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Foreign firms hunt talent at IIM Calcutta as never before

Arup Chanda in Calcutta

Catch them young. That is the motto of the top multinationals scouting for talent at the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta. Among the recruiters this year, 51 per cent were multinationals. And the packages they offered even stunned the graduates.

Says Sumit Chaudhuri, who crossed his teens just three years ago, "I had an offer from the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation with a posting in India. But when the offer from Deutsche Bank with a posting in London came I accepted it immediately."

So, what is your package? That, Sumit, an economics honours graduate from St Stephen's college, Delhi, and a major in finance at the IIM-C, will not disclose.

"My contract says I cannot disclose my pay."

On insistence he says that it is something between $ 55,000 to $ 75,000. Which is high even by US and European standards.

Along with the Deutsche Bank, the other major giants which preyed for talent this year were the Mitchell Madison Group, i2 Technologies, Deloitte and Touche Consulting Group LLC, McKinsey & Company, Arthur Anderson and The Boston Consulting Group.

Mitchell Madison went to the extent of offering a package of $ 110,000, which is very high compared to American standards. Very high, keeping in view the condition of the financial sector throughout the world.

Said B N Srivastava, the IIM-C's placement bureau chairman, "Global companies recruiting from here offer the same packages they offer to those from Harvard and Stanford. IIM-C has moved out of being an Indian business school to a global business school."

According to Siddhartha Mathur, external relations coordinator, "Job offers from consultancy firms are probably the highest at IIM-C. Feedback from the consultants is that the quality of graduates is better, both as far as depth and breadth is concerned."

This year's was the 34th batch of the post graduate diploma in management programme, and the 4th batch of post graduate diploma in computer aided management. The latter programme is available only at the IIM-C in India.

The number of companies which participated in the placement process this year was 93 compared to 75 last year. Last year, the percentage of foreign companies were 47, but this year it was 51.

Said Mathur, "IIM Calcutta is a world class business school, and is now being recognised as one too. This is evident from the trend of rising global placements. It is further corroborated as global recruiters now offer the same salary package to the IIM Calcutta students as they do to those from renowned business schools such as the Harvard, Wharton, Stanford, etc."

This year the IIM-C created a record of sorts as 51 of its students received pre-placement offers from leading corporate houses. Last year too IIM-C students received the highest pre-placement offer. But this year's figure is the highest any business school in India has been offered.

Said Srivastava, "Summer internships for students is compulsory and it gives the organisations where they do it a chance to evaluate the students. After they complete their internship the companies make the offer. An offer to 51 students is large as any batch of any other business school in the country."

Among the top recruiters this year was Bangalore-based Infosys, which recruited 33 graduates from the campus, followed by the Industrial Credit and Investment and Corporation of India, which recruited 16.

Among the foreign companies, Anderson Consulting, Arthur Anderson and Deloitte & Touche Consulting Group recruited five graduates each, followed by the Deitsche Bank Global Markets, i2 Technologies, J M Morgan Stanley, McKinsey & Company Inc, Booz Allen & Hamilton, Mitchel Madison Group and The Boston Consulting Group.

Mathur said Infosys has been a major recruiter at the IIM-C campus. But the sectoral recruitment details this year offer an interesting insight.

"The global trend in information technology is picking up but despite the prevailing economic conditions, 37 per cent growth in the recruitment figure for the financial sector is a remarkable achievement."

While 80 graduates were recruited in the infotech sector, the figure was 74 in the financial sector this year followed by consultancy with 41 and consumer durables 46.

As far as salaries are concerned, the IIM-C has come out with flying colours. While the Mitchell Madison Group offered the highest package of something between $110,000 to $ 95,000 per annum, other foreign consultancy firms like the McKinsey & Company, The Boston Consulting Group and Booz & Hamilton offered packages between Rs 750,000 and Rs 650,000.

Mathur said more than 200 students were offered salaries in excess of Rs 300,000 this year in comparison with only 115 such students last year.

Salary Distribution	Absolute figures		as a percentage of the batch
Salary (Rs)	1999	1998	1999	1998
500,000 and above	59	29	19%	11%
300,000 to 500,000	148	74	48%	29%
250,000 to 300,000	57	42	18%	16%
200,000 to 250,000	28	61	9%	24%
Less than 200,000	18	51	6%	20%

Mathur pointed out this year, the salaries received by the graduating batch are uniformly higher than those received by the preceding batch. This is despite the fact that the salaries in themselves have not increased by very much; but this year there is a slight upward skew in place of last year's downward one.

Both Srivastava and Mathur observed, "The change in our placements process has made a lot of difference. Till last year, our system was similar to that of all the other IIMs where the attempt is at placing the most number of students in the shortest possible time. But this creates a pressure cooker situation for both the students as well as for the recruiters. As a result, there were a lot of job losses later on when dissatisfaction set in."

"We have now limited the number of companies allowed on campus on a day. This year, there were never more than 12 companies on any day during the process. The advantages are obvious. Recruiter firms as well as students get to spend more time with each other, and are able to make better decisions. It's a situation where everyone benefits."

Said Arun Nair, a placement representative, "Infinite options ensures a better fit between the candidate and the would-be organisation. At the IIM-C we help people build careers, not just get them a job."

The new system has been greeted with great enthusiasm from the recruiters, some of whom wrote to the IIM-C praising it.

Bhupendra Singh of Booz Allen & Hamilton wrote: "Having fewer companies in one slot gives ample time for students and companies to evaluate each other."

Devashish Ohri, manager, human resources, Arthur Anderson, observed: "We were impressed by the profile of the students we met, and the manner in which the process was managed."

According to another placement representative, Ankur Chaudhary, "It's an acknowledgement of the tremendous potential of the students at the IIM Calcutta that the largest recruitment exercise in the history of any management institute in the country has been such a roaring success."

So, for the big corporate giants in the world, recruiting graduates from a business school in "red city Calcutta" is no more risky business.

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