Now, IIMs prefer students with work experience

KOLKATA: In line with what has long been a trend across global B-schools, the IIMs are looking at more experienced candidates for their MBA programmes. These students, the institutes claim, bring in important attributes like out-of-the-box thinking and communication skills to the table.

At IIM Lucknow (IIM-L), the total number of students with work experience in the 2008-10 batch is 274 out of the batch of 307 or 89.25% against 50.41% last year, when 122 out of 242 students came with some experience.

���Experienced students change the entire dynamics of learning,��� IIM-L director Devi Singh told ET. This time around, at IIM-L, 16 students have experience of less than a year, 67 between one and two years, 82 students between two and three years and 83 of over three-and-half years. Only 33 students have no work experience.

In IIM Calcutta���s 2008-10 batch, 40% of the batch have work experience of up to two years and 23% above two years, aggregating 63% against 60% in the 2007-09 batch.



���We are paying increasing importance to people with work experience,��� said IIM-C dean (programme initiatives) Saibal Chattopadhyay. ���Ideally, only 15-20% of an MBA class should comprise freshers. Though we have no intention of cutting down drastically on the number of freshers, over time we intend to gradually move towards a far higher proportion of experienced people.��� He added, ���Feedback from recruiters suggest we should have more students with some degree of experience. However, more than three years of experience can be a problem, as those students are difficult to mould.���

At IIM Bangalore, it���s the same story. Experienced students account for about 75.3% of the 2008-10 batch compared to 71.8% in case of the 2007-09 batch.