The Hindu Business Line : Business of placements

Sunil Arora sits in front of his computer, his eyes glued to the screen. Every five minutes, he clicks the little envelope to see if he has e-mail. Each time something downloads, he immediately checks to see if it is from the placement office. If it is not, the e-mail, however urgent, is ignored for the time being. For it is placement season at IIM Ahmedabad (IIM-A) and everyone is eagerly awaiting interview shortlists and placement procedure information. Arora has some important banking shortlists for `Day One'. But what he is eagerly awaiting is the highly coveted `Day Zero' shortlists — investment banks and management consulting companies: The Holy Grail of business school recruitment.

This, of course, was the scene on campus a week ago. By the time you read this, IIM-A and several of the other IIMs will be largely through with the annual placement season. To the outsider, it all looks like a black box. Annually, thousands write entrance tests, especially the CAT, and several interviews and group discussions later, a few thousand go on to join the IIMs, XLRI and other top-notch business schools. Then two years later these young guns emerge with jobs that the vast majority of Indian youth can only dream about. In 2005, IIM-A produced a graduating class that boasted of an average salary close to Rs 8 lakh per annum. This year that record has been blown to bits, and it will possibly happen the next year too. What often gets lost in the media hoopla is the sheer pressure and effort that goes into making a successful placement season possible for business schools like IIM-A. Frankly, for these schools, failure is not an option. The records have to be broken every year.

The average student at IIM-A will often apply to several companies depending on his choice of industry, location or any other parameter. And, of course, to increase his probability of getting placed as soon as possible. This means preparing dozens of resumes and filling pages upon pages of information forms. Even the most stoic applicant will be gasping for breath by the time he has filled in questions like "What is your statement of purpose?" or "Where do you see yourself five years from now? Ten?" for the 15th or even 20th time. From 2005, IIM-A has migrated most of its placement processes to an online portal. This has made it easier for students to submit and update their resumes and companies to download them from anywhere in the world. Yet there are still companies that require hand-written forms, sometimes a dozen pages long, from each applicant. It is not a pretty sight.

Use of alumni network

Choosing companies and filling in these forms also means gathering information on each of the dozens of potential recruiters. Most companies conduct presentations to talk about themselves and the job opportunities they offer. But over the two or three months, when each weekend there are three to five such presentations, students are sometimes simply swamped with information. That is when the alumni network helps. When crunch time approaches, students rush to their seniors to get the honest "low down" on various companies. Alumni in some of the top-notch companies often get several phone calls a day with clarifications and requests for advice. Most of them oblige. It is part of the old boys' code. While in dorm rooms hundreds of applicants are bent over resume drafts and forms, in the placement office a dedicated team of coordinators do what is possibly the most thankless job on the planet. On the one hand they have companies with ever-increasing recruitment demands, and on the other a student population that will settle for nothing but the best jobs on offer. The story is no different at several of the other IIMs and other business schools as well.

At IIM-A, unlike some other business schools, several of the coordinators are applicants worried about their own jobs as well. While they do enjoy more company exposure than a non-coordinator would, they seldom have remotely as much time to prepare. The junior batch chips in with help and is trained during their seniors' placement processes. But the responsibility for soothing both student and company nerves often falls on the shoulders of the coordinators and that too when they are standing in line for interviews themselves.

First true test of ability

What frayed nerves you ask? Why would anyone get worked up during a simple interviewing process? Isn't it all gentle and civilised? You could not be more wrong. Let us take `Day One' at IIM-A for example — the slot when the best Indian companies visit campus. For all the glamour of `Day Zero' and dollar salaries, only a small number get absorbed. (Though even that is changing now.) The real action is on `Day One'. You might have thirty-odd companies with a combined list of some 200 students interviewing with one or the other company. Even if you take an average of around six shortlists per person (which was the case in 2005) and assume all students need to pass through an initial round of interviews or group discussions, that means at least 1,200 student-recruiter interactions need to be facilitated for the first round only. Even after elimination rounds, it is not rare to have some 600 interviews to organise and track during the second session. By evening, when companies are beginning to make offers, it is not uncommon to see students who have passed out due to sheer exhaustion. (And yes perhaps a few recruiters too). Add to this morass of confusion the usual hiccups like air-conditioners not working, shortage of food and beverage and missing people, and you have a perfect recipe for chaos. Yet surprisingly, year after year, IIM-A manages to pull this off without a hitch. Companies go back mostly content and most students get what they deserve. The errors are few and far between and the coordinators are often ready the very next day with complete statistics and detailed analyses of the placement season. Sadly this document and the subsequent press conference is the only side of the story the public sees. Behind it are students and organisers handling some of the greatest pressures imaginable. Some call it the first true test of their ability to manage. You cannot but concur.

(The writer, an alumnus of IIM-A, was a management consultant before quitting to work on a book and a full-time writing career.)

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