Placements

Placement Processes at IIMs

I had been the Chairperson, Placements, at IIM Ahmedabad during 2008-12. During this period, significant changes in the placement process at IIMA were undertaken. This included the introduction of the Cohort based placement process in PGP Placements, formulation and adoption of the Indian Placement Reporting Standards etc. 

Article on the truth behind high salaries, published in Economic Times: 

Have you marvelled at the salaries being offered at B-schools? Especially the crore-plus packages which the media never stops talking about? The sceptic in you may have questioned the veracity of these astronomical starting salaries but there was no way to find out the truth. Many of the top-rung institutes have a policy of not revealing the highest package. The truth about highest salaries was always known on B-School campuses. To some extent we are thus guilty of a collective silence across the campuses on the abuse of this piece of information. Read Full Article Here

Article on the problem with day placement system and why we shifted to a Cohort based system, published in IIM Ahmedabad blog and the Recruiter Advantage magazine: 

Sir, we have a problem said Himanshu, the PGP placement representative at IIMA to me over phone. It was October of 2009 and the preparations were at the final stages for the summer placement season beginning shortly. As Placement Chairperson, I have come to expect such phone calls as part of my daily routine. Recruiter X wants to come on Day Zero and is threatening to pull out otherwise. We have slotted them on Day 1. Sacrilege! How can a Day 1 recruiter come on Day Zero, the holiest of the holy days? Does it not know that the established pantheon of Day Zero recruiters would not take this intrusion lightly? After all, a Day Zero slot at IIMA is one of the hottest properties on the campus landscape. It takes years and years of brand building on campus and painstaking cultivation of the student body. Read Full Article Here

Article on the practice of conditional PPOs, published in Financial Express: 

Pre-placement offer (PPO) is one of the dreams that drives students in business schools. Read Full Article Here

Indian Placement Reporting Standards

"The basic objective of introducing the "Indian Placement Reporting Standards" is to bring in uniformity in the manner in which Indian B-schools report salary and non-salary information related to placements. These standards would enable a fair comparison between B-schools on multiple parameters including compensation. This initiative is essentially to ensure that the information put out is comparable. Reliability of data is ensured as the reports undergo a third party audit process.

The information based on these standards would also provide media and ranking agencies with correct data and statistics for them to release the appropriate news and research reports. These standards would help aspiring students in taking career decisions based on correct information. "

For more information on IPRS, visit the IPRS website.

I suggest every B-school aspirant to make informed choices by referring to audited placement statistics of management institutes which are signatories of IPRS. You can access these reports at https://www01.iima.ac.in/iprs/placement-reports/

I implore Placement Chairpersons and Directors of management institutes to embrace transparency in placement reporting.