Growing Preference for Indian Locations & Entrepreneurship Pursuits Marks IIM-A Placements 2006

The Final Placements at IIM Ahmedabad this year were held from 8th March - 13th March 2006. 235 students of the Batch of 2004-06 were placed across 5 days of recruiting. Table 1 provides details of student profile of the batch. A total 510 job offers were made to 235 students who participated in placements, with 83 students placed in Slot 0.
This is a 41% increase over last year’s 58. Of the total job offers, 30% of the students were for overseas placements. Nearly 33% of students placed in India were offered pay packages over INR 10 lakh per annum, with the domestic average at INR 9.72 lakh per annum. The number of companies also increased from 83 to 110 companies this year. Table 2 provides the details of slots and acceptances.

The highlight of placements was the domestic offer of Country Head (compensation INR 34 lakh per annum) offered to a student from the batch, by RPG Enterprises. The highest international package was the Associate level offer by Barclays at an unprecedented USD 1,85,000 (Singapore $ 3,00,000). Further more, three such International Associate offers were made to students this year at IIMA.

Growing Preference for Indian Locations

In what seems to be a growing trend, an increased number of students chose domestic placements over foreign offers this year. With growing preference for locations closer to home (18 students gave up foreign offers to take up domestic roles this year), it seems that the Indian success story has certainly led students comprising the cream of management talent to stay back, in order to play pivotal roles in organizations here.

Shraddha Vohra, a student who rejected a pre-placement offer from a leading investment bank for a marketing job from an FMCG major, says, "I was not enjoying my work in finance as much as I had hoped to. Somehow, it could never match the thrill I would feel solving marketing cases or working on my independent project in branding. I also realized that I would rather take up a job that would make me get up in the morning and want to go to work, than one that would essentially offer me only money or glamour. Some of my peers have expressed surprise at my choice, but I believe firmly that life is too short to be spent living other peoples' convictions. I would like to spend my life pursuing my own sense of joy."

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