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Summer Placement 2002 A Report on Day 0 On Saturday, 28th September 2002, IIM Ahmedabad notched up its most spectacular success relating to placements, a feat so far considered unthinkable, an option so far unexplored, but an execution so flawless it left the foreign recruiters, and even its own students, quite dazed. In the wake of the terrorist attack at Akshardham, which left a lot of foreign recruiters wary of traveling to Gujarat due to travel advisories issued by their companies, the IIMA placement committee had three options for its Day 0 summer placement process, scheduled to start on 27th September. The first was to delay the entire process by a few weeks, until the situation could be assessed to be under control. Not wanting to leave summer placements in the hands of fate in this manner, more aggressive options were sought. The Placecom formed two teams within itself for looking into the feasibility of video-conferencing and of shifting the process to Mumbai. The obvious option was to conduct the interviews through video-conferencing, a method used by IIMA last year immediately after 9/11. However, because of the sheer number of foreign recruiters (8) and the infrastructure constraints – there are only three lease ISDN lines in Ahmedabad and have a setup lead time of 10 days – this option was abandoned in favour of the bold and seemingly impossible option of shifting the entire placement process to another city – Mumbai! Once decided, the Placecom swung into action and managed to locate and establish contact with each of the 105 short-listed candidates who were all on vacation by Wednesday morning and asked them to arrive on campus by Thursday. Travel arrangements were made for all these candidates, the placement committee and 10 second year students, adding up to a total of about 140 students, who were to fly in to Mumbai in 3 groups on Friday night and Saturday morning. Negotiations went on till late Thursday night with a few hotels regarding the arrangements. One hotel actually backed out citing inability to host such a logistical nightmare. The final venue was decided as the Taj President, where the students were also able to secure rooms to stay, in addition to getting all facilities required for Saturday. The process involved a veritable shifting of infrastructure from the campus to the hotel. The students literally recreated the process from scratch within the premises of the hotel, which meant carrying with them mobile phones, laptops, and printers to ensure that the entire recruiting effort carried through without any hitches. The IIMA alumni pitched in their bit by providing peripheral infrastructure and support at Mumbai. The recruiters, many of whom were taken by surprise by this quick turnaround and flawless execution, were floored. The recruitment process started off with a presentation by Goldman Sachs at 6:45 AM on Saturday, by which time thanks to night-outs by most of the Placecom, the Taj President Mumbai was set to host summer placements 2002. And as the first interview started off at 10:00 AM, IIMA was in business, playing host to Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch, Lehman Brothers, Deutsche Bank, ABN Amro London, HSBC London and UBS Warburg – top notch investment banks that recruit from the most reputed campuses in the world. 4 companies out of the above recruit only at IIMA, and on Saturday IIMA’s commitment to ensuring that this year too these companies were able to “visit campus” was widely appreciated, with one senior banker commenting that no other campus in the world would have been able to put together what IIMA did, in less than 72 hours. Without a single technical or infrastructural glitch throughout the day, the day ended with IIMA once again “cracking the scene” with 29 students getting foreign placements. A very creditable number, considering that this year 3 of IIMA’s regular recruiters were not hiring for summers owing to headcount constraints. The largest contingent is headed to Lehman Brothers (11), followed by Goldman Sachs (6), Deutsche Bank (3), ABN Amro London (3), Merrill Lynch (2), Morgan Stanley (2), UBS Warburg (1) and HSBC London (1). Last year, when the then Placecom had organized videoconferences at short notice after 9/11 (3 weeks) to ensure that all companies were able to interview, IIMA had landed more foreign offers than all other schools in the country put together. This year, with the Placecom achieving the near impossible by recreating brick by brick its placement effort in another city at even shorter notice (3 days), IIMA has again bagged more foreign offers than all other schools in the country put together. The mood on the two extra bogies – attached to the Gujarat Mail specially for IIMA students – reflected a lot of emotions, as it left Bombay Central on Saturday night. An outstanding achievement, a great spirit of teamwork, and a matter of immense pride. And there’s more to come. Contributed by - |
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