IIM Placements 2020 remain unaffected by economic slowdown

Companies are fiercely competing with each other. The race of attracting top talents of the country is constantly increasing among the top recruiters.

Many are being affected by the economic slowdown of India. Whether its corporate earnings or the finances of the Government, the numbers are going down. While households are watching their expenses and consumption, and experienced professionals are facing short of vacancies in various industries, students studying in the premiere B-school chain ‘Indian Institute of Management’ (IIMs)appear to be unaffected. The placement season is going on and the placement reports that IIM’s are releasing are telling a different story. These prestigious management schools are nowhere facing any slowdown in the offers and salary packages.

Institute	Number of Students	Offers Received
IIM Bangalore	428	518
IIM Calcutta	439	492
IIM Lucknow	443	447

The IIMs are amidst their placement season. According to the placement reports released by the institutes, IIM Bangalore’s placement season witnessed a 100 percent placement record with 518 offers for 428 students within three days. Last year, 411 students received 488 offers. Compared to 2019, the IIM Bangalore’s 2020 placement drive saw a 6.14 percent increase in the total number of job offers. Accenture made the maximum number of offers, followed by the Boston Consulting Group. The institute received 32 offers in the e-commerce domain and 42 offers in finance. 

At IIM-Calcutta, the placement drive welcomed 136 firms with 492 offers for 439 students. The premier B-school closed its placement drive with an average salary of Rs 28 lakh and a median salary of Rs 25.5 lakh. According to the IIM-C placement report, "The average salaries for the top 10 percent and the top quartile of the class were recorded at an all-time high of Rs 54.5 lakh and Rs 41.8 lakh per annum respectively."

At IIM-Ahmedabad, 153 firms participate in this year’s placement drive. However, the participation number last year was 123. IIM-A placement chairperson, Amit Karna revealed that the median salary in this year’s placement drive is above Rs 30 lakh per annum for a one-year MBA and the mean salary for a two-year MBA is likely at over Rs 26 lakh per annum. Many new recruiters like Blackstone Group and Strategy (formerly known as Booz & Co.) Avendus participated with the highest offers in IIM-A placement drive along with the old ones like McKinsey & Co, Goldman Sachs, and JPMorgan.

Also read: IIM Ahmedabad Placements 2020: Maximum offers from McKinsey

At IIM-Lucknow, the placement drive witnessed 100 percent placements. According to the placement report, 443 students received 447 offers. The consulting and general management category received the maximum number of offers, however, the financial service sector received 85 offers.

The IIM Lucknow placements 2020 ended with a mean salary of Rs 24.25 lakh per annum and the median salary of Rs 23 lakh.

 IIM Kozhikode also made a record of 100 percent placements in five days for 413 students. According to the press release, there is a 12 percent increase in the mean salary and a 12.4 percent increase in the median salary of the institute as compared to the last year’s figures.

During IIM-Kozhikode placement 2020, the mean salary of the institute increased from Rs 20.6 lakh to Rs 23.08 lakh per annum, and the median salary increased from Rs 18.5 lakh to Rs 20.8 lakh per annum.

While the IIMs witnessed a 100 percent placement rate during the 2020 batch placement drive. The last year’s figures were quite different. Irrespective of the economic slowdown, IIM placement drives this year have seen an increase in their salary packages, offers, recruiter participation, and more.

IIM Placements 2019: The highest domestic CTC and average CTC offered across various IIM campuses in the year 2019 are mentioned below:

Name of IIM	Highest Domestic CTC (per annum – in lakh)	Average Domestic CTC (per annum - in lakh)
IIM Ahmedabad	70	25.83
IIM Calcutta	72	25.40
IIM Lucknow	-	-
IIM Kozhikode	40.50	23.74
IIM Indore	40.5	20.79
IIM Shillong	28	16.79
IIM Rohtak	24.13	11.85
IIM Ranchi	PGDM - 26 PGDHRM – 21	PGDM – 15.02 PGDHRM – 14.52
IIM Raipur	24.06	15.26
IIM Tiruchirapalli	35.15	14.91
IIM Kashipur	28	12.17
IIM Udaipur	27.50	13.20
IIM Nagpur	19	12.35
IIM Vishakhapatnam	22	12.61
IIM Bodh Gaya	16	10.9
IIM Amritsar	21	12.20
IIM Sirmaur	16	9.2
IIM Sambalpur	20	11.3
IIM Jammu	20	11.2

Different experts have different theories on how IIMs placement drives are unaffected by the economic slowdown.

Companies are fiercely competing with each other. The race of attracting top talents of the country is constantly increasing among the top recruiters. IIM-Lucknow’s chairperson of corporate communications and media relations, Vikas Srivastava links this to "dividend signaling". He says that a company could pay out strong dividends amid a slowdown to send a signal to the market.

IIM-Kozhikode's placement committee chairperson revealed that the IIMs were facing palpable nervousness during the placement season. Fearing the slowdown, the premier B-schools were active and aggressive in making productive pitches to prospective recruiters. Companies were more careful while shortlisting the candidates. Several companies held competitions among prestigious institutes to pick the right candidates for the offered roles. Rituparna Chakraborty, co-founder and executive vice-president at TeamLease services explained that the successful placements drive send signals that organisations are optimistic about India. She further added the organisations have to build a talent pipeline and whenever the organization fails to recruit even in one year, this creates a vacuum in the talent pipeline of the company. This explains well that IIMs old glamor and reputation in the industry make organizations put their faith in the talent irrespective of the economic slowdown in the country.

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