In the search for top talent, prominent recruiters have been generous in terms of offering compensation. The 2018-20 batch of IIM Indore witnessed a record high stipend being offered, which went up to four lakhs— a full 33 per cent increase as compared to last year. The average stipend offered was 1.54 lakhs, which was again a 24 per cent increase from the previous season.
The average offer went up to Rs 2.86 lakhs for the top 100 candidates, while the top 200 were offered a compensation of Rs 2.51 lakh, on an average.
Around 24 per cent of the candidates opted for consulting and strategy roles, which continue to be one of the most coveted domains. Boston Consulting Group has been a recurring recruiter, coming back for the sixth time in a row. Some of the other consistent recruiters are Avalon Consulting, Ernst and Young, Government of Andhra Pradesh, PwC India and United Health Group. First-time recruiters this season include Bain Capability Centre and Everest Management Consulting to name a few.
Human Resources and operations roles saw a huge demand from organisations, such as Amazon, Amway, Larsen and Toubro and Tata Steel. Major conglomerates, such as Mahindra and Mahindra and Reliance Industries recruited for their leadership development programmes, with the Aditya Birla Group hiring for the first time under its Young Leaders Programme.
For general management roles, prominent groups, such as the Essel Group and Jindal Steel Works hired from the campus.
In the sales and marketing domain, Indore has been a sought-after campus, with recruiters such as Apollo Tyres, Asian Paints, Bajaj Auto and Dabur offering prominent positions in the areas of brand management, e-commerce, product management, digital marketing, product branding and sales planning among others. The highest number of roles offered by organisations was in this domain.
American Express, CRISIL, Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank were among the major financial companies and Capgemini, Cognizant, HCL and Google were the prominent IT recruiters on campus.
Sector wise, FMCG saw the highest number of candidates placed with 35 per cent opting for this sector. On the other hand, education and e-commerce saw the lowest percentage of offers taken up —five and six per cent respectively.
Academic pursuits
A look at the undergraduate backgrounds of the candidates who applied reveals an absence of humanities students, except for economics honours, amounting to three per cent of the entire batch.
Almost 90 per cent of the total students came from a science background in their undergraduate years. The popular choices were electronics— running highest with 21 per cent— followed by mechanical engineering and computer engineering at 16 and 15 per cent respectively. The lowest numbers came from the metallurgy and chemical domains, accounting for three and five per cent respectively.
Commerce graduates accounted for 10 per cent of the total candidates.
Work experience
Candidates interviewed with 22 month of average work experience. Candidates with one and two years of professional experience comprised 40 per cent of the total numbers, while those with more than four years of training were around 12 per cent.
Most of the candidates had worked in the IT and consulting sectors,
accounting for 10 to 15 per cent of the total. On the other hand, those from e-commerce and education background were the lowest in numbers, amounting to less than five per cent.
Overall, it has been a good season for the IIM-Indore management students. According to the official IIM report, there has been a 19 per cent increase in stipend offered for the top 100 candidates who appeared for placements. Adding to the number, the Indore campus saw a 40 per cent rise in median stipend offered. The recurrence of prominent names in hiring and the increased participation by organisations has been testimony to its popularity among recruiters.