Jobs aplenty for B-school grads

NEW DELHI: When the going gets good, the placements get better. This year has been good for B-school job seekers, with salaries taking a significant leap, in some cases as high as 18per cent over 2003.
And, this appears to be the tip of the iceberg. With big 3 IIMs (Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Calcutta) about to begin placements, expect the trend to continue.
Take IIM-Lucknow.With 85 companies absorbing the batch of 220 students, average salary — including foreign offers — has touched Rs 6.82 lakh per annum. Here, maximum salary for Indian placements was Rs 14 lakh (McKinsey) and that for foreign placement was $65,000 (Olam) and 39,000 pounds (HSBC, investment banking).
Sectors shining are IT, besides the usual HR and marketing. In FMS, Delhi, number of IT offers nearly equalled marketing/FMCG companies offers this time. Infosys emerged as one of the largest recruiters at FMS. At Gurgaon-based MDI, major recruiter was the IT/ITeS industry with about 33per cent students preferring this sector for placements.
Wipro plans to recruit 100-140 by end of this season. Says Rajesh Sharma, corporate HR manager at Wipro, “We do not believe in offering different salaries for the same function at different campuses. We have offered Rs 4.20 lakh to those without work experience and Rs 5 lakh plus to those with experience.’’
This time PSUs are also becoming aggressive in recruitment and offering matching salaries. IIFT saw HPCL, BPCL and ONGC recruiting for marketing.
Air India, which went to B-schools last year for the first time, has offered around Rs 5 lakh per annum this year. Jitendra Bhargava, HR director, A-I, said it plans to recruit 15-20 candidates against 11 last year.
While IIM-Indore needed only 33 companies to place a batch of 57 students, IIM-Kozhkikode saw salary touching Rs 10.4 lakh, offered by Computer Sciences Corporation. At XLRI Jamshedpur, Coca-Cola has offered Rs 8.78 lakh.
There are more. For IIFT, Olam International offered as much as $72,000. IIT Mumbai’s Shailesh J Mehta School of Management, which takes only engineers, saw 7per cent jump in average salary to Rs 6.14 lakh and Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies saw a massive 113 companies come to absorb 115 students. Here, domestic salary touched Rs 12 lakh (HSBC).