All eyes were on the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIM-B) as the placement season came to an end here on Sunday evening.
As many as 363 students were recruited in the placement sessions that were spread over three weekends starting on February 18. IIMB said this was the largest group recruited in its history.
Impressively, the placement process ended with some students having more than one job offer.
A total of 423 offers from 126 companies, including 41 international offers, 93 pre-placement offers and 124 lateral offers (for students with more than 22 months of work experience), were made.
Though tight-lipped about the financials involved in the placement — there is deft silence when asked what the top earner got or the average salary offered — P.D. Jose, chairperson of the Career Development Services in IIMB, said placements were “better than last year”.
Unsurprisingly, the consultancy sector was the largest employer, snapping up 30 per cent of the students. The finance and sales-marketing sectors took 22 per cent and 21 per cent of those who sat for the placements.
New format
This year's placements saw the introduction of a new format — one that was spread over three weeks instead of being held over five days as done previously.
“We felt that the spread-over format gave more time for students to make informed choices. Moreover, conducting it on weekends did not interfere with the classes that were held on weekdays,” said Merben Jayakaran, a student member of the IIMB Post-Graduate Programme Placement Committee.
Apart from those who took up placements, eight students opted out of the placement process in favour of starting their own businesses.
Anand Kelavinani (23) is one of only two students who opted out even though they had received a pre-placement offer.
He now plans to be involved in a start-up that would develop and market content to those on the move. Tentatively referred to as Travelling Entertainment, Mr. Kelavinani will join five other friends in developing software that would package heavy audio and video entertainment files so that they can be streamed easier into the portable devices carried by travellers.
“I'm certain of this venture, which is why I was confident enough not to opt for placements,” he said.
