Even IIMs struggling to place students

As this year’s placement season at the premier institutions draws to a close, many IIMs are yet to find employment for all students because many firms have shrunk their hiring plans and key recruiters such as banks and other financial institutions have not shown much enthusiasm. Photo: Hindustan Times

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Updated: Mon, Mar 18 2013. 12 26 AM IST

New Delhi/Ahmedabad: The Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) are finding it difficult to find jobs for their graduates in a slowing economy where business earnings are under pressure, and at a time when the number of students has increased.

As this year’s placement season at the premier institutions draws to a close, many IIMs, including the one in Kolkata, are yet to find employment for all students because many firms have shrunk their hiring plans and key recruiters such as banks and other financial institutions have not shown much enthusiasm.

“It’s not as bright as it was few years back. I feel, along with the economic slowdown, a huge jump in the batch size was a key concern area this year,” said Anjanjot Singh, a member of the career development and placement cell at IIM-Calcutta. “As of today (Sunday), 30 students are yet to be placed.”

This year, 460 students will complete the two-year flagship MBA programme at IIM-Calcutta, compared with 360 in 2012. Similarly, IIM-Indore has seen the student number rise to 450 in 2013 from 238 in 2011, and IIM-Kozhikode 325 from 309 in 2012.

All these three IIMs and seven others, out of the total 13, face the unusual predicament of not yet being able to find jobs for all their graduates.

Providing quality education to more students is a primary responsibility and placement is secondary, according to Bhavya Kapoor, placement officer at IIM-Indore. “Harvard does not provide placement to its students,” Kapoor said, however admitting that the slowing economy is a niggle.

Interest from the financial sector has been subdued, although some drug and packaged consumer products firms have made good offers, Kapoor said.

“Companies have played safe and some of them have frozen hiring,” Kapoor said, a view echoed by IIM-Kozhikode, another of the older IIMs.

“I think the scenario across the older IIMs is almost similar. Some companies are overstaffed, and we hope after this year’s stagnation, it will be much better next year,” said Sagar Tule, a member of the placement committee at IIM-Kozhikode.

“Banks and financial institutions go to top B-schools to hire for commercial banking activities, but in the last one year, the economy is not growing and the commercial side is getting impacted,” said Amit Khurana, a former executive vice-president, human capital, at Yes Bank Ltd. “Corporate, commercial, investment and trade-related banking is in bad shape.”

Khurana, who is currently chief executive officer of human resource consulting firm Corporate Access, said retail banking has seen some expansion for which banks do not need highly paid managers.

India’s gross domestic product growth has been languishing around 5% and has affected the recruitment at top B-schools, he said.

To tide over the crisis, both the new and the older IIMs reached out to more companies, tapped the emerging e-commerce segment this year for placing their students, as the number of offers made was relatively lower.

For example, IIM-Bangalore, which had completed its placement process, received 415 offers from 150 companies. In 2012, 126 companies had offered 423 jobs to its students.

IIM-Bangalore director Pankaj Chandra declined to talk on a Sunday.

The number of offers made this year was slightly lower than last year in their campus, Sankarshan Basu, chairperson of career development services at IIM-Bangalore, was quoted as saying in the Hindu newspaper on 14 March.

Even at the new IIMs, where the number of students is smaller, the situation is no better. IIM-Rohtak, which said it had completed placement, had to contact 64 companies this year compared with 27 in 2012, placement officer Argha Chatterjee said. He singled out the finance and auto sectors as poor recruiters this year.

IIM-Ahmedabad did not have any difficulty in placing its students despite a poor economic hangover, though the offers were made by 130 companies this year against 120 last year.

“The demand for IIM-A graduates continues to be high and has overridden concerns of a general slowdown in hiring activities in 2012-13,” said Kirti Sharda, placement committee chairperson at the institute. “Students have been placed in their chosen roles in diverse cohorts comprising a remarkable array of recruiters.”

Boston Consulting Group was the top recruiter at IIM-Ahmedabad, recruiting 15 students. Last year, too, the consulting firm was the top recruiter, with 17 offers.