Top MBA Colleges placement begins early with 100 percent recruitment

B-schools students have a reason to rejoice as after years of dull placements corporate houses and placement agencies are once again crowding the corridors of Indian B-schools with job offers.

While the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) are attracting recruiters with record salary offers, other b- schools, such as Faculty of Management Studies (FMS), XLRI, Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT), Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies and Institute of Rural Management Anand (IRMA) have also received 100 per cent placement offers with hefty salary packages.

“ Even though the number of students was higher than last year, it was a very good year for placements. What is important is that this year almost all the sectors participated with diverse portfolio,” Munish Bhargava, corporate and placement advisor, IIFT, told us . This year IIFT recorded 100 per cent placement with 16 international offers. The highest domestic package offered this year is Rs. 15.51 lakh, while the highest international package is $ 150,000, offered by Olam International.

The average salary stood at Rs. 11.6 lakh. The institute received offers from 96 companies, while only 77 were able to recruit. Institutes like IRMA, Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies and SP Jain Institute of Management and Research also have their hands full. And just like the IIMs, the salary offers this year are going up by 30- 35 per cent from last year.

“ Even when placements had improved in 2010, corporates were cautious. But 2011 is an excellent year for placements. Students had many offers to choose from and many firms had to return empty- handed,” Professor Preeti Priya, placement coordinate, IRMA, said.

The institute received a total of 257 job offers from 63 organisations for the batch of 99. At Rs. 8.03 lakh the average salary offered to IRMA students went up 34 per cent compared to last year and the highest offer was of Rs. 10.47 lakh.

XLRI saw 19.5 per cent preplacement offers while the lateral offers received by students almost doubled in comparison to last year. The institute received 317 offers from 109 firms for a batch of 240 students. The average domestic package stood at Rs. 15.8 lakh, while the highest domestic package stood at Rs. 23 lakh. The highest international offer of $ 120,000 was offered by Novartis AG. The institute is also organising a special placement week between February 14 and 19 at St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai, for its general management programme on the request of corporate recruiters.

The Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar, reported 100 per cent placement on day one, with salary offers going as high as Rs. 14 lakh. According to the institute, this year the average salary offered is 25 per cent higher than the year before.

What is remarkable is that even when this year the size of the batch was larger than last year. Most of the institutes have increased their student intake number by 15- 20 per cent over last year. “ The scene is much better than what it was last year. This year students have already started receiving so many offers that our confidence level is much better. By March, all of us expect to bag a job,” Siddharth, a student from the Indian Institute of Planning and Management (IIPM), said.

Interestingly, it is not just the Bschool students who are receiving such offers. Even bright graduates are receiving offers at par with India’s top B- school students. Deutsche Bank offered a BA (Economics Hons) student from Lady Shri Ram College ( LSR) and a commerce student from Sri Ram College of Commerce a posting in London with an annual package of Rs. 32 lakh.

Parthenon Group has offered annual packages of Rs. 25 lakh while Meltwater has handed out offer letters with annual compensation of Rs. 18 lakh to students from LSR.