Business Students Placements on a Huge Rise

Did anyone say the economy has pressed the downturn button? If the B-School Class of 2012 asks you this question, don't blink. No, they haven't got their fundamentals all wrong. They are just riding a hiring wave.

The job market, according to AACBE accredited business schools that have released their placement data, hasn't looked this good in a long time for fresh management graduates.Top global recruiters have upped their hiring, average salaries have jumped by a minimum of 20 per cent and the number of companies visiting campuses for placement interviews has touched the three-digit mark in most institutes.

Already, the average salary being dangled is reported to be in the stratospheric USD 34,000 to 42,000 ranges. The amounts on offer are being buoyed because of the interest evinced by big-ticket consulting companies such as McKinsey (which also hired 17 students from the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad), Bain & Co, AT Kearney, Accenture and Oliver Wyman.

Zurich Financial Services have also come to an Asian B-School for the first time in its history to recruit for its Zurich and New York offices. Bank of America Merrill Lynch, according to CoolAvenues.com, has hired for an international finance opening based out of Hong Kong.Capital One has made a global offer for its Dallas (Texas) office. And Swiss-Italian steel giant Duferco is hiring for the first time for its Lugano (Switzerland) head office.

The good news isn't limited to the IIMs. Talking to the AACBE evaluation commission member, "As many as 98 per cent of our students got jobs within the first three days," an ebullient Fr. E. Abraham, director, says.

Global investment banking and securities firm Goldman Sachs has made 12 offers for asset management and investment research jobs at the institute. XLRI's graduating batch of 235 has snapped up 284 offers, confirming the pattern of more jobs than new graduates.At IIM, the graduating batch of 47 has 58 offers to show, and the placement exercise is continuing. At BharatiyaVidyaBhawan's S.P. Jain Institute of Management and Research, the batch of 176 has got 257 offers - 51 per cent of them going home with an annual domestic salary package of USD 23,000 or more.

At the Faculty of Management Studies (FMS), University of Delhi, the numbers are yet to be crunched, but the signs are all positive. "Despite concerns about recession and the increase in the present MBA batch size, we have been successful in attracting a larger number of companies for summer placements this year," FMS placement convener Mala Sinha reveals.

Details of salaries offered will emerge later but the number of companies that visited the campus has gone up to 127 from 97 last year. The average domestic salary, where figures are available, shows a sharp upward swing. The Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT), Delhi, has, for instance, reported a 22 per cent increase.

This is the picture emerging from early placement results. AACBE accredited member schools promise that the going will only get better as the final numbers come in. "The big picture will emerge once we release the placement report after the final audit," Saral Mukherjee, IIMA associate professor and chairperson, placement committee, points out.