IIM-A already feels the summer heat

AHMEDABAD: As summer internship begins at IIM-A on Thursday, the impact of global slowdown and the demise of star recruiters Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch will now be there to see.

Summer internship, which is said to serve as an indicator for the upcoming final placement session, is keeping even the final-year students on tenterhooks.

However, there is a silver lining with IIM-Kozhikode and IIM-Calcutta showing encouraging results at the internship placements.

���IIM students will never have a dearth of jobs, howsoever bad the economy might be. So, while bagging a job is not at all our concern, what we fear is a drop in premium offers that come with fat packages and good placement,������ said a final-year student of IIM-A.

Global i-banks will be missing from the scene this year. Last year, i-banks like Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs and consulting firms like BCG and Bain Consulting visited the campus on Slot Zero of summer internships. Lehman Brothers was the second-highest recruiter, only after Goldman Sachs, with 17 offers.

I-banks and financial service firms were the highlights last year with companies like Macquaire, Rothschild , AIG and ING visiting IIM-A campus for the first time. Consulting majors Arthur D Little and Value Partners recruited candidates for summers for the first time.

���I-banks and consulting firms have been the major recruiters , both in summers and final placements. But even as spotlight shifts from i-banks , certain other sectors like media, entertainment and event management will try to pick up candidates this time,������ said a student.

IIM-A chairman (placements) Saral Mukherjee said the summer placements will last for six days. ���The process will wrap up by November 18 after which we shall be able to share details,������ he said. Encouraging summer placements at IIM-K and IIM-C has come as a relief to the students.

���If IIMK can outperform itself at summers this year as compared to last year, we will also do the same,������ said a student.

Against 66 national and international firms that participated at IIM-K���s summers last year, the number swelled to 102, with 14 international offers.

And although there was a slump in offers from i-banks , companies like JP Morgan and Deutsche Bank recruited students for their domestic operations.