XLRI graduates get lower salary offers this year

jamshedpur: xlri graduates felt the pinch of the global economic downturn, with the average salary offer plummeting this year. the average offer dropped to around rs 6 lakh per annum compared to a little over rs 8 lakh last year. the highest salary offer too fell to rs 12 lakh by hsbc against rs 13 lakh the previous year. the number of companies attending the campus recruitment programme, 2002 also came down to 50 from 70 in 2001.“the drop in salary offer has been due to the absence of us companies which paid in dollars,� reasons navaneel kar of the xlri’s external linkages cell. the slowdown in the us economy apparently turned most of the “hot� consultancy firms “cold� to recruitment in 2002. the indian companies apparently didn’t loosen their purse strings much and maintained “almost the same salary offer� as last year. it would perhaps be the first time the average salary offer to the xlri graduates has dwindled. last year, at least 30 companies participating in the campus recruitment had to return empty handed. xlri’s director fr p d thomas sj, nevertheless, is satisfied at the “success� of his students. the campus was a beehive of activity with the presence of corporate bigwigs like hindustan lever, itc, citibank and hsbc. colgate palmolive, glaxo smithkline, asian paints, l&t, essar, tata steel and srf were among the major recruiters. it/consulting majors like cognizant technology solutions, hewitt, andersen, tas and hcl technologies also had their day vying for talent on the campus. “xlri students defied the industry downturn with placements,� kar said, adding “a majority of the students got placed within the first two days of the placement programme. the average offer made at xlri has been much more compared to some of the other prominent b-schools of the country. there are institutes where students couldn’t bag jobs during the campus recruitment�. unlike the previous year, the core sector, fmcgs, banking/financial institutions ruled the roost accounting for 55 per cent of the total offers. the new economy companies — it and consultancy — lapped up 34 per cent of the students. the only offer by andersen in india for business development was made to a student from xlri. “the interesting trend in it placement this year has been a distinct shift in job profile,� placement committee coordinator, prof sharad sarin, points out.