12 MBA placement terms you should know

12 MBA placement terms you should know

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Updated on Feb 3, 2015 17:31 IST

Placement season is in full gear across all top business schools in India. Some have already wrapped up the 2015 placement season, while many are currently conducting it.

For many of us, especially the ones on the other side of the fence (such as MBA aspirants and UG students), it is difficult to decode various terms associated with placements.

Terms like PPO, PPI and PPT can sound quite remote and confusing.
Well, no more!

Shiksha.com has come up with a list of common terms associated with placements at various B-Schools in India. Here are top twelve terms one must know about placements:


1. Pre-Placement Offer (PPO)

Pre-Placement Offer (PPO) is an offer of job, given by an organisation to a student (former intern) who pursued internship at the firm. This is how it works:

  • Student gets selected for internship in a firm (summer placements) and spends few months working there.
  • Before placements (and sometimes during the placement process), the intern is offered a permanent position by the organisation, based on his/her performance during the internship period.

This offer of permanent position or full-time employment to the former intern is known as Pre-placement offer (PPO).

2. Pre-Placement Interview (PPI)

PPI is pretty similar to PPO. Except, instead of offering full-term employment contract to the intern, the organisation schedules an interview with the student. In other words, based on a candidate’s performance during internship period, the organisation conducts an interview (PPI) to further evaluate the candidate’s suitability.

Finally, based on the performance in the interview, the candidate may receive a PPO (Pre-Placement Offer).

3. Placement Holiday / Deferred Placements

Placement Holiday, also referred as Deferred Placements, allows students to pursue their entrepreneurial aspirations for a certain period of time. If the venture doesn’t work out, the student can come back and sit for placements. Placement holiday varies from two to three years in most institutes. Some institutes act as an incubation centre, helping the student develop the model. Some institutes also offer stipend during those two-three years.

4. Placement Process

Placement Process is as simple as it sounds – it is the entire process of placements. The entire course is generally spread over two-three month time. It begins with initial steps of contacting the organisation for placement and submitting CVs to the final offer of employment. Some of the common steps in placement process are: Pre-Placement Talks, Submission of CVs, shortlist of students (selected by organisation), Tests / Group Discussions, Interviews and Final Offer.

5. Placement Week

Placement week is the most important part of the placement process. Generally spread over a week (sometimes more than a week), organisations conduct tests and final interviews with shortlisted candidates. The interviews are mostly held inside the college campus, baring few exceptions. Based on a candidate’s performance in interviews, placement offers are made.

6. Rolling Placement Process

In rolling placement process, students are placed in firm over a certain period of time – few weeks or even upto a year. Rolling placements are generally conducted over a longer period of time, as opposed to placement week where all the interviews are conducted over a period of seven to ten days. Many institutes opt for rolling placements as it gives both students and firms a certain time leverage.

7. Lateral Placements

Laterals placements are chiefly meant for candidates with more extensive work experience. Normally, an MBA batch has a mix of both freshers and experienced candidates. Lateral placements are conducted for the experienced candidates.

Instead of entry roles for MBA graduates, these experienced candidates are offered senior and middle-management positions. The companies hiring have a certain ‘minimum work experience’ criteria. If the candidate meets the required criteria, then the lateral placement process is initiated.

8. Cohort-based Placements

During the Placement Week, firms arriving on campus for interviews are divided in certain cohorts – meaning groups. Each cohort groups organisations offering similar profiles or firms from similar domains. On a certain day during the placement week, one cohort is called for campus hiring. Various top B-schools are now adopting this cohort-based process. Some colleges also call it cluster-based placements.


9. Slot-based Placements

In slot-based placements, companies are allotted certain slots (such as Slot Zero/Day Zero, Slot One/ Day One, etc). These slots are mostly decided in terms of popularity, job and profile offerings. So the most popular and famous companies (such as BFSI and investment banking firms) generally arrive in Slot Zero. These companies release the shortlist of candidates (selected for tests and interviews) few days ago.

10. Pre-Placement Talks

Pre-Placement Talks are given by the company participating in the placement process. It generally includes a detailed presentation that talks about the company, its policies, hierarchy, recruitment process, career growth, job location, positions and salaries offered. It is a two-way discussion, where even students participating in the placement process are encouraged to clarify their doubts or discuss anything related to the company or the profile.

11. Post-Placement Talk

Post-placement talk generally includes offering employment, accepting / denying the offer, discussion of employment terms and so on between the company and the student. Not all B-schools allow an official post-placement talk.

12. Release of Offer

When companies extend the final offer of employment, it is known as the Release of Offer. Of course, various institutes have various names for it. Other common terms are Final Offer, Placement Offer and so on. Companies do not extend the offer to the candidates directly. It is either given to the placement office or placement committee.

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