This year's final placement surprise has once again come from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A).
The premier institute recorded the highest-ever international offer of $360,000 (around Rs 1.44 crore) made by a financial conglomerate (markets) to a Post Graduate Programme (PGP) student.
The offer has broken records set by the institute's earlier batch, which got between $250,000 and $300,000 (depending on bonuses).
It also beats its own Postgraduate Programme in Management for Executives (PGPX), which recorded the highest salary of $250,000, and the Indian School of Business (ISB), Hyderabad's $269,000.
IIM-A Director Samir K Barua, said, "The highest international acceptances at IIM-A range between $280,000 and $360,000, of which the actual salary on-hand will depend on the bonus component, which will only be known after one year, based on the performance of the students."
On the other hand, the highest domestic acceptance is in the range of Rs 50 lakh to Rs 70 lakh, which again beats the packages bagged by ISB and PGPX students last year of Rs 60 lakh. Average domestic salary is Rs 17.85 lakh a 30 per cent jump from last year's figure of Rs 13.7 lakh. Average international salary has touched $119,000 compared with last year's $115,300.
"We were apprehensive about placements this year due to the subprime slowdown, but it went very well. In fact 113 students out of the batch of 255 will be joining the financial sector this year," added Barua.
This year, like last year, consulting has emerged as preferred recruiter among students, with over 30.89 per cent opting for it. Around 19.11 per cent of students opted for finance-markets, 10.98 per cent chose finance IBD, a similar percentage chose finance-general, 6.10 per cent opted for Marketing, 6.91 per cent opted for general management while others chose finance-PE, real estate, operations, entrepreneurship and IT-ITeS.
Continuing with last year's trend, 76 per cent of students chose domestic offers, 11 per cent took up offers in the Asia-Pacific, 7 per cent in Europe, 4 per cent in the US and 2 per cent in the West Asia.
Around 11 students opted out of the placement process this year to start their own ventures. Major recruiters from the banking sector included Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers, Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan, Merrill Lynch, Deutsche Bank and Barclays. Consulting majors Monitor Group and Oliver Wyman were new recruiters this year.
Similarly, the institute's PGP-Agri Business Management Programme (ABM) saw 30 companies visit the campus for 30 students. Average salaries increased from Rs 10 lakh to Rs 12.30 lakh.
Consulting attracted 28 per cent students followed by marketing (21 per cent) and finance (17 per cent). Profiles offered by SEWA, FINO and Suminter Organics were at the senior management level.
