Leading B-schools inviting more companies, advancing placement season as hiring faces a bumpy road
22/01/2017
MUMBAI: Final placements for the 2015-17 batch at the country's leading business schools seem to be feeling the impact of dampened economic sentiment. Placement cells at Management Development Institute (MDI), Gurgaon, SP Jain Institute of Management and Research (SPJIMR), Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT), Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Indore, and Welingkar Institute of Management Development and Research among others, said that a combination of factors including demonetisation, lacklustre business sentiment and a cautious attitude on the part of recruiters have taken a toll, making this placement season the most challenging in recent years.
Companies have slashed hiring numbers, in some cases by as much as 30-40%, said people on campuses. Some regulars didn't turn up, citing a hiring freeze, while others backed out at the last minute, even after taking part in pre-placement talks. "It has been a challenging year," said Abbasali Gabula, deputy director, external relations, at SPJIMR. "Companies are always uncomfortable with uncertainty; it makes them hesitant about taking hiring decisions."
The institute recently wrapped up final placements but Gabula said it helped that the school had planned for a tight placement season by getting more potential recruiters to campus. "We brought in 104 companies, compared to 82 last year," he said.
BIGGER BATCH, BIGGER WORRY
"About 50% of our total recruiters were new companies," Gabula added. Pidilite, HSBC and AstraZeneca are among regulars that didn't come to SPJIMR this time. Flipkart had earlier announced its decision of staying away from all campus placements. Some, such as Standard Chartered, finished their entire recruitment through the pre-placement offer route. MDI Gurgaon took over seven days to place its entire batch, compared with three last year. As many as 138 recruiters were invited, up from last year's 123, to make up for a decrease in the number of offers per company.
Regular recruiter DCM Shriram did not participate in placements, citing demonetisation, while General Motors did not come either. McKinsey Knowledge Centre hired fewer people and IDFC Bank didn't participate, although it had made a presentation earlier, said Kanwal Kapil, placements chairperson at MDI.
Those with larger batch sizes are finding the going tougher. At IIM Indore, placement officer Bhavya Kapoor said that though demonetisation was cited by some companies for skipping recruitment for the year, the institute has invited more companies to participate in placement. IIM Indore started the process in December with a batch size of 611across streams and said it still has students left to place.
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