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Overseas internships at the end of the recruitment season totaled 48 - double the corresponding figure for the next-ranking B-school in the country (on the parameter of number of overseas internships).

With a first year batch size totaling nearly 100 more than what has been historically the case - there had been speculation in certain quarters that Summers might be a tough proposition this year. However, a single stunning month has more than silenced the prophets of doom - recruitment at IIMA is still very much where it belongs - right at the top.

Here it may also be mentioned that Summers at IIMA happens only on weekends so as not to interfere with classes. That, coupled with the fact that the Institute’s international B-school meet Confluence was scheduled on one of the weekends in-between recruitments, stretched the recruitment process over a month.

It might also be emphasized that in placing such a large batch, at no time was a candidate’s freedom to exercise alternative options compromised. Every candidate got the chance to interview with as many companies in a slot as wanted to interview him; had the luxury of getting multiple offers at the end of a slot; and after bagging one, had the freedom of applying to a company in a subsequent slot. That such freedom and fairness could be balanced with efficiency and effectiveness in placing a large batch is a tribute to the robustness of the recruitment system at IIMA.

With the portent of a good summer harvest behind them, the students at IIMA look forward to the finals. The scene has already been set by the happy news of 15 I-banking Pre-Placement Offers (PPOs) in a total of 32 PPOs declared so far (with big FMCG guns like HLL, at the time of writing, still interviewing their PPI candidates). It is debatable whether average salaries this year would register a significant jump over 2003, or whether the US economy’s jobless growth in consonance with a tight cap on H1-B visas is going to make overseas opportunities easy to come by. What is certain is that insofar as sector-specific opportunities are concerned, candidates have never had it better - not even in the golden days of the dotcom era.

On this note of mature optimism, and with the reassuring glow of an Indian summer behind them, the students of IIMA look forward to an exciting recruitment week in March.