It was no different at the Institute of Management Technology, Ghaziabad. Ifthe Class of 2000 at IIM-A, IIM-B and IIM-C can sing and dance about theirfancy placements in the cyber duniya, IMT too has lots of dots to talkabout. In short, the dominance of dot.com companies was a hallmark at theIMT placement this year. Quite a surprise because IMT is traditionally abastion for the marketing majors. But this time around, it was the dot.comsthat had their connections in place.The dot.com majors at the IMT campus included Planetasia.com, Mphasis Corp.,IRIS.com and Satyam Infoway, among others. And they offered remunerationpackages much beyond anybody's expectations, ESOPs invariably being a partof the compensation.
But the students are not looking only at the mind-boggling salaries offeredby the dot.coms, or so they say. According to a student manager at IMT, thebest thing about dot.coms are not just the attractive packages that theyoffer, but also the promise of future growth.
Talking about the response of the students to the dot.com offers, the MediaRelations Committee spokesperson at IMT says: ``The number of applicantswere the highest for the dot.com companies with Planetasia.com leading therace with a total number of 80 applicants.'' Such is the craze for dot.comjobs that even people with specialisations in marketing and finance optedfor dot.com companies over brick and mortar companies.
Not only that. Traditional companies made their bait even more attractive byoffering competitive salaries. Says the Media Relations Committeespokesperson: ``Many companies increased their salary offers to compete withthe dot.coms. And some of them, like pharma major Ranbaxy, offered ESOPs tolure the best.'' Notwithstanding the hiked offers from the traditionalplayers, dot,com companies were way ahead. Leading the pack with an offer ofRs 5 lakh per annum was Planetasia.com. But Planetasia's offer was not thehighest on the campus. Rasana International, a Bangkok-based trading major,beat them all with an amazing $50,000 package. Rasana managed to woo fourIMT students with the big-money bait.
Nevertheless, it was a year for the dot.coms. And there were several facetsto the dot.com job offers. For instance, the dot.coms were not only lookingfor engineers or MBA (systems), but also for people with domain knowledge inmarketing, finance and operations, who could create business models on theNet.
Apart from big money and the dot.com mania, what were the other dominantfeatures of the IMT placements this year? Says the spokesperson: ``It wassurely the multiple job offers for the students.'' Another striking featurewas the insecurity of the traditional companies during the placement week,he says. Also significant was the increase in the number of spot offers.Around 90 of the total of 148 were spot offers, he adds. And above all, thefinance sector staged a comeback with names like CRISIL, ICICI, HDFC, IFCI,Power Finance Corporation, Citicorp Securities, First Global,GE-Countrywide, GE-SBI calling the shots.
Copyright © 2000 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.