Placement Worries: Even IIM Students Are Finding It Difficult To Get Placed, Here's Why

This year, about one in six students at IIM Bangalore could not secure placements - a first for IIM Bangalore.

The interviews held between November 6 and November 11, 2023 for summer internships during April-May saw only 490 students securing placements - this is just over 80% of the batch.

In contrast, during the previous year, all 529 students of the batch successfully secured an internship.

IIM Bangalore

Why the need for an internship?

An eight-week summer internship at the end of the first year is mandatory for the MBA Programme at IIT Bangalore, for advancing into the second year.

Students with with over 34 months of past work experience can opt out of the internship, however, those students too seek internships as the opportunity involves some remuneration while also boosting their CV, and helping in their training.

What is the reason behind this placement setback?

"As you know summer internships are in April-May. For convenience and to avoid clashes with the academic schedule, we try to complete the summer internship selection process within a designated week well in advance. This year within the designated week a little over 80 per cent of the batch got summer internship offers," says Debolina Dutta, chairperson of the career development cell at IIM Bangalore, as quoted by India Today.

With over 100 students still awaiting a placement, speculations are rife.

A reason behind the placement setback could be slowdown in the US tech sector's hiring, which has hit the opportunities for Indian IT and IT-enabled services.

Head of communications at IIM-B Kavitha Kumar has said, "... it is important to note that a couple of sectors like IT, ITeS, which do volume hiring have stayed away from campuses this year."

How have students reacted?

Students who have not yet been able to secure an internship are worried about the impact on the future job prospects.

Representative image

With a hefty fee of Rs 24.5 lakhs for the two-year MBA course, financial concerns exacerbate the situation and has intensified the urgency to secure employment after graduation.

How has IIT-Bangalore responded?

IIM Bangalore

The official statement released by IIT-Bangalore has noted that, "Due to some factors outside our control (tight job market, proximity to Diwali, etc.), we had to extend the summer selection process beyond the designated week."

"There was a Diwali break and many companies requested to resume it after the festival because interview panels were unavailable. While we do not deny that job market activity is lowkey everywhere, we do not see a need for alarm. We saw 160 companies in the first three days making offers to 490 students," said Debolina Dutta.

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