IIMA details “Cohort-based” placement process

December 24, 2009

India’s premier B-School, IIM Ahmedabad has decided to change its recruitment process from a day-based system to a cohort-based system. In a first of its kind recruiter conclave held at Mumbai yesterday, the IIM Ahmedabad placement committee invited recruiter feedback on the new process. The system, called the “Cohort-based” placements process will go live from the coming placement season beginning the second week of February 2010.

In a press release the IIMA said, that the placement process would be conducted over continuous weekends called cohorts. Each cohort would host firms offering similar roles and opportunities. The sequence in which the cohorts would be invited to the campus would be as per the batch preference. The Cohort-based process is a longer placement process but with significant advantages. “The move essentially aims at a better match-making process, ensuring a better fit between the students and the firms,” said Professor Saral Mukherjee, Faculty Chairman, IIMA placements.

Underlined below are some of the salient features of the cohort-based system as opposed to the day-based system that has been followed in the past.

What is the Cohort Based System?

• Process to take 1-2 months instead of 6-7 days
• More interaction time between students and firms
• Firms form cohorts based on role similarity
• Different dusters of cohorts come for 2 days on campus
• Up to 5 rest days between cohorts so that candidates can recuperate and prepare
• Launching internally developed ‘Talentbouquet’ System that allows for interaction between firms and students using networking tools such as chatting, forums, alumni interaction
• Finer details to be worked out in partnership with the recruiter community

How is it different from day process?

• Increased focus to getting the right fit
• Students get better chance of making educated choices
• No more slotting of firms into day 0 etc
• Not restricted to just a few minutes of interview
• Eases pressure and reduces stress on candidates
• ‘Talentbouquet’ allow students to learn more about firms, sectors, and industries to make informed choices

This change is envisioned to provide a better platform for interaction between recruiters and students than the erstwhile day process. The day process led to great pressure on firms to make offers early and on students to accept offers on the spot.
The cohort-based system will allow more time to the recruiters per student. “Given the ever-increasing batch size, we have deliberated over the ideal placement process for long. Though this may not be the ideal system, it is definitely a move towards one. We believe the process will ensure that decisions are not made hastily on either side.”
The conclave was attended by representatives from more than 60 regular recruiting partners across sectors. According to the placement committee spokesperson, the institute received valuable feedback from the recruiters. The next steps would be to reach out to recruiters who could not make it to the conference and garner feedback from them as well. This feedback would then be incorporated into the process and would aid in fine-tuning the same.