Its raining money at IIMC campusing

Mou Chakraborty
Kolkata, March 11, 2007
It’s pouring money at the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta (IIMC). Raking it in are its students picked for final placements. The highest salary offered this year is $250,000 or Rs. 1,12,50000 per annum, the biggest pay packet offered to any IIM till date.
The offer has come from an investment bank that wants two IIMC students for its New York desk. The highest foreign salary offered last year was $152,000.
This year’s second-highest salary, £120,000 or Rs. 1 crore 8 lakh, too, has gone to two students both of whom will have to work on the bank’s London desk. “This year we have four students with a salary of over Rs. 1 crore per annum. It’s also the highest offer ever made to any IIM student. IIMC specialises in finance and it’s investment banks that are coming to us with the biggest offers. This shows we are the country’s best when it comes to finance,” said Sarfaraz Khimani, a first-year student and external relations secretary of the institute.
All four students with Rs 1 crore-plus salaries have two years’ work experience. But they feel more than experience it is education at IIMC education that is working wonders for them.
And it’s not just the highest foreign salaries that have seen 70 per cent growth this year. Domestic salaries too have seen 100 per cent rise. From last year’s Rs 23 Lakh it has shot to Rs 43 Lakh per annum. The offer has come from a foreign investment bank for a position in Mumbai. But what is so special about IIMC? ING spokesman Rajesh Sethi is candid. “We came here expecting to find world-class talent and we saw our expectations surpassed.”
The other good news for IIMC students is that unlike anywhere else and ever before, the four students offered highest foreign salaries have also been offered associate positions by their recruiters.
This brings Indian business graduates on par with graduates from US B-Schools like Harvard not just in terms of salaries but also in terms of the roles offered. Joining as associates will give the students at least a two-year head start over others. “Indian B-School pass-outs would never be made associates. The position always went to students from Harvard, Stanford and Wharton. This year we have proved that IIMC students can get global-level placements,” said Khimani.
The queue is getting longer.
There were 17 slot-zero companies last year, this year it has gone up to 21. And exclusive recruiters at IIMC include JP Morgan Chase, BNP Paribas, Sun Group (Private Equity) and Optiver. Among the first-time recruiters were Barclays Capital, ING (Netherlands), Bain Consulting, Trikona (Real Estate and Private Equity), CIC (Real Estate and Private Equity), Value Partners (Strategy Consulting) and Optiver (Market Maker). Apart from them, IIMC’s regular recruiters include Mckinsey, Boston Consulting Group, AT Kearney, Merill Lynch, Barclays Capital, UBS and Deutsche Bank. That’s great going.

(mou.hindustantimes@yahoo.com)