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Contrary to its legacy, having faced a tough year in terms of student placements, the Indian Institute of Management (IIMs) are finally getting out of the blue with recruiters now coming down to campuses in the last phase of the season. However, even as the numbers go up, the pay packages on average remain “non-comparable” from last year.
IIMs are the premier business schools in the country. Amid predictions of a global economic slowdown, the institutes have had an unusual 2023-24 with even the top IIMs finding it difficult to place their batches in the first phase and those placed to bag as high salary packages as they would every year. In a usual year the older IIMs such as IIM-Calcutta, IIM-Ahmedabad, IIM-Lucknow and IIM-Bangalore, among others, have 100 per cent placement records in the first phase itself. There are 21 IIMs across the country.
Notably, according to placement teams across IIMs, the placement scenario has started to improve from mid-January onwards and recruiters who had stayed away so far are finally coming down. “There is a positive sentiment now with the economy opening up and with the narrative around the slowdown changing. Many of the firms in the tech-enabled services and consulting sectors, which didn’t come around in the first phase are now coming after testing the economic scene. It’s not been a great year certainly, but placements picking up in the last leg, especially, at the newer IIMs means the dark clouds are lifting,” said a senior faculty at one of the second-generation IIMs.
At most old and second-generation IIMs, the placement season officially starts around November and goes on till January-end while the third-generation IIMs begin early around mid-September and go on till February-end. In this academic session, however, some of the top-ranking IIMs too had to stretch their schedule to the current month due to the slow pace of placements.
At IIM-Ahmedabad, which is conducting its final phase placements for the post-graduate programmes (PGP) in three clusters scheduled on February — 6, 9 and 12 — 38 firms participated in the process in the first cluster with Accenture Strategy being the highest recruiter making 25 offers.
“We saw a large pool of recruiters, of whom the prominent names in consulting included regular recruiters such as Oliver Wyman, BCG, McKinsey, Kearney, Strategy& Middle East, Monitor Deloitte, Simon-Kucher, Praxis Global Alliance, PwC, TCS and KPMG. Those in the investments banking and markets space included Goldman Sachs, Avendus Capital, Arpwood Capital, Barclays, HSBC and DE Shaw,” said a statement released by IIM-Ahmedabad on the first cluster day of the final placement process.
In the private equity and venture capital domain, it added, firms like Premji Invest, Elevation Capital, and Arga Investment participated with American Express rolling out the maximum offers in the cards and financial advisory cohort. “Elevation Capital came across as the recruiter paying the highest package to its recruits,” it said.
The institute, however, did not declare the highest pay packages offered during the drive. When asked if placements were better in the last leg, a team member said, “The market scene is not the best, but we are pushing as hard as we can.”
Placement team members at some of the newer IIMs, which were hit the hardest amid the slowdown, said that recruiters, in particular, in the tech sector, who were in a wait-and-watch mode are now convinced of hiring as the talk on the economy picking up gathered pace.
“Although it’s a positive sign that more offers are being made in the final phase. The median salaries remain low and are non-comparable to previous years. Even during the pandemic, the institutes managed to get higher pay packages. There is a sharp drop in the average CTC offered by major recruiters in many of the third-generation IIMs,” a placement executive said, not wishing to be named.
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