IIM-A placement revamped

December 23, 2009

THE all-important meeting between IIM-A top brass and leading companies was held on Tuesday in Mumbai to decide on the contours of the new placement process. The IIM-A, in its proposal, tried to drive home the point that the focus was on better careers, not just salaries, while suggesting the sector approach.

According to the new system, there would be no spot offers to the students. Instead, there would be clusters like Investment banking, Consumer durables, etc. Under each cluster there would be associates like marketing, consulting, IT and sales, which the students would get to choose from. Currently, the students choose the company based on its size and branding, irrespective of what position it offers.

The new process would see the placement season extending over several weeks, a major departure from the earlier pattern where the process would typically end within 5-7 days. The idea was to provide more time for interaction between the recruiters and students so that they can discuss the roles on offer in length, and fit in the right candidate to the right job. Saral Mukherjee, placements chairperson for IIM-A, said details of the new system would be available in a day or two.

Major recruiters, amounting to around 40 companies from various sectors including the regulars, attended the Tuesday’s meeting.

During the recruitment each company would get around two to three days to finalize the candidates unlike the earlier system where, a company would get just one day.

While the recruiters, major stakeholders in the placements, accepted the suggestions, they were unsure of its implementation. 

The Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A), had announced yesterday that it would revamp its campus placement process, as it seeks to trade headline-hogging salary offers with jobs tailored to a student’s long-term career growth.

IIM-A had decided to change the campus placement process to suit the recruiters as well. The institute’s placement committee head Dr Saral Mukherjee had stated that the final placement process at IIM-A is was to begin by February end or first week of March this year and the objective was to ensure that all the stakeholders in the process of campus recruitment are made familiar with the proposed changes, and recruiters made co-creators of the new design.

A longer Day-Zero he had added, would give the recruiters and students a chance to interact for a longer time, trying to strike a win-win situation for both. This would also accommodate higher number of firms and of students in the extended first day.