To combat the challenge of arranging jobs for increasingly large batch sizes, the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Ahmedabad has decided to do away with its day-Zero process of placements and adopt a ‘cohort’ system, according to a press note released by the institute on December 23, 2009. The new system will stretch the placements process over one to two months (unlike four to five days in the older system) and is designed to make for more thoughtful career choices.

The new system will go live for the final placements of the class of 2010 in February 2010, informed IIMA.

How does the ‘cohort’ system work? According to the press note, the placement process will span across continuous weekends over two consecutive months. Groups of companies offering similar roles will form cohorts and come to the campus on the two days of a particular weekend and students interested in the role offered by the cohort can participate in the placements. The collective preference of the batch will decide the sequence of the cohorts. Hence, if an investment bank offers an HR opening, it shall be a part of the HR cohort and not the finance cohort.

Would this mean that a company offering multiple roles will have to visit the institute multiple times? According to Prof Saral Mukherjee, Faculty Chairman of IIMA placements, in such a situation the company will be allowed to interview students for each of their (different) profiles at once. Their results, though, will be revealed only during the placement weekend of that particular cohort. He added, “We will also take steps such as conducting interviews through video conferencing to reduce the transaction costs for the companies.”

As the companies will stay on the campus for a period of two days, it will give the students ample time to make an informed decision about the job and the company. There will be a break of five days between two cohorts to help students recuperate and prepare for subsequent interviews. This is in contrast to the fast-paced day-process where hiring decisions were made after interviews that lasted for a few minutes. Interviews scheduled in close succession also took a toll on the students. Also, unlike the day-process, the companies will not be slotted as ‘day-zero’ or ‘day-one’ companies in the cohort system.

To power the technology behind the new system, the institute has also created ‘Talentbouquet’, an online tool intended to help in improving the interaction between the students and the firms using tools such as chatting, forums and alumni interaction.

The increased time of the placement process does not seem to have met with any opposition from the students of IIM Ahmedabad, who would logically be wary of a situation in which competing b-schools following the day-process will fill up vacant jobs in companies. Prof Mukherjee commented, “There shall be no competition with any other institute that is completing their placements before us. The system was run through the students and they all agreed to it. In any case, it is a question of a career and not just a job.”

The batch size of the Post Graduate Program (PGP) in Management grew from 270 in 2008 to 312 in 2009. The Institute is planning to admit a total of about 450 students in PGPM and PGP (Agri-business) in 2010. Placing such large number of students in a matter of four to five days would eventually have become an unwieldy predicament for IIMA.