India - Offers dip at IIM A summers

Kumar Manish & Vasundhara Vyas Mehta

AHMEDABAD: Day Zero of summer placement at Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad (IIM-A) reflected the morose mood of the world market as the
number of recruiters and offers to students of 2008-2010 batch dipped by at least 50%.

The absence of excitement was palpable on the campus, although the hottest selling offers continued to be from I-banks and consultants, minus the top recruiter Lehman Brothers. Against 36 companies which showed up on Day Zero last year, this year there were less than 20 and against 120 offers made last year, this year only 50 came.

Among the recruiters on campus were a mix of investment banks and consultancy firms. These included Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, McKinsey and Co, The Boston Consulting Group, Deutsche Bank and Bain and Co. Most of the consultancies offered domestic placements but I-banks offered placements abroad, said one of the students. The placements abroad included projects in US, UK, Hong Kong, Singapore and other locations in Asia.

The other stark feature was that companies did not divulge stipends. Usually, stipends to be paid were disclosed when the offers are made. The buzz is that the lull in the market was showing in the placements. The senior batch is hoping that things will get better by the time of final placements.