - an increase of around 162 per cent. IIM-Indore has, so far, got offers from FMCG majors, IT companies and banks.

"We are expecting more than 25 offers from banks alone," said an IIM-Indore placement executive.

The institute, however, is keeping its PPOs open till it begins its final placements in February. PPOs usually flow in from the month of September (after the first year students finish their summer internships at companies) and go on till December or January.

Most B-schools close their PPOs by the end of October (or by early November) as they want to give the students ample time to decide on which company to join.

At the Institute of Management Technology, Ghaziabad, two PPOs have flowed in so far but the institute expects the offers to cross 50 this year. Last year, the institute had 32 offers in total. It expects a jump of around 56 per cent in the PPOs made this year.

"This year, we are expecting the offers to go up because our batch profile is different. More than 50 per cent of our students have over a year's experience," said Nilanjan Chattopadhyay, placement chairperson at IMT Ghaziabad.

IIM-Bangalore, however, leads the pack in the number of PPOs any B-school has received so far. The institute is said to have got around 70 PPOs till now - an increase of around 16 per cent as compared to the total number 60 PPOs it notched last year.

However, the institute expects the number of PPOs to go up, as many companies are in the process of evaluating the candidates. The interns who have bagged the offers worked with various companies in different locations across the world - San Francisco, Australia, London, Texas, Singapore and Brussels.

Companies which have made offers are Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers, Deutsche Bank, ABN Amro, HSBC, JP Morgan, Merrill Lynch, BNP Paribas, Barclays Capital, Citigroup, HLL, P&G and Marico among others.

Eight companies have approached the Xavier's Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar (XIM-B), with PPOs so far. While the institute received around 30 pre-placement offers last year, its conservative estimate is over 30 offers this year.

Companies which have evinced interest so far in recruiting students from the campus include Tata Corporate HR, Dr Reddy's, Vedanta and Future First.

The institute is expecting a lot of new companies on the campus this year. "The focus of 60 per cent of the students is on finance and banking," said an XIM-B student.

IIM-Kozhikode (IIM-K) has bagged 17 national and one international pre-placement offers. It expects the offers to go up to 70 - an increase of over 35 per cent as compared to 52 (50 national and 2 international) it received last year.

Companies which have made offers include KPMG Dubai, Hindustan Unilever, Horizon Asset Management (for its new hedge fund), ITC, JP Morgan, Marico, and Cognizant among others.

A placement official at IIM-K said, "Recruitment scene at the institute will be as good as last year."

While companies flocking to management schools in big numbers is not new, the institutes are attributing this increase in offers to the booming economy and an equally vibrant jobs market.

An IIM professor said, "Companies have always looked at PPOs as an effective placement option. Summer internships help companies ascertain students' calibre. Also, students get to know the organisation's work culture, which helps them in taking a decision."

With inputs from Shruti Sabharwal in Bangalore