Bangalore, November 18, 2003: It was a historic first for the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore, as it became the first IIM in over three decades to complete the summer placements of its entire batch in the very first weekend of summer placements. Unlike final placements, the Summer Internship process at management schools typically stretches for over three months, with only about two-thirds of the batch being placed in the first weekend. However, this year a resurgence of interest amongst companies for the Summer Internship Program at IIMB saw over 90 companies register. Ultimately, 70 companies that were scheduled in four slots from November 13-17, made a total of 243 offers to recruit the entire first year batch of 204 students for summer internships in India and abroad.

Prof. Ganesh Prabhu, Chairperson Placements, IIMB said, "I have heard nothing but unqualified praise from participating companies for the arrangements made by the student Placement Committee and volunteers in the last few days. All companies have emphatically appreciated the smoothly coordinated process that they experienced. Many companies have made it a point to appreciate the quality of students they have interviewed. Some made more offers than they had planned while others regretted not being in a position to make more offers. One company mentioned that across all the IIMs they found the largest number of high quality applications at IIMB this year."

There were 24 international summer internships offers made by 6 companies - National Kidney Foundation Singapore (11), Lehman Brothers (4), Deutsche Bank (4), Olam International (2), Proctor and Gamble (2), HSBC (1) - while the remaining 219 offers were for summer internships in India. The largest number of offers were made by ICICI (15) followed by National Kidney Foundation Singapore (11). The finance, banking and insurance sector companies lead with 19 companies making 79 offers, followed by the FMCG sector with 15 companies making 60 offers and the IT sector with 13 companies making 46 offers.

"Cooperation from the industry and IIMB alumni was instrumental in creating history during this summer internship recruitment process", said Mr. G. K. Nagaraj, IIMB Placement Officer.

Responding to feedback from both recruiters and students, IIMB shifted the start of the summer recruitment process from early October to mid-November this year. As a result, IIMB was able to secure confirmations from companies that would not have otherwise been ready to make recruitment commitments. By mid- November the first year students had completed half the first year academic course work, thus enabling them to perform relatively better in the selection process. By rescheduling slot timings, IIMB gave recruiters more time to complete their processes and enabled a better flow of students to recruiting teams. All these translated into uniformly high appreciation from the companies about the campus recruitment process at IIMB.

The summer internship program is considered a course requirement in the flagship two-year postgraduate management program offered by the IIMs. Students spend eight weeks in internships with companies and get to learn the intricacies of various industries ranging from FMCG to banks. This helps them decide the future course in their respective careers.

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