1. Top recruiters defer IIM grads’ joining dates
10 Jun 2009, 0207 hrs IST, Sreeradha D Basu & Sushmita Mohapatra, ET Now
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It has left IIM campuses across the country shaken and stirred. Some of the leading
management consulting firms, traditional Slot Zero recruiters, are actually ‘benching’
IIM recruits they hired from campus earlier this year. More than 25 students from across
IIM campuses in Ahmedabad, Bangalore and Calcutta have been asked to join nearly
6-12 months later than the initial joining date.
According to sources, these recruiters include big names like McKinsey & Co, Bain &
Co among others. And making it substantially worse for students whose joining dates
have been pushed back are the salaries that they will be offered in the interim. Sources
say that the students are likely to only draw about 25-35% of the lucrative salaries they
were originally promised till such time they actually join the company. Only in some
cases, the retainers are supposedly about 50% of the original packages, said sources.
Salaries offered by these consulting companies are usually at Rs 20-25 lakh per annum.
With student loans already run up, some students are reaching out to institute placement
cells for help.
“We have heard from some our students that their joining dates have been delayed. They
will join much later,” said IIM-Bangalore, Calcutta and Ahmedabad officials, who did
not wish to be named. It is pertinent to note that several students hired in these firms are
toppers of their respective batches.
Consulting firms have been preferred recruiters for IIM students since several years,
invariably being selected to recruit for the Slot Zero slot. An email questionnaire sent by
ET to McKinsey generated the following response: “As a private firm, we do not discuss
the workings of the firm in line with our global confidentiality policy. However, we
would like to reaffirm that we stand by the offers and our new hires will join us on
mutually agreed start dates.”
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According to sources, while some students have reached out to the institute for projects
and help, many are using the time to take up short-term courses. Some are even toying
with the idea of starting entrepreneurship ventures.

2. An IIM-Calcutta source told ET that none of the companies in question had made any
formal communication to the institute in this regard, and that none of the students had
turned down the offers, so far. And while some consulting firms are postponing the date
of joining, certain investment banks have revoked their offers this placement season. For
instance, Macquaire Bank, another Slot Zero recruiter, has also supposedly revoked its
pre-placement offers made to IIM students.