NEW DELHI/MUMBAI: A steady flow of pre-placement offers at top business schools has set the stage for an expected robust placement season ahead. Some B-schools have seen the offers double from a year ago as companies such as the Boston Consulting Group, Amazon, Godrej and Vodafone are increasingly using this route to get tried and tested talent on board.
Pre-placement offers post summer internships start trickling into campuses at this time of the year and generally go on till December.
Management Development Institute, Gurgaon has received 31 offers so far, up from 14-15 a year ago, from companies including PepsiCo, Aditya Birla Group, Vodafone, IBM, Reckitt Benckiser and the Boston Consulting Group.
“We are expecting e-commerce firms and major investment banks to hire extensively through the PPO (pre-placement offer) route,” said Kanwal Kapil, chairperson, placements at Management Development Institute.
IIM Bangalore also expects the number of PPOs to go up this year. “Last year was an exceptionally good year for us, with more than 30 per cent of our batch getting placed through PPOs. We got 137 PPOs last year and we expect the number to go up this time,” said Sapna Agarwal, head of career development cell at IIM Bangalore.
At IIM Kozhikode, too, numbers are expected to go up at least 10 per cent, said AF Mathew, placements chairperson. The Boston Consulting Group has made 47 pre-placement offers this year across B-schools this year, almost 47 per cent more than that last year. “We have had substantial growth over the last many years and in line with our growth we hired 95 students through campus recruitments,” said Suresh Subudhi, partner and head of recruiting. At IIMs, the firm offers a base salary of Rs 20 lakh, in addition to a variable bonus.
Campus hiring requirements have gone up at Godrej by about 20 per cent this year. “Today, our businesses have a growing global presence. This kind of expansion has meant that new roles are created across businesses and countries. So far, we have concluded our summer internships for the year and have offered 20 per cent PPOs as part of that,” said Sumit Mitra, head-group human resources and corporate services, Godrej Industries Limited and Associate Companies.
The consumer goods maker offers pre-placement opportunities to students in the summer, autumn and winter editions of Gurukul, its internship programme. Last year, 91 per cent of its Gallop (Management Trainee) batch came through Gurukul. As part of the two month programme students get to work on live projects across businesses under close mentoring from senior leaders.Considering the growth in e-commerce, and the larger number of students who interned at such companies, IIM Indore is expecting a higher percentage of PPOs from ecommerce compared to previous year. BCG, HUL, Philips, Vodafone are among the companies that have released PPOs at IIM Indore so far.
The estimated rise in PPOs is in line with the recruiters’ strategy of ramping up summer internship numbers to bank on tried and tested talent. “Our intern hiring numbers have seen a steady rise over the last few years. Our conversion percentage has been improving significantly and today around 25 per cent of our total MBA hires come through PPOs,” said Raj Raghavan, director, human resources at Amazon India.
Financial services firm KPMG hired nearly 50 summer interns this year and plans to increase the number over the next year. About 30 per cent of the summer interns received PPOs. “The evaluation process for summer interns is extensive. Beyond their performance and feedback from their project managers and engagement leads, we evaluate them for pre-placement offers, we also take into account their ability to learn, develop their skills, build relations and make an impact,” said Shalini Pillay, head of people, performance and culture at KPMG India.
Faculty of Management Studies, Delhi has received 21 offers this year, compared to 17 last time round, from Accenture, BCG, HUL, L’Oreal, Pepsi, Philips and Vodafone. “Greater hiring is expected across all domains, primarily in e-commerce and FMCG marketing. Consulting companies are also expanding their talent pool,” said a spokesperson from the institute.
The conversion rate from summer internships to PPOs has increased 22 per cent at telecom operator Vodafone this year. Vodafone made 100 summer internship offers in 2014. Of these, 58 per cent received PPOs from the company across B-schools, law schools and engineering colleges. “We continue to hold similar focus in hiring and rigour in building our talent pipeline through our flagship management trainee programme called Discover,” said Ashok Ramchandran, director, HR at Vodafone.
[“source-timesofindia.indiatimes.com”]
