INDIAN INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT CALCUTTA

Batch of 2008-10: Final Placement Report

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________________________________________________________________________________________
Career Development and Placement Office, Indian Institute of Management Calcutta
www.iimcal.ac.in | placement@iimcal.ac.in
Overview:
IIM Calcutta’s final placement process for the batch of 2008-2010, kicked off on 6th March 2010 and
concluded on 10th March 2010, lasting for a total of five days at the end of which all students who sat
for the process were placed. The process was conducted in slots, with each slot lasting for two days.
Slot-0 took place on the 6th and 7th of March, Slot-1 on the 8th and 9th, and Slot-2 began on March
10th. The process came to an end in the middle of slot 2, with all 278 students who sat for the
placement process receiving job offers at the end of the fifth day.

Sector wise Information

In standing with IIM Calcutta being the pre-eminent finance campus of the country, more than 37% of
the students chose to join the financial sector, with salaries considerably higher than last year. Swiss
investment-banking giant UBS continued to hire exclusively from IIM Calcutta. Leading global
investment banks Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Nomura, Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse, Royal Bank of
Scotland and Macquarie Bank have all extended offers to students from the institute. Temasek Holdings
the investment arm of the Singapore government also hired from IIM Calcutta. IIM Calcutta was the only
campus in the country where HSBC hired for both their global as well as Indian arms. American Express
hired for diverse profiles like business transformation, international risk management and for American
Express Banking Corporation India, and extended offers to 6 students. The major recruiters in the
financial sector were Yes bank and ICICI bank. Yes Bank extended a total of 13 offers while ICICI bank
made 10 offers. Some of the other major recruiters included Allegro Financial Services, Standard
Chartered, Edelweiss Capital and Citibank.

Consulting remained a preferred sector for students, with 27% of the students set to join consulting
firms in offices across the world. Oliver Wyman made a total of 5 offers, which is more than twice the
number of offers made at any other campus in India. They also recruited exclusively from IIM Calcutta
for their international offices in London, New York, Dubai and Singapore. Other big recruiters were
McKinsey & Co, The Boston Consulting Group, A.T. Kearney, Bain & Co, Deloitte Consulting and Diamond
Consultants. Opera Solutions hired exclusively from IIM Calcutta amongst all the IIMs. Accenture
Business Consulting made the highest number of offers in the consulting space with a total of 15 offers
across 6 different roles, of which 11 offers were made during final placements and 4 during the lateral
placements. Cognizant Business Consulting extended 14 offers to students during the laterals process.

Marketing profiles were chosen by 18% of the students this year. Our regular recruiters Hindustan
Unilever, Procter & Gamble and Nokia were back this year, with Hindustan Unilever making 5 offers,
Procter & Gamble making 4 offers and Nokia extending 3 offers ( all including PPOs). Johnson & Johnson
made 4 offers at IIM Calcutta. Some of the other leading brands which hired from IIM Calcutta for
marketing profiles include ITC, Godrej, 3M, Wrigley, Airtel, Raymond and Medtronic. In general
management, Tata Administrative Services made 7 offers, the highest in the sector. 6 of these offers
were made during the final placement process and 1 was extended as a pre-placement offer.
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________________________________________________________________________________________
Career Development and Placement Office, Indian Institute of Management Calcutta
www.iimcal.ac.in | placement@iimcal.ac.in
The final placements this year has seen a more even spread across the various sectors, which indicates
the students’ interest in diverse domains. There were several students who decided to build a career in
niche sectors like microfinance and the media. Students also joined managerial roles in genetic
engineering firm Biocon.

International Offers were made to 17 students in the batch. The total of 91 offers excluding PPOs made
by the set of companies collectively referred to as Slot Zero firms was easily the highest across all
campuses of the country, reflecting the quality of the students. 24 new companies visited the campus
this year and some of them include the likes of Temasek, Olyver Wyman, Google, 3M, Wrigley, Castrol,
Vedanta Group and Medtronic.

Pay Packages
With the economy on its recovery path, the salaries were expected to go up and they have. The average
salary has seen a 20% increase over last year with the average domestic compensation rising to 15.32
lakhs this year as compared to 12.7 lakhs last year, a clear indication that the economic situation has
improved significantly since 2009. The highest package offered (domestic) increased to INR 75 lakhs
compared to INR 60 lakhs last year. The average international package is USD 123,450. Last year, it was
USD 86,785.

While the increase in the pay-packages has been heartening, a unique aspect of this year’s placement
process was that the roles offered to students were very diverse. Students could pick the exact roles
they were interested in, given the wide array of choices, thus moving out of the process happily with

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________________________________________________________________________________________
Career Development and Placement Office, Indian Institute of Management Calcutta
www.iimcal.ac.in | placement@iimcal.ac.in
their ideal jobs in hand. This, we consider to be the most important aspect of this year’s placement
process, and our greatest success.

Comparison with the Previous Years

2009-10 2008-09 2007-08

Batch Strength 278 265 291

Final Placement Process 5 days 10 days 4 days

Pre-Placement Offers 41 56 90

Average Domestic Package Rs. 15.32 lakh p.a Rs. 12.7 lakh p.a Rs. 16.4 lakh p.a

Highest Domestic Package Rs. 75 lakh Rs. 60 lakh Rs. 65 lakh

Finance offers 36 % 40 % 34 %

Lateral Placements- Overview

The lateral placement process is for students with considerable work-experience, where candidates are
offered roles depending upon the nature and duration of their work-ex. During the laterals process,
candidates are allowed to negotiate the nature of their roles and their packages with the firm, as
opposed to final placements where firms hire for specific positions. In this way, the laterals process
allows candidates to design their own roles and responsibilities, and ensures a perfect fit between the
candidate and the job. This year, the laterals process began in the first week of January and continued
till the last week of February.

This year, the laterals process began in the first week of January and continued till the last week of
February. The minimum amount of work-ex required to be eligible for the laterals process was set at 10
months and 170 out of the 280-strong batch were eligible for the process. 46 firms visited the campus
during the laterals process and 92 offers were made at the end of the laterals process. Mahindra &
Mahindra recruited during laterals for the first time. Google, Microsoft, Aditya Birla Group, i-Nautix, Star
TV and Amazon were some of our recruiters during this process. Roles like Manager of Strategy and
Asst. Vice President were offered in the laterals process

The laterals process this year at IIM Calcutta is the most successful across all IIMs and enabled us to start
the final placement process with 92 laterals offers and 41 PPOs, which amounted to a total of 133 offers
already in hand.
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________________________________________________________________________________________
Career Development and Placement Office, Indian Institute of Management Calcutta
www.iimcal.ac.in | placement@iimcal.ac.in
Batch Profile Information
The batch of 2010 comprised of 35% fresher and 65% students with prior work-experience. Among
them, 12 % of the students had work-experience of more than 36 months. Among the 278 students, 22
were women students. A total of 7 students opted out of the placement process in the batch of 285.
Among them, 2 students will be pursuing further education, 2 will be working for the government in
public sector firms, 2 will be starting their own start-ups and one student plans to pursue his creative
interests in filming and ad-making. A fellow program student pursuing his doctorate was also placed in
the finals process.

Conclusion

By placing one of the largest batches across all IIMs in the shortest span of time, we have reaffirmed the
faith of our recruiters-cum-partners in our process. We started our final placement process last in the
country and still managed to finish it in a record five days. In times good and bad, IIM Calcutta has
always been the preferred destination among recruiters. This has been established by our placement
figures, which are the best across the nation year after year.

The strong academic culture fostered by the faculty and the supportive alumni have played a major role
in our sustained success and we’d like to use this opportunity to thank them. The placement team also
takes this opportunity to thank everyone – the administration, support staff, security who helped us run
the process smoothly. A special thanks to Ms Shikha Bhattacharya, Mr. Aroop Kar, and Mr. Bholanath
Paul for providing efficient service throughout the placement period.

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________________________________________________________________________________________
Career Development and Placement Office, Indian Institute of Management Calcutta
www.iimcal.ac.in | placement@iimcal.ac.in