Despite fears of a critical ongoing global recession, when handing over pink slips seems to have become the norm in the corporate world, there is some good news from the portals of the Indian Institute of Management- Lucknow (IIM-L).
Beating the blues, the premier B-school not only hosted a total of 114 companies for its summer placements on the campus this year, which is an increase of 15% over that of last year, but also threw up an exciting trend of strategy and consulting-based roles taking the cake among the students.
Top consulting firms like McKinsey & Co, The Boston Consulting Group, PriceWaterhouse Coopers as well as conglomerates like the Tata Group, Aditya Birla Group and RPG lapped up the students.
While substantial representation was witnessed in verticals and sectors like supply chain management and operations, IT & systems, human resources, the bulk of the offers as well as a majority of the student preferences was in the four sectors of strategy and consulting, finance, marketing and entrepreneurial ventures.
In a break-up of sector-wise placements, while Strategy & Consulting ruled at 34%, the finance sector was a close second with 32% of the batch preferring to intern in finance roles within investment banks, PE firms and other banking and financial services institutions.
Another 24%, comprising of 90 students opted for marketing internships within global powerhouses like HUL, P&G, Diageo, Nokia, Johnson & Johnson, Asian Paints, Cadbury and Nestle and the remaining 10%, comprising of 35 students opted to do their internships in entrepreneurial ventures and start-ups.
Interestingly, the inaugural ?Start-Up slot?, dedicated for hosting new ventures, saw an enthusiastic participation from companies and students alike. The students seemed to be looking forward to the rich experience of working in cross-functional roles in an entrepreneurial climate, in close association with the founders of these firms, most of whom are alumni of IIM Lucknow.
Speaking to FE, a spokesperson of the institute said that the summer placements were in line with the expectation of the students, many of whom are rich on prior work-experience in terms of duration and quality.
?The placements this year have been a huge success and have beaten everyone?s expectations. The expectations of the students were built on the basis of the placement data from other premier B-schools this year, or the successful summer and final placement seasons at IIM Lucknow last year. With respect to either comparison, we feel that this year?s summer placements at IIM Lucknow have been superior,? said the spokesperson.