Delay in B-school admissions impacts summer placements in Maharashtra

The economic slowdown has impacted placements across professional courses this year, with fewer job offers among final-year placements. Most of the offers are from non-traditional sectors like information technology (IT) and e-commerce.

Hundreds of first-year students missed out on summer placements across the state after admissions to master of business administration (MBA) and master of management studies (MMS) courses were delayed this year because the state common entrance test (CET) cell extended the registration process for these postgraduate courses.

“Our summer placement interviews usually take place between October and November every year but this year, the state CET cell postponing admissions to MBA courses meant no first-year batch. So no summer placement interviews have been conducted as yet and the final placements too are being pushed to January-February,” said a spokesperson for the placement cell of Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies (JBIMS). Last year, the highest salary package offered to a student from the junior batch of the institute was a Rs 5.5 lakh stipend for a two-month internship.

Read more: Delay in admission to professional courses worries colleges in Maharashtra

For final year placements, several colleges said the situation felt grimmer than in 2019. “We’ve maintained a good relationship with corporates and that’s the reason most of our old recruiters have come back to hire more talent from our campus. However, the economic slowdown has affected hiring across states and universities,” said Dr RK Srivastava, professor and head of the department at Sydenham Institute of Management Studies, Research and Entrepreneurship Education (SIMSREE).

At SIMREE, placements will go on till the middle of next year and almost 60% of participating students have already found placements. “IT and banking sectors are doing well despite the lockdown, and this has assured maximum job offers to our batch. Sadly, pharmaceuticals and manufacturing sectors are struggling so job offers have been limited,” said Srivastava. He said several smaller companies and start-ups had not participated in placements this year.

The Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) recently completed summer placements and while the number of job offers remains at par with last year, most noted that more offers are coming from e-commerce and technology sectors jobs compared to traditional sectors.

The summer placement report shared by the authorities at IIM Kozhikode, showed that 100% of its batch had received placements. A key highlight of this year’s virtual placement season was participation from front-end investment banking and private equity/venture capitalists, as well as e-commerce companies. “Offers in these domains doubled year-on-year during summer placements 2020 as compared to the previous season,” highlighted the report.

A total of 541 participating students of IIM Kozhikode received offers from 144 companies, with the highest stipend for two months pegged at Rs 3.2 lakh (similar to the highest package received by previous year’s batch). IIM Ahmedabad (IIMA) too recently concluded its summer placements and is gearing up for final placements starting February 2021.

“Every year around 130-150 recruiters participate in each placement process of the two-year MBA course. This year too remains the same. We have seen more demand from our regular recruiter pool consisting of top tier firms across sectors. There has been more demand from internet and technology firms, presumably due to the strong demand for their services in the market,” said Prof Amit Karna, chairperson (placements), IIMA. He said pre-placement offers for the final year batch are similar to last year.

Experts have suggested that campus placements are being offered only by those sectors that have benefitted from Covid-19 and the eventual lockdown.

“Campus placements are reflective of the economic sentiments across corporate India. Sectors which are beneficiaries of Covid are seeing a faster recovery rate and have a clearer future,” said Rituparna Chakraborty, co-founder and executive vice-president of TeamLease Services Ltd, a human resource consulting agency. She said several traditional sectors are may take a back seat in placements this year.