While bail-out packages have not brought even a semblance of order into the system that has gone haywire, the MBA student in India may be forced to diversify into tertiary sectors such as manufacturing.

With summer placements starting in mid-November at the IIMs, and other B-schools advancing their placement season, all eyes will be on the campus recruitment scene this year.

Even as news trickles in of markets across Asia and Europe following their U.S. counterparts on the downhill path, B-schools and the IIMs gear up for both their admission and placement season.
The mood differs

Going by an increase of 50,000 in the number of applicants for the Common Aptitude Test-2008 (for entry into the IIMs and other top-notch B-schools), the mood of the MBA aspirant is still optimistic, if not upbeat. However, B-school graduates of the 2007-2009 batch looking at passing out of their courses this year, are not as optimistic about their prospects.

Star employers such as Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch showed early signs when they reduced their intake of management graduates last year for summer placements. In IIM-A, the financial sector saw internships drop from last year's 57 per cent to 35.9 per cent while consulting and marketing sectors saw a rise in intake from 17 per cent and 14 per cent respectively to over 22 per cent this year.

With the summer placement looming ahead in November, Merrill Lynch and Lehman Brothers will be deeply missed. Investment banks are slot zero companies which lap up the cream of every college and both these companies had made pre-placement offers to students who did summer internships with them. These students will now participate in the placement process now. Also, 13 job offers had been made in the last placement season.

Sourav Mukherjee, chairperson-placement at IIM-Bangalore, said students should not concentrate on finance alone. The much-coveted finance portfolio will be looked at with renewed caution. "This season will definitely be bad compared to the last few years."

Prof. Mukherjee says that there may be two eventualities: either the slump will be confined to the financial sector or there will be an overall dip in the sentiment itself.

In the former case, he says that IIM-B will look at allowing more companies to come in or even diversify into various international job profiles such as the Middle East. Every year, 200 companies write to IIM-B to participate in placements, and nearly 70 are invited to the campus. This year, we may invite all 200 to come, Prof. Mukherjee says. However, in the second scenario, things will be a lot worse. "General optimism is that there is still international interest in India. We are at the edge, since finance provides the most attractive job profiles," he adds.

The mood among students is that of uncertainty and all eyes are on the placements in November. "Students will be playing it safe. There is time till March for the main placements but the internship offers will be seen as an indicator. Consulting firms have not been affected so far, so we hope that will go strong," says Anuj Pradhan, final year student at IIM-B.