Placements 2008 – Breaking New Grounds
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Largest number of career shifts, highest average domestic and international CTC, a 100 per cent increase in international recruiters, more than two and a half times leap in incoming versus outgoing CTC, and four companies which started on campus - these were some of the record- breaking highlights of Placements 2008 at the Indian School of Business (ISB).

Making a formal announcement of this year’s Placements, Dean MR Rao said “A tremendous year it has been, and it is coming to a close. Tremendous, both in terms of achievements and Placements. We assure to continue getting highest quality students, and we are sure that they will continue to bring credit to the School.” Deputy Dean Ajit Rangnekar added, “Our Placements record this year is a testimony to the fact that the ISB students are highly sought after by industries across the world.” “We have broken several of our own records, and are bettering our performance year after year,” shared Savita Mahajan, Associate Dean.

For the last few years the ISB has been a pioneer of sorts in its Placement records and trends - facilitating dramatic careers shifts; initiating the trend of lateral placements in India, securing leadership positions for women, and essentially raising the benchmark for B-school graduates.

This year the ISB has taken a decision to highlight placement trends, and sharing a representative picture, rather than announcing the top CTC figures. This is also in keeping with the tradition followed by international B-schools. “The highest CTC doesn’t reflect the entire student body. It just distorts perceptions and changes expectations of an MBA aspirant and his family,” says Anand Agarwal, Director, Student Placement Committee, Class of 2008.

This year Placements was a trendsetter of sorts in many ways-

Going Global
Placements 2008 saw many international concerns making unputdownable offers to the present Batch. The number of international companies visiting the ISB doubled this year, validating the value- add of the ISB programme. 111 international offers came in from the USA, Europe, Middle East, and the Asia Pacific. A must-mention achievement, this year, has been an increased number of recruiters from the Asia Pacific region who made offers at a competitive global salary.

Record-breaking Career Shifts
This year a total of 81 percent students made remarkable career shifts, the highest percentage of career shifts at the ISB till date. Of the total career shifts made, 50 percent were shifts both in function and industry, 21 percent were career shifts in function and the remaining 10 percent were shifts in industry. Shuchita Upadhyaya, an Electronics and Telecom engineer, post Placements will join Corporate Banking as a Product Structuring Analyst. “For some time, while I was working as a technology person, the role no longer excited me. I wanted to be involved in the functional side. I joined the ISB, very conscious that I wanted a shift in my career. At ISB, the curriculum, the peer experience, the exposure to industry are all neatly packed – just what I needed to make this jump,” shares Shuchita. Viren Pereira is making a shift in role – from a risk consultant to a strategic consultant. He wants to give full marks to the “unparalleled learning at the ISB, and an extremely intellectual student body” which allows one to take charge, and display their capacities - be it a conference or a student managed event. This, he believes, helped him in his decision to change roles.

So we saw an Army Colonel heading a Real estate venture, an orthopaedic surgeon assuming the role of a COO, and a rocket scientist opting to be the Production Head of a media concern.

Moreover ten students from the medical profession, set a record by attracting top management roles from several leading companies from the Healthcare, Pharma, Private Equity, and Real Estate sectors.

Fracturing Gender Myths
The 106 strong women students at the ISB this year have received several senior roles across different sectors defying any myths about gender and roles/sector. Their CTC leap-frogged three times over, projecting an average of INR 16, 44, 328.
Aarti Kothari was a financial reporter with a reputed business magazine. One year at the ISB and she now is part of a national strategic team of a Telecom company. “Women at the ISB have outdone their male counterparts. The incoming versus outgoing salary ratio, which stands at two and a half time for the Batch and is a whooping three times for women students,” says Aarti.

Allies - from the Classroom to the Boardroom
Four groups of students from the Class of 2008 take forward their ISB association, as they start a new venture, the idea of which was grafted and unfurled in the ISB campus itself. The new ventures are spread across various industries such as Nanotechnology, Financial Services, Knowledge Process Outsourcing, and Contract Research.

Sireesha Yadlapalli opted out of Placements to start her own venture. She says, “I have seven years of experience in the Pharma sector. I have opted out of Placements and want to get into entrepreneurship. There are two reasons to this - first because India today has enormous opportunities for an entrepreneur, and second because the ISB has always supported me in fanning out my idea of entrepreneurship - be it the network, platforms like TiE ISB, or the student events.

Some Statistics
The average Indian CTC offered to the ISB students this year is INR 19, 00,000. The average CTC drawn by students at the time of joining the ISB was INR 7, 19,000. The average international CTC is on par with what students at top international B-schools attract. The international averages are: USA – USD 138,614; Europe – USD 156,658; Asia Pacific – USD 145,607; Middle East – USD 125,389. The comprehensive average of all international offers is USD 144,812.