Vinay Umarji in Ahmedabad
While recruiters from financial services have retained their top position during placements at top B-schools in the country this year, the numbers they are hiring have gone down.
As against taking 25-30 students in one go, companies, especially in finance and IT sectors, are said to be taking only 8-12 students each, on average.
For instance, ICICI Bank, HDFC and TCS have picked up only a handful at the ICFAI Business School, Mumbai, according to Hema Sisodia, dean (corporate relations and campus placements).
Why bulk recruitments are going thin at B-schools
"Bulk recruiters have reduced the numbers," she adds.
"These five or six regular bulk recruiters used to pick up over 35 per cent, but this year they have hardly picked 25 per cent."
Similarly, despite picking up students in 'decent numbers', the Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar says firms from the IT sector have reduced bulk recruitments.
"From 25-30 recruitments last year, the figure for this year has come down to 8-10," says Sabita Mohanty, faculty co-ordinator (placements).
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Why bulk recruitments are going thin at B-schools
"This year, firms are making offers in a more focused manner. They are looking for the right fit. As a result, the numbers have reduced."
Even a premier B-school like the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A), agrees the placement scenario is 'a little less buoyant' than the last year.
"The number of offers per recruiters are likely to go down this year, with 18-20 being the maximum," says Saral Mukherjee, chairperson (placements).
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Why bulk recruitments are going thin at B-schools
"However, most of these will be international financial companies. We don't know if domestic firms will follow suit."
Management institutes had to invite more firms this year.
While it invited about 300 firms, Mumbai-based K J Somaiya Institute of Management Studies and Research has seen only 63 coming to its campus for placements so far. Another 20 are expected soon.
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Why bulk recruitments are going thin at B-schools
N D Sharma, placement coordinator at SIMSR, says, "By now, we should have placed all our students like we did last year. But so far, only 85 per cent of the 120-strong batch has been placed."
Seconding his views is XIMB's Mohanty. "We had to work a lot harder on inviting firms this year," she notes.
"Some we took for granted in the finance sector took a skip at the placements.
"Which is why this year we saw 70 firms at our campus as against 50 firms, since the number of offers per firm have also reduced," adds Mohanty. XIMB recently placed its entire batch of 220 students.
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Why bulk recruitments are going thin at B-schools
BCG top recruiter as IIM-A begins placements
The final placement process for the management batch of 2010-12 began on Monday at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.
Global strategy consulting firms and international investment banks were invited to the campus in the first cluster.
The Boston Consulting Group made the highest number of offers by recruiting 17.
Others included McKinsey & Co, Bain & Co, AT Kearney, Credit Suisse, HSBC, Oliver Wyman and Accenture.
The second cluster will be held on February 17.
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