IIMs, others woo Asian, Gulf recruiters

The global economic slowdown is expected to hit the graduating class from B-schools very hard and the big alma maters in the country are doing their bit to help.

Leading business schools in India, including the premier IIMs, are going all out to roll out the red carpet for companies coming to hire on campus for the summer placement process. In fact, this time most B-schools have invited almost double the number of companies they had invited last year.

Besides, in the backdrop of the current recession, the placement departments are increasingly looking at companies in Asia and Middle East, a definite departure from the trend of focusing on the US and the UK corporations.

The rationale behind this year’s placement exercise for all prominent B-schools is to minimise the risk and provide wider options to the outgoing batch. From a human resources perspective, recruiters from Asia and the Middle East are expected to gain from the recession in developed countries, as Indian managerial talent, which until now looked towards the West, will be available at a reasonable cost.

“We have invited more companies this year as we want to make sure that the students remain relatively unaffected by the economic slowdown,” says Sourav Mukherji, chairperson of the placement cell at IIM-Bangalore.

As expected, the financial services sector, the biggest recruiter on B-school campuses, is shying away this season and experts feel there will be almost a 50-60% drop in offers from there. Institutes too are doubtful about the banking and finance sectors and, instead, inviting more companies from other industries.

Sectors that are being tapped in a big way now are FMCG, manufacturing, infrastructure, microfinance and IT. “In a major turnaround, we are seeing more and more companies approaching us that are from non-financial sectors. Last year, almost 21% of our placements were in financial companies and 19% in investment banking. But this year there will surely be a dip. If last year there were say 100 offers, this year there will be only 40 offers in these sectors,” says Mr Mukherji.

The decision of inviting more companies was also necessitated as premier B-schools were expecting a slight dip in the pay packages during placements. According to a professor at IIM-Kozikhode, the institute has invited almost 200 companies for this years summer placement, which has just kicked off. Meanwhile, the other IIMs, too, are working towards getting more companies to recruit on campus.

“To make sure that the students don’t get hit badly, we have invited almost double the number of companies this year as we are speculating that a few might falter. We have seen an increase of about 20% in the number of companies from manufacturing and infrastructure,” says a professor at one of the top IIMs.

Source: EconomicTimes