IIM Kozhikode announced the successful completion of summer placements for its thirteenth batch (2009-11). The summer placements season witnessed participation by over 120 firms as opposed to 102 firms in 2008. Organizations such as Arthur D Little, KPMG, Hewitt, J P Morgan Chase, Citigroup, HSBC, Standard Chartered Bank, Deutsche Bank, HUL, Pepsico, Colgate Palmolive participated in the placements. The highest stipend offered this year was over Rs. 1,00,000 inclusive of perks and allowances. Last year too, the highest stipend of Rs 1 lakh was offered by Coca Cola.

Banks and other financial institutions such as Deutsche bank, JP Morgan Chase, Edelweiss, HSBC, Citigroup, Standard Chartered Bank, American Express, TATA AIG, L&T;, SEBI, ICRA, Tata Capital and the likes participated in the placements were back and hired around 21 percent of the batch. Business conglomerates such as Escorts group, Ramky group and Shriram EPC offered profiles in corporate finance with around 9 percent of the batch opting for these roles. Thus, around 30 percent of the batch showed their interest towards Finance as a vertical. This was up by 3 percent as 27 percent students interned in the financial sector in the previous year.

Percentage of students opting for Sales and Marketing remained the same as nearly 23 percent of the batch opted for the profile (22 percent of the students had chosen this profile for summers 2009). Besides the regular FMCG majors such as HUL, ITC, Marico, Colgate Palmolive, Pepsico, Reckitt Benckiser, Asian Paints, Johnson & Johnson, Britannia, Heinz and Perfetti that visited the campus, reputed names such as SAB miller, Voltas and the likes also made significant number of offers.

The area of strategy and business consulting saw participation by Arthur D Little, KPMG, Frost & Sullivan, Hewitt Consulting and Droege among others. A host of boutique firms such as Nodwin Consulting, Knowledgefaber, Beans and Intellect offered niche job profiles within the broad spectrum of business consulting. This season also witnessed enthusiastic participation by business conglomerates such as Essar, Mahindra & Mahindra, Mirah and Escorts group that offered roles in business development and general management. Students looking to build a career in operations management were made lucrative offers by Pepsi, Hindustan Coca-cola Beverages, Asian Paints, Essel Propack, and Jindal Steel and Power among others.

IT majors such as Wipro, TCS, Cognizant, Omnitech, Patni computers and Hughes offered roles ranging from IT consulting to sales and project management. In a testimony to the increasing interest shown by students in non-conventional sectors such as media and entertainment, sports management, Non Profit Organizations and the likes, students chose firms such as SET, NDTV, Viacom 18, Go Sports, PMG and Oxfam over plum offers in marketing and finance.

As many as 40 firms which include Biocon, Astra Zeneca, Singapore based Tolaram group, Dubai based Gargash Insurance and Kellogg’s recruited summer interns at IIM K for the first time.

The Startup fair which was started as a pilot innovation by the Entrepreneurship cell last year grew by leaps and bounds increasing its participation to exceed 25 firms and over 40 students. The objective of the fair clearly extends beyond placements and is an attempt to provide a platform for interaction between students and successful entrepreneurial ventures. The highlight of the fair was the variety of profiles on offer that spanned roles in media marketing, sports management, advertising and consulting.

Following is the sector wise break up of the summer placement:

15 percent: Banking and Financial Services

9 percent: Corporate Finance

6 percent: Investment Banking and PE

23 percent: Marketing

15 percent: General Management and Operations

9 percent: Strategy and Management Consulting

13 percent: Systems and Telecom

5 percent: Media and Entertainment

5 percent: Others