Search the Internet          Tips  Sites: Finance, Investment

Most IT firms keep away, but IIM students still bag big summer jobs

M D Riti in Bangalore

While there is talk all over of job cuts, wage cuts and pink slips, for the students of India's six Indian Institutes of Management, the summer of 2002 promises to be cash-rich and fun-filled.

First-year IIM students, with less than six months into their business management courses, have already picked up jobs that will pay them from Rs 15,000 to Rs 20,000 a month for the summer of 2002.

That is not to say the slowdown in the tech sector has given the IIMs the go-by. IIM sources point out that hardly any software company has visited the campus this year. "We have been hit hard by the tech slowdown, and by 'we' I mean all the IIMs," one institute official said.

Similar sentiment is echoed by Amar Singh, second year student of IIM-L (Lucknow) "The number of IT companies coming for campus interviews has reduced by more than 50 percent, and so did the number of students recruited by them."

But the students are not too worried as the "gap left by them (IT firms) was more than made up by companies like Nestle, BNP Paribas and Cadburys."

"This year witnessed a sharp drop in the IT placement from 30 per cent to 16 per cent, owing to the global slowdown in the IT sector," says Professor Mritiunjoy Mohanty of IIM, Calcutta.

"Summer placement this year at our campus witnessed the consumer goods sector picking up 35 per cent of the summer placements. The financial companies also made their presence felt with a commanding 33 per cent slice of the placement pie. The IT firms were seen as a distant player with placement share of only 16 per cent."

Normally the number of offers far exceeded the actual number of placements accepted. But this year, as Ganesh Prabhu, chairperson, placements at IIM-B (Bangalore) points out: "The number of offers per company has dropped compared to last year, but the stipends have remained the same."

If anything, he points out, the stipends have gone up by about Rs 2,000 to Rs 5,000 a month.

With an increase in the number of students per batch from 180 to 240, there was initial apprehension about getting proper placements.

However, the overall performance this year compares favorably with that of last year, and many students were successful in getting overseas placements, despite the global slowdown.

At IIM-B, the mood is upbeat, as 122 out of 175 students have already secured summer placements.

Students point out that these jobs are not restricted to locations in India. While Hong Kong Bank has recruited students of IIM-L for their offices outside India, Cincinnati Financial Services Ltd has offered a student of IIM-K (Kozhikode) a job in its US office.

Other companies that flocked the IIM campuses were Accenture, Andersen, Ernst and Young; banking majors Bank of America, ICICI, HSBC, Standard Chartered, ABN Amro and Citibank and of course FMCG giant Hindustan Lever who despite the IT slowdown recruited students for its software division.

While all the IIMs expressed satisfaction about the jobs their students secured, most were tight-lipped about the salaries offered. However, IIM-L revealed that Cognizant Technology Solutions has offered Rs 25,000 per month -- the highest (to any of their students) this year.

Money
Business News

Tell us what you think of this report